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Series Code: BOLS
Program Code: BOLS000086S
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00:05 Sermon #S045 - Role Play (Part 1)
00:19 Snell: Let's get into it today. This month, each Sabbath, we are kind of talking under the subject God is, 00:29 and last week, Dr. Doggett did a tremendous job on talking about how God is a deliverer, 00:37 and this week spend some time this communion Sabbath, talking about the fact that God is a redeemer. 00:44 What do you say? And one of the things I want to say church that we can never do, 00:49 is we can never allow ourselves to stop being amazed by grace. 00:57 We should never get used to his long suffering. 01:00 It ought to be the foundation of constant celebration amongst the people of God. 01:04 Can you say amen? I invite you to go with me in your bibles to the book of Hosea chapter 1, Hosea chapter 1, 01:14 and we'll begin together at verse number 1, and I'm going to invite all of our digital disciples online. 01:19 Apostles, all of those who are electronic evangelists. If you don't mind sharing, if you're on Facebook, copying the link, 01:26 if you're on YouTube and sending it to somebody. 01:28 Hosea chapter 1, and I want you to put your finger over in Hosea chapter 3 as well as we talk today. 01:35 Hosea chapter 1 over there in the Old Testament, Hosea chapter 1. When you get there, let me hear you say Amen. 01:41 [Congregation: Amen] 01:43 Hosea chapter 1 and verse number 1. A very interesting way that God gets his message across to his people. 01:51 Hosea chapter 1 and verse 1, when you get there, say, pastor, I'm there. 01:55 [Congregation: Pastor I'm there] 01:57 The Bible says the word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz 02:05 and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, the King of Israel, 02:12 and check out how God tells Hosea to preach this sermon. He says, when the Lord began to speak by Hosea, 02:22 the Lord said to Hosea, go take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry. 02:33 Why? For the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord. 02:41 He went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 02:48 Now skip over to chapter 3 and verse 1. The Bible says, then the Lord said to me, 02:53 go again and love a woman who is loved by a lover and is continuing adultery, 03:00 just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who looked to other gods 03:08 and loved the raisin cakes of the pagans, so I brought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver 03:15 and 1 half homers of barley, and I said to her, you shall stay with me many days. 03:21 You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man, so too will I be toward you. 03:27 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, 03:35 without ephod or teraphim, and afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God 03:44 and David their king, and they shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter day. 03:53 Today, saints, I want to just spend a little while talking to you under the subject Role Play 04:00 Role play. Let's pray together. 04:02 Father, in this little while, would you please say much. Father, would you let strong 04:11 and heavy anointing rest upon this message today. 04:15 Would you please hide me in the shadows of the cross that Jesus alone might be seen, 04:20 that Christ alone would be heard, and at the end of our time together, may Jesus alone be praised. 04:27 Bless us to this end we ask in the wonderful name of Jesus, let those who believe say together. Amen. 04:34 [Congregation: Amen] 04:36 Amen. You may be seated in the house of the Lord. Again talking under the subject today, 04:39 role play. Role play. In our text friends, 04:45 we find God choosing a very extreme demonstration to communicate his love for the people of Judah and Israel. 04:59 Hosea in this text is not just permitted to preach judgments and rebukes. 05:06 He is required in this text to make himself a spectacle and a very rare form of role play, 05:15 but to be clear, this role play is not just about Hosea's goodness, 05:20 it's actually more about how deceived the people actually are. 05:26 You see the issue here is not just that the people are in great rebellion, 05:31 the issue is that the people are under strong deception. You see Hosea prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, 05:40 Ahaz, Jotham and Hezekiah, kings of Judah and Jeroboam the king of Israel, and note that during the reigns of these kings, 05:51 there is a relative prosperity in the land. They have not been carried away by foreigners. 05:58 They have military victories against their enemies, and there is a financial strength that sets them apart, 06:07 and even though they in engage in idolatry, no plagues have yet to befall them, 06:15 and instead of seeing God's faithfulness as mercy, they see it as an endorsement of their sin, 06:25 and see a part of their problem is that they don't measure God's displeasure by the word, 06:32 they look for judgments as a sign that God is upset, 06:37 and as a result they create a dynamic that won't allow them to repent according to the word, 06:45 they'll only repent when calamity comes upon them. 06:49 You see, for most of Hosea's ministry, Judah especially is in a position of strength. There is a peace in the valley, 06:58 there is a calm on the horizon which causes them to falsely assess their condition. In other words, 07:06 they come to the conclusion that because everything is okay, then everything must be okay, 07:14 and in many ways saints, we adopt the same posture. You see, the immature will not repent at the word. 07:23 We will only evaluate our lives when calamity comes. 