Hosea 2:14-20

Hosea 2:14-20

Can I Feel Loved?

August 11 2013
Part 9 of summer 2013 God’s Answers To Your Questions series

 Life is filled with things that can bother you and that can be problems for you  – questions you might wish you had answers for.  These things can range from how to deal with the economy and the way if affects y our daily life to how to be a Christian man to how to deal with “difficult people” to how to deal with emotions such as anger to how to “tame your tongue” to how to be more patient to how to share your faith. 

Well, as a Christian you can believe that the Bible gives you God’s answers to your questions in life. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that:

^“16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

This summer we’re looking at some of the issues and questions you may face in your life and what God might have to say about how you can deal with them. Today we are going to look at an issue that many of you may have questions about or had questions about it the past – it’s an issue many of us have questions about from time to time.  The issue for today is how to feel loved. 

Can I feel loved?

Knowing that you are loved – important – and cared for is a basic human need.  One of the core things you need to know to survive and thrive in the world is that you are loved. If you know that you are loved you are on the way to the happy, well balanced, loving life God created you to live.  However, if you don’t feel that God or anyone else loves and cares for you – you could have a hard time in life. 

Friends — the wonderful truth is that God loves you – and there are probably many others that love you also.  You just have to accept that – know that — celebrate that – and live your life in joy and praise because of that — but there may be times in your life when knowing that God and others love you may be  painfully difficult.  

How can I know that God loves me?

Can I feel loved?

It was a great surprise for Sally and me to see some of our friends from Wentworth – the first community we lived in after I graduated from Seminary and where the first Churches I served were located – walk in the door here at Edgewood last Sunday.  I served the Presbyterian Church in Wentworth for 25 years – part of the time while serving another Church in the community and part of the time while working in the school system   and also serving as Director of the Reidsville Outreach Center.  During my ministry at Wentworth I also served as a volunteer chaplain at two of the local hospitals. I will never forget an experience I had once as a volunteer chaplain. One night when I was the on call chaplain the hospital operator called me and said they had the body of a man who had committed suicide, and his family was asking if the Chaplain could “bury their brother”.  I went to see the family – and felt very sad for them because they seemed to have no one else to turn to. I agreed to do the service, but didn’t know anything about the man whose funeral I would be conducting. I did know, however, that God loved him. The service was a graveside service, and it was cold that day. When I arrived for the service, it was raining hard – and before long the rain turned to sleet. The funeral director told me where to stand to lead the service. I asked him when the casket would arrive and he whispered to me:  “There are the remains” and pointed to a small box.  When the time came for the service to begin, only four people had showed up, and they seemed irritated to have been inconvenienced to have to come out in the sleet for the service.  One of them said: “You know, it’s just like him to do something like this!”  I stumbled through the service and closed with a prayer. On my way home, I couldn’t help but feel sorrow for this man. I didn’t see evidence that anyone in the world loved  him.  Maybe that’s why he committed suicide — he felt unloved and all alone. For the next few days I had the Beatles song “Eleanor Rigby” on my mind:

All the lonely people – where do they all come from? All the lonely people – where do they all belong?

There is no greater feeling in the world than knowing that you are absolutely, completely, and unconditionally loved – but there’s no greater emptiness than to feel—either rightly or wrongly—that no one loves or cares for you.  

The journal of a noted criminal – someone who seemed to be “tough as nails” and who seemed to hate everyone had the words “Somebody, please love me” written in it many times. People will do just about anything in order to feel loved. Maybe you’ve thought: “If I succeed enough, people will love me” or “If I have a relationship with this person, he or she will love me” or “If I am pitiful enough, people will feel sorry for me and begin to love me”   The problem is that none of these strategies work. If you pursue love by means of success you usually end up feeling used and unappreciated. The same can be said for trying to trade sex for love, and if you use a pity as a means of earning affection you will probably find that pity soon turns to contempt, and instead of feeling loved you end up feeling alone and abandoned. As the country song says, you shouldn’t spend time: “looking for love in all the wrong places” or for that matter doing all the wrong things.

