The Wounded Lover: Understanding God’s Heart in a World of Idols

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] Let's get ready for God's word today.
[00:00:03] Over the last number of years, we have had the privilege to marry really lots of people.
[00:00:13] This is just in the last couple of years, folks here that have gotten married.
[00:00:19] They didn't know when they started coming to church here that they would end up as husband and wife, me and Judah, Matthew and Lily, Nolan and Rachel and Eric and April and Jordan and Bailey
[00:00:35] and Tristan and Haley and Cayman and Chloe. That's our son, for those of you who don't know that.
[00:00:40] Here's an interesting thing. Chloe has been coming to church here for probably since the fifth grade, I think. And as many of you know, Cayman was hit by a vehicle when he was six years
[00:00:51] old. Listen to this. The responding officer, state trooper to that scene when Cayman was hit was Chloe's dad. How do you put that together, right? And God just, you don't know who you're going to find in church, right? And then Jonathan and Maria married them a few months ago. And what
[00:01:15] is interesting about this is that when you start to look in the Bible, obviously, we are not the ones that came up with this idea of marriage. This was God's idea. But when God was going to
[00:01:31] establish a nation for himself called Israel, he would create language and relationship, not just as God and his people, but as a bride and a bridegroom. And God, when he brings them out of Egypt and they are around this mountain called Sinai, God will walk through with
[00:02:02] them the very same pattern that a Hebrew or a Jewish couple would use when they get married.
[00:02:11] Now watch this. The bridegroom chooses the bride, okay? We know this. The groom initiates the relationship and chooses her bride. At Sinai, God chooses Israel. God says, you will be my treasured possession, my kingdom of priests. This is in Exodus 19. They're standing around this mountain.
[00:02:32] God said, this is where we're going to start. And then the bride price or the mohar is paid.
[00:02:38] the Hebrew practice was that the groom would pay a price to redeem and secure the bride.
[00:02:44] Notice what God says to Israel. He says, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and a mighty acts of judgment. This is what the Lord says. He who formed you, Israel, fear not. I've redeemed
[00:02:56] you. I've surrounded you and I've called you by name. I've summoned you. You are mine. And then there's this written covenant. All of the marriages would have this written covenant. So the marriage contract defines the mutual responsibilities. This was done with a Jewish
[00:03:14] couple. So what does God do? God does it with Israel. Then God spoke all these words. These are the decrees, the laws, the regulations that the Lord established at Mount Sinai.
[00:03:25] and the Lord our God made a marriage covenant with us at Horeb and then the bride consents she says I do how many of the room that are married said I do if you didn't too bad
[00:03:41] the bride and the groom they both say I do and then obviously the Hebrew practice was the bride must willingly accept the covenant and the people all responded together notice what Israel says to God, we will do everything the Lord has said. And then there's the ritual purification of the
[00:04:02] bride. The Hebrew practice was the bride would wash and sanctify herself before the wedding.
[00:04:10] So the Lord says to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day. And then the presence of God descends.
[00:04:22] the bridegroom approaches the kuppah or this is going underneath the tent here's the hebrew practice the groom comes to the wedding canopy on the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning with a very loud trumpet blast and mount sinai was covered with smoke god covers it
[00:04:41] in smoke as underneath the tent and then there's the exchange of vows we all did this of course we You know, the Hebrew practice was the groom states his promises, and the bride pledges obedience.
[00:04:54] The groom's vows, in this case, were the Ten Commandments, and then God spoke all these words, and the bride's vow was this, we will do everything the Lord has said we will obey.
[00:05:06] God is walking them through a wedding ceremony with himself and Israel, and then, of course, there's the wedding feast or the covenant meal when everybody gets married.
[00:05:16] There's a reception afterwards. The Hebrew practice was the meal seals the marriage and Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and the 70 elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel and they ate and drank. So watch this. Here's the prophetic confirmation of this. Israel was married
[00:05:36] to God. And the later prophets will say this and confirm this marriage covenant, not merely a law code. And notice what they will later on say about this relationship that God had with Israel.
