Striving, Living, Thriving, Giving
Hosea 14
Pastor Jim Luthy
At the top of our invitation cards, on our information brochure, and on our web site, you will find a vision statement for our church: Striving to see the Living Christ in a thriving church of giving people. Striving. Living. Thriving. Giving.
Today I want to wrap up our series in Hosea by providing a basis for that vision and to paint that picture once again.
After all the pronouncements of judgment against Israel, Hosea concludes with a message of hope and blessing. This became the vision of Israel. It is also the hope of all mankind, fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. We would do well to listen and respond appropriately.
Chapter 14 begins with an admonition to return to God. Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord.
It is difficult to remember that the most important work we do is returning to God. One of the dangers of using the word striving in our vision statement is that it brings to mind our labor. When we think of striving, we think of busyness, servanthood, and effort. We think of sweat equity.
Certainly we ought to be serving God and men, but this is not the work of striving that will bring about our vision. All the work in the world could not bring us back to God. Our striving ought always to be the work of returning to God. We must make every effort to ensure that we are right with God. Again, this is not the work of our hands, but the work of our hearts. And out of the heart ought to come the reply of our mouths, as suggested by Hosea…
Say to him (meaning "say to the Lord") "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips." Hosea adds that Israel will confess that Assyria cannot save them and that they will never again say "our gods" to what their own hands have made.
These are the words of hearts that are turned to God. Such hearts confess their sin and ask for forgiveness. Such hearts worship God with the fruit of their lips. Such hearts turn away from trusting in man, as Israel trusted in Assyria to save them with military might. And such hearts turn away from worthless idols made by men. This is our work of striving, and it is done here (point to heart) with brokenness and repentance and humility.
In such striving, it is the promise of God that we will know him through the Living Christ. In Hosea 14:4-5, he promises three ways that the repentant will know him.
I will heal their waywardness nad love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel."
First, they will know him as a healer of waywardness. This is the promise of the power of God to transform our lives. Jeremiah 3:22 says "Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding." Jesus himself said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ’I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matthew 9:12-13) Jesus did not come to die on the cross so you could understand what it means to give up your worldly pleasures as some sort of a religious sacrifice. He knows that we are sick with sin and in need of a doctor, so he died on the cross for you and I to experience his mercy. When we return to him, he comes to us with mercy as a healer of our foolishness and pride, our addictions and our self-indulgence.
Second, he will love us freely. Because of what Jesus has done, he will have no reason to be angry with us. To coin a term from Aretha Franklin, he will be on "the freeway of love," only it won’t be in a pink cadillac! It will be God’s love showered on us in great abundance. And we will be free to receive it because we will have returned to him through the forgiveness afforded us by the blood of Jesus.
Zephaniah 3:17 paints a picture of that love: The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
And finally, the Living Christ will be "like the dew". One of my favorite commercials is the commercial where the guy butts heads with a bighorn sheep over the Mountain Dew. The ad implies that people will do anything for the refreshment of a Mountain Dew.
When the Living Christ is among us, we experience real refreshment—far more refreshing than an over-caffeinated soft drink. His is the refreshment of blessing from a sovereign God. Isaiah spoke of this blessing for Israel, and it is meant for us too. "For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants." Proverbs 19:12 says, A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.
Can you envision the Living Christ among us transforming lives, loving us, and blessing us with his favor? Do you want to see that?
As we return to the Lord and see the Living Christ, he will make us a thriving church.
Let’s try a little exercise. What do you picture when I say the following words and phrases? Send down roots. Grow. Splendor. Fragrance. Shade. Flourish. Blossom. Fruitfulness. What do you picture?
A garden? That’s what I pictured. And I particularly pictured some of the more beautiful gardens I’ve ever seen. I pictured Butchart Gardens in Victoria B.C. I pictured the gardens at Tacoma’s Pt. Defiance park and at George Washington’s estate in Mount Vernon. I picture them vividly, with grand color and full of life.
Full of life. Isn’t that the perfect definition of "thriving"? After we return to God and the Living Christ comes to heal our waywardness and love us freely and become like the dew to us, Hosea 14 declares about Israel and us, "he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down roots; his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon…your fruitfulness comes from me."
This is the picture of a thriving church. It is also a picture of the Living Christ. When we put that together, we realize that a thriving church is a picture of the Living Christ. Let’s look at some examples:
"Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots." After Jesus had come and the church was established, Paul wrote of his passion for the church in Ephesus to be a thriving example with Christ himself rooted and established in them. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:16-17)
To the church in Corinth, Paul echoed Hosea’s prophecy that the church’s fragrance would be like a cedar of Lebanon: "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing."
Hosea also prophesied that men would "dwell again in his shade." Isaiah prophesied about Christ, "See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice." But notice what will become of each man under King Jesus’ coming rule: "Each man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land."
Can you envision a thriving church? Can you envision a church that is like the most beautiful of gardens, teeming with life and bringing glory to its Creator? Can you envision a place where men and women go to be rooted and established in love, to grow, to have splendor, and to emit the fragrance of life? A place where people find cool shade from the heat of life? A place where people flourish and blossom and bear the fruit for which they were created? Do you want to see that? That is a God-given vision!
Do you know who will realize this vision?
Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them. (Hosea 14:9)
The realization of the dream is for the wise and discerning who turn their hearts to God. Those who take words with them and return to God are the giving people who make up the thriving church that flows out of the Living Christ. They come and they offer those words that are not empty words. Giving people first and foremost give God words that flow out of their own broken heart.
Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.
Giving people give to God all their sin.
Giving people give to God all their worship.
Giving people give to God all their strength.
Giving people give to God his rightful place as the one true God. They give him ownership over everything they have. They give him Lordship over every decision. They give him their very lives because he first gave his life for them.
This is our striving…striving to see the Living Christ in a thriving church of giving people. Will you strive with me?