The thing is — most of the time when you who feel unloved you have a distorted view of reality. You aren’t really completely unloved — you just don’t recognize the love that is in your life. Here’s a truth I hope every one of you will always remember: If you sometimes feel unloved, or if you are in a position in life where you feel that there is no one at all that loves you – the truth is that God loves you – and there is hope for you.

Can I feel loved?

If you feel unloved, you are in the right place – because the Church can offer you hope today. The hope the Church offers is the hope that there is someone who loves you, and to Him you matter very, very much — and He has gone to amazing lengths to prove His love for you. The hope the Church offers is that God loves you! God loves you with all of His heart, and He doesn’t love you just because you’re part of this big mass of humanity that God loves – no, He loves you individually. He loves you as if you were the only one in the world to love. No matter what you have done, and no matter what your life has been like, God loves you – and He wants to share His love with you.

The book of Hosea is a story that illustrates God’s love for you — and it shows to what length He will go to keep on loving you. It’s the story about a man named Hosea. It begins with God telling Hosea to marry an adulteress woman named Gomer. God knew that Gomer would be unfaithful, and yet God wanted Hosea to marry her anyway.

Why?

Because Hosea’s marriage to Gomer symbolizes God’s love for you. God  loves you even though he knows in advance that there are going to be times when you are going to be unfaithful to Him and do things that go against Him and His will for you.

After Gomer gave birth to three children, she left Hosea and became a prostitute. Hosea stayed home and raised the children alone, while Gomer was out selling her body to strangers. Hosea searched for his wife. He wanted her back. Finally, he found her on an auction block. For a few pieces of silver and a few bushels of barley Hosea bought back the wife who had deserted him. He took her in his arms and he said to her, “Come home. You’re to live with me now, and I will live with you.” This story of Hosea’s love for Gomer is the story of God’s love for you. Whether you feel unloved a little or a lot, some of the time or all of the time, this story has much to tell you about the relationship God wants to have with you. It matters more than any other relationship in your life. Once you grasp God’s love, you will never spend another day feeling unloved — because you will be filled with love from the one who matters most. 

Hosea 2: 14-20 describes God’s love for you. 

1. First of all — God loves you – and directs His love to you — personally.

He loves you as an individual. He knows your name. He knows your needs. He understands your hurts and fears. His relationship with you is based not on what you do for Him, but what He does for you.

Listen to what He says in verse 16 – “In that day…you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’”

You see — God doesn’t want to treat you like a slave — He wants to treat you like His beloved spouse. God wants a relationship with you based on love. The relationship isn’t to be one of tyranny, but one of tenderness.

Listen to what he says about Gomer, in verse 14 — and realize that it can be said about you as well… “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.”

You may feel unloved because you have done some things that are unlovely, but God loves you anyway. He wants to have a tender, loving, devoted relationship with you — as a husband should have with his wife. God loves you with all of His heart, and He directs His love toward you personally, as an individual. God loves you like you’re the only person in the world — it’s a personal love.

That’s the first thing you can know about God’s love. 

The second thing you can know it that:

2. God promises to love you forever.  His love is permanent. Listen to what He says in verse 19 …

 “I will betroth you to me forever.”

The word “betroth” means engagement — in Hosea’s time it was a binding, unbreakable promise to marry. In fact, in those days it was easier to get out of a marriage than it was to get out of an engagement. So, God uses this phrase: “I will betroth you to me forever.” God’s love lasts forever. It is permanent. It doesn’t come and go.

You may remember a song  from the 1970’s  by the band “Pure Prairie League”. The chorus had the words:

Falling in and out of love with you, Falling in and out of love with you, Don’t know what I’m going to do, I keep falling in and out of love with you.

This might describe human love, but it is not how God loves you. His love lasts forever—it doesn’t on increase on your good days or decrease on your bad days. 