[00:05:53] He said, I remember the devotion of a youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness. I was a husband to them. I pledged myself to you and entered into a covenant with you
[00:06:10] and you became mine. So you have God establishing literally this marriage covenant with his people, Israel. Now watch this. Jesus does not see our relationship with him simply as savior and saved, but as bride and bridegroom. This is a covenant relationship reflecting a deep personal connection
[00:06:42] rather than just a legal contract. This is not just I gave my life to Jesus. When we came to Christ, we came underneath this covenant of relationship with jesus and so when the prophets and the
[00:07:04] teachers of the old testament begin to talk about israel's relationship with god they start to say things like this jeremiah chapter 2 you said i will not serve you this is god talking to israel
[00:07:19] and every hill and under every green tree, you have, now God's going to use some strong language, prostituted yourself by bowing down to idols.
[00:07:31] And then in verse 23, they said, you say that's not true.
[00:07:35] I haven't worshiped any images of Baal or idols.
[00:07:38] How can you say that?
[00:07:40] Well, he said, go look in any valley and in the land.
[00:07:44] Face the awful sins you have done.
[00:07:46] you are like a restless female camel in heat, desperately searching for a mate.
[00:07:54] You're like a wild donkey sniffing at the wind during mating time. This is God talking to Israel.
[00:08:02] Who can restrain her lust? And then God will continue to talk to Israel. In Jeremiah chapter three, he will talk to him and say, hey, I need you to return to me. I am, here's the language
[00:08:15] again. I am your Ezekiel. And then he says this, strong language, you adulterous wife, you prefer strangers to your own husband. And then Ezekiel 23, they committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their... So how actually do you define
[00:08:40] idolatry? Because when we talk about it here in America, I'm going to go into depth in this next week, because I've been in countries where idols are very clear, but maybe not so obvious here in America. So how do you define an idol? Let me give you this
[00:09:04] definition. Idolatry is when good things become ultimate things. Listen, Israel didn't just break the rules, they broke vows. Idolatry is when my vow to God in time with him is taken over by other things that in themselves may not be wrong, but steal devotion from the one I committed to.
[00:09:37] Kyle Eidelman will say it like this. There is not one square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, mine. That belongs to me.
[00:09:56] There's not one part of your life where Jesus does not get to say, that part of your life belongs to me. Oh, God, you can have this, but I'll hang on to this. Not one part of our life can I say to God,
[00:10:13] that's mine because it all belongs to him so what we're going to do over the next three weeks is i'm going to talk to you from the book of hosea and we're going to do a counseling session
[00:10:29] but this is not going to be between you and your spouse or relationship this is going to be between us and god and i want to spend the next couple of weeks talking about the battlefield of the gods
[00:10:47] in wounded love. Would you say that with me? Battlefield of the gods in wounded love. Now, where is this battlefield? Proverbs makes it very clear. This is where the battlefield of the gods, the idols are located. Guard your heart above all else, for it, our heart, determines the course
[00:11:21] of our life. What I think about and desire the most is the idol. What I think about and desire the most is the idol. So Israel's sin was not rejecting God outright, but trying to
[00:11:49] belong to him while belonging to everything else. It's hard to grasp God's heart if we view him only as a giver of rules and regulations. That's where some people live their Christianity. I got this box. I can do this. I can't do this. That's ritual. It's hard to grasp God's heart if you only
[00:12:14] see him like that. But when we see him as a wounded lover whose spouse has walked away, we begin to understand that God's jealousy is not about control. It is relentless pursuit of his love. So we're going to spend a minute in the book of Hosea. Now, who is Hosea?
[00:12:42] He's one of the minor prophets in the Old Testament. Minor not because his message was less important, but because the books are just shorter. God will use Hosea as a picture of himself. Hosea will become God. His wife, who was named Gomer, would become Israel.
[00:13:12] So God will call Hosea, and this is how we're introduced to him in the book.
[00:13:19] And it says this, when the Lord began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, how'd you like to be this prophet?
[00:13:30] Go and marry a prostitute.
[00:13:33] Now, this is not allegory.
[00:13:36] This is not some imaginative story.
[00:13:40] This is God talking to Hosea.
[00:13:44] Go and marry a prostitute.
[00:13:45] Remember, he's going to represent God so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution.
[00:13:52] He's going to have three children.
[00:13:54] We don't know if they're actually his.
[00:13:55] One of them for sure, maybe.
[00:13:57] The other two, we don't know that they're his.
[00:14:01] She's going to be married to you, but she's going to conceive in prostitution.
[00:14:07] This will illustrate.
[00:14:08] Here's what God's trying to do.
[00:14:09] This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods. So I read this in the Message Bible, and it's even stronger when you see what God is saying to his people. He says, the first time God spoke to Hosea, he said,
[00:14:38] find a whore and marry her. Make this whore the mother of your children. And here's why.