07:28 You see, this is referred to as what the Bible talks about, the provoking or the testing of the Lord. 07:35 It is when we will not correct ourselves according to the word. 07:40 It is where we almost dare God to correct us by judgment or sanction 07:46 and the reason saints that you ought not think this way and use circumstance to evaluate God's pleasure or displeasure, 07:55 is because God's goodness will never reflect your goodness. Are y'all hearing me today? 08:01 Is there anybody that understands that God's goodness is better than we deserve, 08:07 and even his chastisement is not as bad as what we deserve. It is why Psalm 103 08:15 and verse 10 says that God has not dealt with us according to our sin 08:20 and he's not punished us according to our iniquity, and he says, as the heaven is higher than the earth, 08:28 so great is God's mercy toward those who fear him, and I need somebody to understand that God is not petty 08:37 and he doesn't go tit for tat with his children. 08:41 In other words, I need somebody to get that God provides even when you don't give. Y'all mighty quiet today. 08:48 That God watches over the house that you are shacking up in, 08:53 that God protects even when you don't pray, that God promotes even 08:58 before you begin praising that God kept syphilis off of you, HIV off of you, bullets from hitting you. 09:07 Can anybody testify that when we were stuck on stupid, that the hedge of God was still in camp, 09:14 that the angel of God was with us in our coming and our going, 09:19 and I'm just thankful that God doesn't treat me like I deserve, but he is long suffering even in our foolishness. 09:29 Are you hearing me today? But please friends, don't get it twisted. Don't confuse the room that God gives you to repent, 09:39 to assume that there is no need to repent. In other words friends, I need you to get that our trifling, 09:46 this in the midst of God's goodness actually testifies against our character. 09:53 In other words, when you can't respond to mercy and you can't respond to grace, 09:59 and you can't respond to long suffering, you are announcing to God that the only way you can reach me is calamity. 10:07 Let me say it again. That when you can't respond to goodness, and you can't respond to grace, you are saying, God, 10:14 the only way you can reach me is catastrophe, and the truth is, y'all not going to say amen for the pastor today, 10:22 but the truth is that we remain prayerless as long as we are problemless, oh, let me preach it to this side. 10:33 As long as we are problemless, we remain prayerless. 10:37 In fact, the truth is that the consistency of our prayer life is going to reflect the consistency of our problems. 10:45 That the intensity of our prayer life is going to reflect the intensity of our problems, 10:51 and I know some of y'all are saying, pastor, I pray over my food at dinnertime, I pray before I get in the bed. 10:58 You might walk down to the alter and close your eyes until the pastor says amen, but the truth is that we don't get 11:06 between the ports and the altar. We don't begin calling on the name of God for ourselves. 11:12 We won't stay up in the midnight hour until God gives us an issue that we can't manage by ourselves, and it's crazy 11:22 because there are times where we get mad at the problems, but the truth is, it's the problems that make you prayerful, 11:30 and it's crazy because there was a time where I used to be mad at the problems, 11:34 but I get to a place now where I thank God for the problems that chase me to the savior. 11:41 Let me say it this way, I remember just a couple weeks ago I was traveling and I was in a hotel 11:49 and before I leave, I am in search of my cell phone, Avery, and so man I can't find it anywhere where I look. 11:56 I look on top of the dresser and I look on top of the bed, and I look on top of the couch 12:02 and I cannot find the cell phone anywhere, and see, 12:06 one of the things I have is I have sometimes a pinched nerve in my back, 12:11 and whenever it begins to get irritated, there are a series of stretches I have to do. 12:17 In my search for the phone, my back gets irritated, and so I begin to do my stretches, 12:22 and one of the stretches requires me to get down on the floor, and when I get down on the floor, 12:29 I look underneath the couch and I see where the phone had slipped between the cracks, 12:36 and it was only because I was on my face that I could find what I was looking for. 12:43 Y'all didn't get it. It was the pain that put me on my face to help me find what I was looking for. 12:50 Y'all not here yet. 12:52 In other words, sometimes there's got to be a pain that puts you on your face, 12:57 so that you can find what you stand in need of. Are y'all hearing me today friends? 