A few years ago there was a Wendy’s commercial that began with a mother saying: “Kids.  Most days you love them, but other days, well…” Then the commercial went on to say that Wendy’s was a great reward for good kids, or something to that effect. When I first saw that commercial, I couldn’t believe it. Wendy’s pulled it after a very short run — I guess they realized the message it communicated. Any parent knows that even on their worst days, you don’t stop loving your kids. And even on your worst day, God doesn’t stop loving you. His love is forever. God loves you with all his heart–and his love lasts forever.

The third thing you can know about God’s love is this: 

3. God gives his love to you without holding anything back. 

Have you ever been in a relationship where you were afraid to give 100% of yourself, because you felt that you might get hurt? Of course, it usually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy —  if you don’t give love in a relationship, the relationship cannot last. If you can’t trust the person you’re in a relationship with, the relationship may be doomed from the start. God takes a completely different approach.  He knows from the start that you will do things against His will. He knows that you will sin — and he knows that your sin will break His heart. And yet He loves you anyway — and He doesn’t hold anything back. 

Most people will not love you this way. You may try to love others unconditionally, but there is no way you can love someone as perfectly as God loves you — because you’re not perfect. God’s love for you is different than any other love you will ever experience.  Others may love you for what you do — God loves you for who you are. Others may love you temporarily — God loves you forever. Others may love you for the things they see on the surface — God loves you even though He knows the deepest, darkest parts of your life. Others may love you in an on and off manner — God’s love for you is always on. He doesn’t hold anything back. Listen to what He says in verses 19-20 …

(v. 19-20) I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness…

Righteousness – justice – love – compassion — faithfulness. God’s not promising His eternal love to you because you have these qualities – God’s promising His eternal love because He has these qualities. He is saying, in effect: “I am completely righteous, and I will put my righteousness on the line for you. I am completely just, and I will put my justice on the line for you. I am always compassionate, and I will make my compassion available to you always. I will forever be faithful to you.”

When God loves you, He holds nothing back. He’s not watching you from a distance with His arms folded, waiting to see if you can become worthy of His love. He already loves you, and He always will — no matter what you have done. No matter what others think of you, and no matter what you think of yourself, God views you with a heart full of love. God loves you! God loves you with all His heart. He loves you forever. He loves you completely. He loves you without holding anything back. In fact, over 2000 years ago, in a manner far more dramatic than Hosea buying back his wife, God sent His son into the world to die for your sins. He did it for one reason: Love.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…”

No matter how alone you may feel, you are not alone. No matter how unlovely you may think you are, you are not unlovable. God loves you. There is nothing you can do to deserve that love – all you can do – and all you have to do —  is accept it.  When Hosea found Gomer being auctioned in the town square, she could do nothing to save herself. She couldn’t undo the past and she couldn’t suddenly make herself worthy. All she could do was allow Hosea to pay the price, and then go home with him and start a new life. 

That’s all you can do. You can’t change the past, or undo any of the things that caused you to feel unloved. You can, however, reach out and accept God’s love, and go on your way with Him by your side – knowing that you are loved – and living in a new way because of His love.

Can I feel loved?

Yes, you can, because God loves you. Amen.

Hosea 11:1-11

Hosea 11:1-11

Choices

August 1, 2010

In the movie 1987 movie “Wall Street” Martin Sheen plays Carl Fox, a mechanic at Bluestar Airline and a leader of his union. Carl is disappointed when his  ambitious son Bud, played by Marin Sheen’s son Charlie Sheen, decides to move beyond his small stock firm and attach himself to Mr. Greed himself, the ruthless Gordon Gecko – played by Michael Douglas. Carl feels that Gordon Gecko creates nothing – but makes millions  buying up companies, stripping them of their assets which he resells at a high profit, and leaving the ruined company behind as he advances to new conquests. His ruthless intelligence has made him one of the richest men on Wall Street. Carl correctly sees that Bud, by adopting Gordon Gecko as his mentor and passing on insider information to him, is in danger of selling his soul.