[00:14:50] The whole country has become a whorehouse, unfaithful, idolatrous to me, God. Hosea did it.
[00:15:03] He picked Gomer. Get the visual here now. Start to feel the heart of God here, of how he's illustrating how he feels toward his people. And he starts to talk to them In chapter 2, he would say, plead with your mother. She's not my wife. I'm not her husband.
[00:15:30] Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
[00:15:36] For all the incense she burned to bail her, and for the times when she put on her earrings and jewels and went out looking for her lovers. Notice what God does here. He equates an idol
[00:15:53] with a lover. It's not just a thing. He says, this is your lover. She doesn't realize that all she has has come from me. And it was I who gave her all the gold and silver she used in
[00:16:12] worshiping Baal, her God. She doesn't realize, oh no, I'm a hard worker, God, or I planted my field or I did my business and I worked hard and I got all this stuff. And God says, you spent what I
[00:16:24] gave you on your idol. You took your money and spent it on things that were opposed to me. And I want you to hear again the heart of God here as he is wounded because the bride has moved away
[00:16:50] from him. And Hosea is going to have three children. I refer to them as the offspring of idolatry. Let's watch this for a minute. So he married Gomer, daughter of Dibliam. Now, it looks all good on the front end, right? And she probably hung out with Hosea for a while.
[00:17:13] But after a time, she just kind of drifts away from him back into her old ways. And she conceived and bore him a son, probably his. We don't know about the other two. Call him Jezreel. Why are
[00:17:26] we going to call him that? God will scatter. This is in reference to something that happened with King Jehu decades before in the history of Israel. And Jehu went way beyond the responsibilities that God told him. God said, I'm going to deal with it. I'm going to scatter them. How'd you like to name
[00:17:40] your kids scattered? Now you might feel like sometimes my kids really scattered. Okay. How'd you like to name your kids scattered? Okay. The first kid. Here's my relationship with God. Here's what happens. Here's the offspring of idolatry. Number one, I get scattered. I'm not focused.
[00:18:00] Here's the second thing that happens.
[00:18:02] Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter, probably not his child.
[00:18:07] Then the Lord said to Hosea, I want you to call her Lo-Ruhamah, which means not loved, for I will no longer show love to Israel.
[00:18:14] Those are strong words.
[00:18:16] And it really implies that Israel didn't love God.
[00:18:19] And so God was not able to love Israel.
[00:18:22] It's pretty hard to love somebody that won't love you back or who uses a lover when they need him or her, but cast them aside when they don't need them.
[00:18:42] If you can just get me this and this and this, that'd be great.
[00:18:47] And then they're gone again.
[00:18:50] And then he said, you're gonna have another child.
[00:18:52] After she had weaned Lo-Rahama, Gomer had another son and the Lord said, call him Lo-Ami, which means not my people.
[00:19:02] For you're not my people and I'm not your God.
[00:19:04] What is he saying here?
[00:19:05] He's saying the offspring of when I turn to other things, even when I claim to know Christ, but I'm turning to other things, my life will become scattered. I will appear as though I have
[00:19:20] no love for God. And I will eventually have to say, I'm not God's child. I'm not his people.
[00:19:33] Got three kids here. Scattered, not loved. Hey, what's your name? What's your name, little girl?
[00:19:40] not loved. You hear the potential woundedness that's going to start to come out from the heart of God. And then eventually, if they don't deal with this, will come out of their own heart.
[00:19:57] And then watch what happens here. And there's this pull, and God is saying, I want my people.