13:04 And so remember now I shared with you what undergirds their rebellion is their deception, somebody say deception. 13:14 [Congregation: Deception] 13:16 See, the problem with Israel and Judah at this time is they think we are okay. ] 13:22 They feel like we are members in good in regular standing. They have not completely abandoned or substituted God. 13:31 What they've done is supplemented God with idols, and so God says to Hosea, listen, 13:39 your normal sermons ain't going to reach this group right here. In other words, 13:45 we got to do something a little different to reach this particular group of people. 13:50 In other words, if you start preaching judgments and rebukes, 13:55 their deception is going to make them think this sermon ain't for us. 13:59 It must apply to somebody else, so you can't preach this from a pulpit or from a lectern, 14:07 I need you to get down Hosea with a little bit of role play. God says to Hosea... are y'all still with the pastor today? 14:16 He says, you going to preach this sermon different than any other one you've ever preached, 14:21 so he says, Hosea, go down to the red light district, and there I want you to find a working girl, 14:32 and I don't just want you to get one of those new girls to the group, 14:36 I want you to find the one that everybody then been with. 14:40 I want you to find that doorknob girl, the one where everybody gets a turn. 14:46 I want you to get the one that attracts the men and threatens the women, 14:54 and I want you to marry her. I want you to start a family with her, and I need you to know Hosea, 15:01 that after you marry her, she's going to go back into the streets, and when she goes, I want you to go 15:08 and purchase and bring her back. Now again, friends of mine, we look at this text and we say, poor Hosea, 15:17 but I need you to get that this is not about Hosea's inconvenience, it's about the people's salvation. 15:25 In other words, what God is doing is he's creating a formula for which they will be able to hear the gospel. 15:33 In other words saints, I need y'all to get how absurd this is, 15:38 that you got Hosea who is a priest and a prophet walking around arm in arm with a prostitute. 15:48 Okay, y'all not with me. I need you to get how absurd this is. Let's just say for some strange reason that somehow I 15:55 become single, and here I am the pastor of Oakwood, the director of Breath Of Life, 16:01 and before you know it, you get an invitation in the mail that says, I'm getting married to Lil Kim. 16:10 Are y'all hearing what I'm saying now? 16:12 Now Saint, I need y'all to get man like the stir that this creates in the nation. When they get this wedding invitation, 16:22 and they see the prophet with Megan Thee Stallion and that they are about to get married, 16:27 I need you to know that they decide that we going to have a have a town hall meeting. 16:32 We going to have to set the prophet straight. We cannot let this go down in the name of Jehovah. 16:39 In other words, we got to have a meeting where he's going to have to answer for himself. 16:44 He's going to have to give an account for how it is that he can allow the name of Israel to be disrupted, 16:51 and destroyed in this way, 16:53 and the thing that's got them upset is that they believe that this marriage is going to give fodder to the enemies of God. 17:00 That the marriage is going to invoke the anger of God, and so they want to bring Hosea 17:06 and Gomer so that they can keep this thing from happening, and so as all the men and the women enter into the court, 17:16 what they don't realize is that God has created an opportunity for Hosea to have their undivided attention. 17:27 It's crazy because some come with stones in their hands, because Leviticus 21 in verse 6, 17:34 says that a priest in his time was not to marry a divorced woman, a harlot or a defiled woman, 17:42 and this breaking of the law had to have consequences, 17:46 and it's crazy because I can see them coming in with their phylacteries 17:50 and their garments of outward religious expression, and they've got stones in their hand ready to condemn Gomer, 17:58 ready to separate him from Gomer, ready to kind of indict Gomer. 18:02 Guess what happens to their surprise when the first word of Hosea sermon is, y'all are Gomer. 18:14 He says, and the way y'all want to treat her is the way that God should be treating us, 18:26 and and he gets the sermon real good when he says that her harloteries are simply a symbol of our departing from the Lord. 18:38 Are y'all hearing me today? And it's crazy because when you look at this text, 18:43 it teaches us 2 brief things about grace. See, the first thing it teaches us, number 1 is that God's grace is informed. 18:53 See again, Hosea's marriage to Gomer is a symbol of God's love for his children. Y'all still with me today church, 19:01 and see a part of this thing is that maybe there's some in the camp that's like, "We we got a man warn Hosea, 19:07 maybe Hosea has gotten deceived. Maybe Hosea doesn't know exactly who she is." 19:13 So a part of their objective before they stone her is they've got to put her on blast. 