At one point Carl urges his Bud:                                                                          “Stop going for the easy buck and start producing something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others.”

This advice falls on deaf ears – and the hurt and furious Carl has to let Bud find out about life the hard way. When Bud tells Gordon Gecko information given him by his father about the future of Bluestar Airline, Gecko pounces upon it and begins a takeover of Bluestar that will ruin the company. At this point Bud finally realizes that he has helped Gordon Gecko ruin the company his father works for, and that he has betrayed his father’s trust. At last he comes to his senses and enters into a fierce struggle with his Gecko. After a fierce fistfight with Gecko Bud is fired – and goes to his Dad – broke and embarrassed.  He apologizes for what he has done.  Carl forgives him – and although they both are broke at the end of the movie – you get the sense that Bud and Carl have each other – and have more than all Gordon  Gecko’s money can give.

It’s a powerful movie about a father’s love and a son’s having to learn about life the hard way – but I find in it a statement about the choices that we make – and the choices God makes towards us.

You see—Carl had to make the choice to let Bud find out about life on his own – even though it hurt him because he know where it would end up.  Bud made a choice to follow his desires and his search for money and fame instead of following his father’s advice—but when he saw where that was leading him he made the choice to return to his dad. Carl then chose to forgive him for what he had done and show him love.

We all make choices.

So does God.

We make choices every day that have a bearing on our future – both in this life and the next. God makes choices that have a bearing on our future also – but too many times we disregard God’s choices for us and God’s advice for our lives.

Our scripture passage for today speaks eloquently of God’s choices for you  –  and your choices. Hosea 11 is indeed about choices — God’s and yours. You see — God has choices.

God has a choice to save you – or not save you. He has a choice to show His love – or His anger. He has a choice to give you salvation – or leave you in your sins and make you pay the consequences – which leads to eternal separation from God in hell.

How do I know that?

Well, the Bible tells me that.

Hosea tells us that God made a choice to save the people of Israel from being captives in Egypt. The people of Israel were in trouble and needed God to save them – and in His love God chose to save them. The first four verses of this passage are filled with images of God’s love and concern for His people much like a parent shows love and concern for their child.

Listen again to verses 1-4:

God is a loving parent — teaching them to walk — taking them in  His arms — healing them — leading them with “cords of tenderness” and “ties of love”

This is one of the most tender, compassionate, loving pictures we have of God in all of scripture. God – a loving parent – makes a choice. He chooses to love and save His people from their captivity and slavery in Egypt.

So — God has a choice.

Out of His great love, God chooses to save Israel from slavery.

God has a choice.

This passage is not just about God’s choosing to save Israel from their slavery in Egypt – it’s also about God choosing to save us – to save you – from slavery to sin.

What – you don’t believe you’re in slavery to sin?

Just try to give up the things you love and want and have a desire for – just for awhile – and see what happens.

Just try to live without saying things that hurt people – and see what happens.

Just try to not get mad at others — and see what happens.

Just try to live the life God wants you to live – on your own and without help from God – and see what happens.

See how long you can live without the material things in your life that you are so accustomed to – be it your television or your computer or your cell phone or your home or you car – or whatever.

We’ve become slaves to these things.

We are slaves to our emotions – slaves to our feelings – slaves to the things we want and desire in the world – slaves to the things that give us pleasure. True – these things may not rule over us like Pharaoh did over the slaves in Egypt – but we are slaves nonetheless.

Are these things sin?

Not necessarily – but if we use them to hurt others or put them first in our lives instead of putting God first in our lives or if we use them to separate ourselves from God then they are leading us to sin. It’s not the things that our sinful – but the way we use them.

And we all use things sinfully from time to time – sometimes more than others and some things more than others. If you don’t think you’re a slave to sin – your are wrong.