[00:20:04] I want them. I want them to be exclusive with me. And so then you start reading in chapter two, and notice what God says. I'm going to allure her. She's walked away from me, but I'm going to try
[00:20:16] and get her back. Now, how many of you remember your dating years? There's like two people in the room, okay? And you become attracted to somebody or whatever, and you just show up wherever they're
[00:20:32] at. You say, I'm going to be here, and you're going to try and do things to lure them, and eventually, if they're not interested, then they're just not interested, right? Look at what God does
[00:20:45] here. He is so intent on relationship with his people. He said, I'm going to allure her. I'm going to have to do what I can do to draw her back. See, this is what God does with us. I'm
[00:21:00] going to lead her into the wilderness. I'm going to speak tenderly to her. Watch this. Here's the contrast from the scattering. He says, I'm not going to scatter her, but I'm going to allure her. I don't want her to go that way. I'm going to, I'm going to try and pull her back. Can I
[00:21:12] just tell you that this is the constant act of God toward his people because many times his people walk away, his people drift away, and we show up to church every once in a while and we say, Jesus,
[00:21:23] I need something, and then we're gone. And then every time we get in a crisis, the only time we pray is when things are bad, but we don't ever talk to him any other time because we had our
[00:21:32] own life going, right? And so God looks at us and he says, they're walking away from me, but I'm going to pull her back. I'm going to allure her. I don't want her to be scattered. And this is what
[00:21:43] God does. He continually draws us back. And then he says, I'll betroth you to me forever in love and compassion. You're not loved, but you really are loved because I love you and I committed to
[00:21:54] you. And he says, I'm going to betroth you. What does that mean? Remember in the Jewish mindset, when you became betrothed to a spouse, you were legally married. Even though the wedding ceremony hadn't happened yet, even though the marriage ceremony hadn't taken place and the couple
[00:22:13] hadn't come together. Once you were betrothed, you were the bride, you were the groom. This is why Joseph wants to divorce Mary when he finds out that she's pregnant because they were in the betrothal period. Did you know right now that in our relationship with Jesus, we are currently in
[00:22:35] the betrothal period between now and the marriage supper of the lamb? In other words, we're already married to God. Even though we haven't gotten there yet, I am currently in a betrothal period.
[00:22:55] And if I walk away, I have broken my vow. And then he says, I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people. And they will say, this is where God is after. God is saying, you're going to,
[00:23:11] I'm your God. That's my God. And what God does, he takes the scattering, he takes not my people, and he takes not loved, and he redeems the name of every child. Listen to me. Every one of us in
[00:23:25] this room probably have an identity of something or someone that has been spoken over us.
[00:23:33] And so it's this thing. You'll never be successful, or you're dumb, or you're stupid, or you've created in your own mind who you really think you are, and you have labeled yourself.
[00:23:46] We're great in America with finding a label. Give me a label so I can tell what my problem is, so I can know exactly what my issue is. Give me a label. And so as long as we can get a label,
[00:23:58] we can know what our issues are. And what God does, instead of taking the label that men have given to you, instead of taking the label that you have put in your own mind, because there are
[00:24:09] people in this room, you think stuff about yourself that God does not think about you.
[00:24:14] And instead of taking the label that you've created or other people have created, look what God does to Israel. He redeems every name back to God's original purpose. And that is what God is trying to do with you and me, to redeem who others have called us, whom the devil himself
[00:24:33] and ourselves has called us. He's trying to get us redeemed back to his original purpose, not scattered, loved by God and his people. The name Hosea, it actually means salvation.
[00:24:52] And think about that. Hosea means salvation. The name Gomer, it most commonly means completion, consummation, or that which is finished. Watch this. Salvation will pursue an unfaithful bride until God's work is finished. And here's the prophetic irony of this. Gomer's name can also
[00:25:13] carry the sense of consumed or spent, one who has been used up. She is finished by sin, but she's not finished by God. And because the name Gomer means completion, it means because God allows sin to be fully exposed so grace can be fully revealed. We don't want to expose our
[00:25:49] idolatry to God because we think he's angry. But once we expose who we are to God, that means that grace can be fully revealed to deal with who I am. Now we're going to go into depth with this next
[00:26:10] week. I want you to ask yourselves today six questions. How do you identify the challenge of idolatry in your own life? Number one, what do you think about, dream about, and wish for?
[00:26:33] What's consuming your thoughts right now? Number two, what makes you angry? Number three, what makes you glad? Number four, what do you spend money on? And if you've got extra money, what are you spending it on? What has become a distracting habit that you can't stop? And what generational
[00:27:05] patterns have you seen in your family? Most of you are familiar with this guy, Michael Jordan. Anybody not know who Michael Jordan is? True story. Michael Jordan wrote a book.