19:18 They've got to out her so that he knows who she is. 19:22 He's got to inform Hosea of the type of woman that she is about to marry, 19:27 but understand that Hosea here is a symbol of Jesus Christ, and so when they come with all of their allegations 19:36 and they list all of her wrong, they are completely thrown off when Hosea is like, 19:41 "I knew all of that about her even before I went and pursued her." 19:47 In other words, Hosea's got to stand up before the church and say, "I know how many tricks she's done. 19:52 She's told me the number of her body count. I know how many lap dances she's given. 19:58 I know how many times she's run around the block, and guess what? I still want her." 20:09 Okay, and see the reason y'all ain't shouting yet is because of dissociation. 20:16 You still think this sermon is about Hosea and Gomer? No, no, no. We passed that now. 20:24 This ain't about Hosea and Gomer at this point. You ought to be seeing yourself and God. 20:31 See, this is what makes grace so amazing that it is not an ignorant pursuit. 20:41 It is an informed pursuit where God says, I know everything about you and I still pursue. Where y'all at today? 20:52 In other words, God is saying, I know what you watch online. 20:56 I know how you fake in church. I know how you treat your kids. 21:01 I know how you creep in the midnight hour. I know everything you've ever done, and guess what? 21:08 I still want to call you by my name 21:15 and see I need you to get that grace is a pursuit that is based upon want not obligation, 21:25 and see the reason that some of us don't rejoice over the power of grace, 21:28 is because we see grace as a theological obligation, as opposed to a relational pursuit. 21:36 Do you realize that Jesus was not obligated to the cross? This was a volunteer mission. 21:47 Do you realize that if God just allowed mankind to suffer the fate of eternal death, that is no indictment upon him. 21:59 If we die, it's no indictment upon God. That's just justice. The wages of sin is death. 22:07 Are y'all hearing me today friends? In other words, Jesus goes to the cross, not out of this theological obligation, 22:13 but there is a relational want that he sees you in me, created in his image, and he loves us so much that he says, 22:22 I will take their place, I'll be their substitute, and even though I don't have to. 22:31 See, the reason why some people still don't get it is 22:34 because some of us still see the plan of salvation as a contingency plan. Can I go deeper? 22:43 See, we still see the plan of salvation as an afterthought, 22:48 but doesn't Revelation 13: 8 refer to Jesus as the lamb of God slain from the foundation of the earth, 23:00 and so I need you to know that there is an epic truth at work. I need you to get that we see the plan of salvation 23:06 and the plan of creation as 2 separate plans, but I need you to know that creation is founded on the plan of salvation, 23:15 so that before he planned to create man, he already decided to redeem man. 23:22 It's crazy because there is an epic imagery in the creation order where man lies as an empty shell, 23:30 and when the first time Adam opens up his eyes, he is borrowing the breath of life in order to live, 23:38 and the first thing Adam learns is that in order for me to live, God has to give up his breath. 23:45 Oh, see, y'all still didn't miss it, because see I need you to know at the beginning, 23:49 God had to give up a breath for him to live at the cross, he had to give up his breath in order for man to be redeemed, 24:01 so God gave breath at creation and at redemption because redemption is sandwiches creation on both sides. 24:10 Are y'all hearing me today friends? And one of the things that causes me to rejoice is that he knows you, 24:23 and he still wants you. Oh, y'all acting brand new up in here today. 24:28 One of the testimonies in the Bible that I never quite understood was the woman by the well. 24:35 After Jesus talks to her, she leaves her water pot goes into the city, tells all the men, 24:41 come see a man who knows everything I ever done, and guess what? 24:46 The Bible says that they all came into the city to meet Jesus, and it didn't ever make sense to me because if you say, 24:52 come meet a man that knows everything I've ever done, I don't want to see that man. 24:59 I'm scared about what that man might say. Come on and say Amen, 25:03 but the reason the testimony was so powerful is that she is saying, 25:06 I know a man that knows everything I've ever done, but guess what? 25:11 He didn't use it against me. He didn't indict me, but he loved me regardless of it all, that Jesus still loves us, 25:22 and is there anybody grateful that in spite all of your grime and your dirt 25:27 and having to say I'm sorry over and over again, that Jesus still looks beyond our faults and sees our needs. 25:38 Thank you so much for joining us for the Breath of Life Television Ministries broadcast with Pastor Debleaire Snell! 25:47 We hope and pray that you have been blessed by his powerful message " Role Play". 25:53 Join us next week for Part Two You don't want to miss it! 28:04 (Breath of Life Theme Music) 28:28 [END] |
Revised 2023-09-14