Paul tells us in Romans 3:23:

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

That means everybody.

That means you.

That means me.

That means everybody.

Everybody sins.

Everybody is a slave to sin.

So what? you might ask.

If everybody does it – what’s the big deal?

Well, here’s the big deal. The big deal is that sin separates us from God and from others. The big deal is that sin keeps us from being the people God created us to be. The big deal is that sin leads to death and yes – to hell. The big deal is that sin is a big deal.

Paul puts it this way in Romans 6:23:

For the wages of sin is death

OK – those of you who know your Bibles may know that I only read part of the verse – but I want to make a point.

The wages of sin is death – destruction – and hell.

If you are a slave to sin – and remember Paul in Romans 3 says that you are – you are on the road to death and destruction – and the road to hell.

So – what can get you out of this mess – this slavery to sin – this road to death and destruction and hell?

Only God can do that.

Your parents can’t do that for you. Your friends can’t do that for you. I can’t do that for you. Only God can do that. But – here’s the wonderful – glorious – news.  Here’s the Gospel. (That word “Gospel” is Greek for “Good News”)

The Good News is that God has a choice.

The Good News is that – in His infinite love – God chooses to free you from your sins – to save you from your slavery to sin – to love you –to give you a better way to live – to give you salvation. Just as God chose to free the captive Israelite slaves from Egypt, God chooses to save you from slavery to sin.

You know what?

The slaves in Egypt did not do anything to deserve God’s love – that love and compassion the Hosea uses the images of a loving parent to describe. God chose to show His love and compassion to them and free them from slavery simply because He wanted to. It was His choice – and it was His choice.

In the same way you have not done anything to deserve God’s love. You have not done anything to make God love you and choose to save you from your slavery to sin. God has chosen to show you His love and compassion and to save you from sin simply because He wanted to. It is His choice – and it is His choice.

This is how Paul describes it – and this time I’m going to read the whole verse in Romans 6:23:

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Yea – your slavery to sin leads to death and hell – but God chooses to give you eternal life.

It’s a gift.

It’s God’s gift of compassion and love to you.

So – God offers you freedom from sin – – and the only way to escape your slavery to sin and it’s consequences.

God offers you a new way to live and new things to love and want and have a desire for – things that don’t separate you from Him and others.

God offers you a way to live without saying things that hurt people.

God offers you a way to live without flying off the handle and getting mad at others.

God offers you a way to live the life God wants you to live.

God offers you a way to use the material things in your life – be it your television or your computer or your cell phone or your home or you car – or whatever it might be – a way that does not harm your relationship with Him and others but can help it.

God offers you a way to be use your  feelings – the things you want and desire in the world – the things that give you pleasure – in ways that do not separate you from Him and others and are not sinful.

God offers you a way to be free from slavery to sin.

So – how do you respond to God’s love?

How do you respond to God – who loves you so much that He offers you salvation – the only hope for freedom from your slavery to sin – your only hope for life and not death – heaven and not hell?

God’s choice to love and save the people – bring them out of slavery in Egypt – and in the same way love and save you and bring you out of slavery to sin  — is part of the message here in Hosea 11. But – this passage is also about the choices we make – and the choice God has to make because of the choices we make.

In this passage the children of Israel chose to go against God. They knew God’s offer of freedom from slavery but chose to worship idols and do what pleased them instead of what pleased God – and God – who had chosen to save them – had to make another choice.  He had to choose to punish them. Like a parent who has to punish a disobedient t child, this was not God’s first choice -– but a necessary one because of child’s actions. Like Carl Fox had to decide to let Bud find out on his own in the movie “Wall Street” about the dangers of following Gordon Gecko – this was not his first choice – but a necessary one because of Carl’s actions and refusal to listen to him.

Because of their disobedience, God had to choose to send the people of Israel into captivity again to punish them. Because of their disobedience, God had to choose to punish them for their sins.