[00:27:29] it's called driven from within and it tells a story about his visit to a friend's home fred whitfield was the president and chief operating officer of another nba team and the two of them were getting ready to go out to dinner when jordan said man it's kind of cold
[00:27:57] can i borrow one of your jackets whitfield said sure and told him where the coat closet was Jordan disappeared down the hall and the house fell silent for a moment then the star reappears carrying an armful of branded athletic jackets shirts shoes and other gear he dumped the whole
[00:28:28] pile on the floor and disappeared down the hall again for more Whitfield looked at the heap and noted that all of the items were made by Puma a rival of Nike Jordan had found that the closet
[00:28:43] had materials made by both manufacturers, and Jordan, so associated in the public mind with the Nike swoosh, did not approve. The Nike items were there because Whitfield was a close friend of Michael Jordan, and the Puma stuff had come as a result of a close friendship with Ralph Samson,
[00:29:07] who was an ex-player that promoted that brand. Whitfield stood and waited to see the fate of his Puma gear. Jordan walked into the kitchen and came out with a butcher knife. True story.
[00:29:26] And he cut the pile of gear on the floor into thousands of pieces. Just get the visual of this.
[00:29:34] When he had thoroughly destroyed the athletic gear, he gathered it all up again and carried it to a dumpster for disposal. When he was done, Jordan returned to Whitfield's side and said, hey dude, call my Nike representative tomorrow and tell him to replace all of this. But don't
[00:29:59] ever let me see you again in anything other than Nike. You can't ride the fence. The first of this year, what is Jesus calling us to? He's calling us to singular, specific soul devotion to him.
[00:30:36] no idols that take our attention and that take our focus. Everything is underneath where Jesus is.
[00:30:57] He's not one of many. He's it. So as we move into 2026, can we deeply search our hearts for other lovers? Guys, listen to me for a minute. We don't like to hear this as men.
[00:31:45] But we are responsible for the spiritual atmosphere, the spiritual temperament, and the general spiritual well-being of our homes.
[00:32:03] I can't lead my home in the very best way if I've got an idol over here in a closet that's competing with Jesus.
[00:32:23] And he's calling men.
[00:32:24] I'm telling you, man, he's calling us this year to not be like every other religious man in our culture that goes to church on Sunday mornings and looks good and then goes out and lives their life
[00:32:40] and comes back in the next week and does the same thing all over again.
[00:32:43] Guys, he is calling you and he is calling me to take everything out, cut it up, chop it up and have one soul devotion to who Jesus is in every area of our life.
[00:33:03] Stand up with me right now.
[00:33:08] Thank you, Jesus.
[00:33:12] Take a moment right now before you move and make a transition to another worship service here.
[00:33:27] Holy Spirit, help us today.
[00:33:29] Lord, we do not want to be idolaters.
[00:33:44] Lord, we made a commitment to you and you alone.
[00:33:46] we did not make a commitment Lord to you and others we made a commitment to you as altar team is coming by your heads and close your eyes please two questions number one at the first of
[00:34:19] this year do you really know Jesus I'm not asking you if you're religious or spiritual or anything else you go to church once in a while asking you do you have a relationship with Jesus today in
[00:34:35] this place. Jesus takes us just as we are. We don't have to change anything. That's a religious mindset. Get it all together, and then maybe God will accept you. The reason you need him is because
[00:34:53] we can't get it all together. We need his help. Your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed.
[00:35:04] Everybody in this room, would you say this prayer with me right now? We're going to talk to Jesus.
[00:35:08] Say, Lord Jesus, come to you today. I need you. I need only you. I lay down other gods, other choices, and I choose you. With my heart, I believe. With my mouth, I confess.
[00:35:39] Jesus Christ, as my Lord and my Savior, I turn from my sin and receive you today, Lord.
[00:35:53] Your heads are bowed. How many of you prayed that prayer with me and said, that was for me, Pastor? Let me see your hands. Put your hands up in the room.
[00:36:00] Here's what I'm going to ask you to do. First of the year, grab a friend, grab a family member, step out from where you're standing. I just want you to come so we can pray with you right now.
[00:36:08] Come on, step out. Come on, you can do it. We're going to get you started in a relationship with Jesus. And Jesus is going to do what only Jesus can do in this room. Come on. There were numbers
[00:36:24] of you. All right, listen. How many of you in the room say, Pastor, I get to lay down some idols?
[00:36:36] Anybody honest enough put your hands up? I want you to put your hand on somebody right now.
[00:36:42] Father in Jesus name we aggressively and clearly lay down everything that has opposed our relationship with you Holy Spirit I pray that there be such a move of the Holy Spirit within our homes our relationships, our marriages
[00:37:22] everything that we do Lord that we would clean out that closet and purify ourselves in your presence today Lord in Jesus name if you need prayer for anything at all you can step out of your seat and come right now
[00:37:43] and altar team is here to pray with you thank you for being here today