#411 The Jesus Trip, He Sends His Word

#411 The Jesus Trip, He Sends His Word
By: Zach Sloane

(See download links at the bottom of the page for the Sermon Notes, PowerPoint Slides)

Recap:
Elijah and Elisha. I’m a miracle worker. I have the anointing, the mantle of Jesus has passed on to me when he ascended. In my union with him in death, burial and resurrection, his anointing resides in and on me. I too am now a miracle worker.

Romans 8:11“The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”

Intro:
Hosea gives us a beautiful picture of how God moves us along in his purpose from where we are now into his preferred future for us. This works for us as individuals, for churches, for people groups, nations, ethnos.

Have to see that God has a preferred future for each of us:

As individuals:
Romans 8:29-30 MSG
God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.

The church:
Isaiah 2 (NKJV)
The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days Thatthe mountain of the Lord’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.

The whole world:
Habakkuk 2:14 (NKJV)
For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.”

In Hosea’s day God had a plan for Israel:

Hosea 14:5-7 (NLT)
“…Israel will blossomlike the lily…Its branches will spread out… They will flourishlike grain and blossom like grapevines. They will be as fragrant as the wines of Lebanon.

But where they were and what they were like was nowhere near that ideal:

Hosea 4:2-3 (NLT)
You make vows and break them; you kill and steal and commit adultery. There is violence everywhere— one murder after another. That is why your land is in mourning, and everyone is wasting away. Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea are disappearing.

Hosea 4:7 (NLT)
The more priests there are, the more they sin against me. They have exchanged the glory of God for the shame of idols.

Hosea 4:12-13 (NLT)
“…They have played the prostitute, serving other gods and deserting their God. They offer sacrifices to idols on the mountaintops… That is why your daughters turn to prostitution, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

The land and people is full of sexual sin, false religion, idol worship, violence, and ignorance.

Hosea 4:6
“My people are being destroyed, because they don’t know me.”

Turned to all the wrong sources for help:

Hosea 7:11 (NLT)
“The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves, first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.

Hosea 5:13 (NLT)
“When Israel and Judah saw how sick they were, Israel turned to Assyria—to the great king there— but he could neither help nor cure them.

2 Chronicles 28:22-23 (NLT)
“…for he said, “Since these gods helped the kings of Aram, they will help me, too, if I sacrifice to them.” But instead, they led to his ruin and the ruin of all Judah.”

God’s predicament: how to get them from where they are now to the preferred future he has for them.

His solution: He gives them a word.

(1.) It’s an embodied word. It’s a word made flesh.

God tried other ways:

Hosea 11:1-2 (NLT)
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt.
But the more I called to him, the farther he moved from me,offering sacrifices to the images of Baal and burning incense to idols.”

Hosea 13:5-6 (NLT)
“I took care of you in the wilderness, in that dry and thirsty land. But when you had eaten and were satisfied, you became proud and forgot me.”

So he send his word, but it’s not a word that came in a book, on a website, in a TV show or over he internet. The transforming, destiny launching Word does not come through some out-there phenomena. It came in a person and through their life.

Hosea 1:1
“The Lord gave this message to Hosea son of Beeri” Or in other translations “the word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri.”

He put his word of love and restoration and a preferred future in Hosea’s mouth, but Hosea’s life had to become the message, he and his life needed to embody the message.

God told him, go marry a prostitute, have three kids, name them horrible names like “Lo-ammi – not my people,” or Lo-ruhamah – Not loved.” Hosea 1:6-9.

Then after he lives with her, has kids with her, and she still plays the prostitute and cheats on him, God says:

Hosea 3 (NLT)
“Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustratethat the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.”

The word that God is bringing into your life that will move you to his preferred future is a word made flesh and embodied in another. It’s the deposit of the lived out word, the truth itself, lived out in the body of Christ. The word you need to bring you into your future is embodied in His body, in a people.

This is how his final, definitive word came:

Hebrews 1 (NKJV)
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by HisSon,… who being the brightness of Hisglory and the express image of His person…”

Don’t isolate. Don’t separate from people. Stay in community. The word that God is going to bring you to help you turn it around is embodied in another’s life, in the body of Christ, the Word still made flesh.

If you want to be used by God to help bring a turn around and a launching into blessing, to take people from destruction and despair into purpose and promise, you have to, like Hosea, be prepared to become a manifestation, a living epistle, an embodied expression of the love of God to others -you have to become the message.

If you will embrace the love message of Jesus and not just have a message but be willing to be a message, you will have to wrestle with and contend with some of the things that Hosea did.

Think about the pain, the personal sacrifice, the rejection that he had to be willing to live with.

In order to take the embodied word of Jesus to a people to turn them around he had to wrestle with his conscience. God was basically asking him, for the sake of love, to violate this own commands and refuse to stone the adulterous woman, instead to marry her and love her.

Hosea had to get past his own emotional commitment to a previous word from God and the moral code that was built around that past word, and embrace love… embrace a new word that reflected the loving heart of Jesus and his desire for relationship over and above principles of right and wrong action.

(2.) Its a loving, grace-filled affectionate word!
Some believe the word that we need is one that is judgement, harsh, performance and outcome oriented. They are looking for correction, discipline and judgement and want to share that with others.

God does bring correction and discipline. He does have conversations with us about our stuff. But He’s not speaking judgement over you even in your tough conversations, he’s helping you to see what you’re doing is going to kill you, it’s going to limit you.

Hosea 8:7
“They have planted the wind and will harvest the whirlwind.

Hosea 10:13 (NLT)
“But you have cultivated wickedness and harvested a thriving crop of sins.

Hosea 8:4 (NLT)
The people have appointed kings without my consent, and princes without my approval. By making idols for themselves from their silver and gold, they have brought about their own destruction.

Hosea 5:7 “Now their false religion will devour them along with their wealth.”

No when he speaks, the word he speaks that turns things around that launches you into a preferred future, it’s a good word, a kind word, what Hosea in NKJV calls an alluring word.

Hosea 2:14-15 (NLT)
“But then I will win [allure] her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly [to her heart] to her there. I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.

The word that God sends is an inviting word. It’s not a judgmental harsh word. It’s a word that makes you want to come to Him.

The word is a word of affection, of belonging, of grace – not about performance. It’s a word that releases you from false narratives.

Hosea looked ahead, he said:

Hosea 3:5b
In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of his goodness.

Hosea 7:1
“I want to heal Israel”

Hosea 13:14
“Should I ransom them from the grave?”

Hosea 14:4
“I will heal you of your faithlessness and my love will know no bounds.”

Hosea 2:23
“I will show love to those I called not loved, and to those I called not my people I will say you are now my people.”

Hosea looks ahead and says God will say this, but the word we hear, the word that turns us around, launches us in to preferred future, is a now word of affection.

He says now: “ By my stripes you are healed, you are complete in me, I love you so much right now, you are mine and my desire is for you.”

Jesus has already done to us and for us and in us all that needs happen. If we are listening for words that speak to what we need to still have happen we will not hear God. Instead his words of affection awaken us to the reality of his love and who we already are in union with Him.

He sent his word: it’s a good word. It’s an embodied, it’s the word made flesh, Christ in you the hope pf glory that will bring transformation and glory to you, and through you to others.

The Jesus Trip, He Sends His Word, Sermon notes to print, PDF

The Jesus Trip, He Sends His Word, PowerPoint Slides, PDF