Listen again to verses 5-7:

The people had broken God’s heart – and God had to make the choice to punish them.

The people of Israel knew that God had freed them from slavery and they knew how God called them to live in His ways. They knew what to do – but decided to not do it. They knew how to follow God – but chose to not follow God. So God had to choose to punish them.

Here’s a question for you –

How many times do you choose to go against God?

Daily – a lot of days hourly – many days multiple times in an hour – you might choose to go against God. Sin pervades your life – as Paul writes:

“all have sinned”

You choose to go against God – and God has to choose to punish you.

God can choose to punish you when you sin – again remember that:               The wages of sin is death

Hell

That’s not God’s will for you  – but it is the punishment God has to choose to give you because of our sins. Time and time again in Hosea and throughout the Bible God’s anger over our self – destructive and sinful ways is expressed – here in our passage God is able to imagine leaving Israel to suffer for their sins — but that choice to punish is not the final word. This passage ends with God making another choice — God chooses to save – not destroy

How do I know that?

Listen again to Hosea 11:8-11:

God loved Israel enough to choose to redeem them. He loved them enough to bring them back to Him.

God loves you enough to choose to redeem you – and bring you back from a life of sin to the life He calls you to live. That’s what we call salvation. That’s what we call the work of Christ.

That’s what John is talking about in John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

God made a choice.

He chose to give you salvation instead of hell.

Even when you continue to sin and do things that separate you from Him, God chooses to save you.
It’s His loving choice.

But – you have to make a choice also.

You have to choose to come to God.

Hosea says that God will call and His people will come to Him – but that they will come trembling.

I think that means that God wants you to come to Him sorry for your sins – repenting – and praying for God to change you. If you will do this – you will be saved. If you do this – if you “come to your senses” – much as Bud Fox “came to his senses” and broke off his work relationship with Gordon Gecko – and if you will come back to God – as Bud came back to his father Carl – God will forgive you and help you live the life He wants you to live – using everything He gives you for His glory and not for your own needs.

Yea — God has a choice – and makes a choice.

God chooses to offer you a new way to live and new things to love and want and have a desire for – things that don’t separate you from Him and others.

God choose to offer you a way to live without saying things that hurt people.

God chooses to offer you a way to live without flying off the handle and getting mad at others.

God chooses to offer you a way to live the life God wants you to live.

God choose to offer you a way to use the material things in your life – be it your television or your computer or your cell phone or your home or you car – or whatever it might be – a way that does not harm your relationship with Him and others but can help it.

God chooses to offer you a way to be use your  feelings – the things you want and desire in the world – the things that give you pleasure – in ways that do not separate you from Him and others and are not sinful.

God makes a loving choice to save you – even though you have gone against Him

You can choose to repent and be saved.

You can choose to live in God’s ways.

You can choose to be active in the Church and the community – doing God’s will – taking part in God’s work and worshipping, fellowshipping, learning, and serving with God’s people – doing the things God wants you to do – and finding the new life God wants to give you – or you can choose not to do these things and go on worshipping yourself and not doing God’s will – coming to Church when you feel like it instead of when God calls you  – and – in the end – risking  not being the person God has called you to be.

So – we have God’s choices – God’s choices to love us and offer salvation – and we also have our choices – to go against God and be punished – or to return to God and be saved.

God has made His choice.

What is your choice?   Amen

Hosea 2:14-20

Hosea 2:14-20

God Loves You!

Sixth in summer 2009 series on You’ve Got Questions – God Has Answers

August 9, 2009

Life is filled with things that bother us and that are problems for us – questions we might wish we had answers for.  These things can range from how to deal with the economy and the way it affects our daily living to how to be a Christian parent to how to deal with “difficult people” to how to deal with emotions such as anger to how to keep from saying things that we know are not things God would have us be saying to how to respond when things are moving a lot slower that we would like for them to to how to deal with feelings of loneliness and the questions of how we can be sure of God’s love.

The Bible is our guide to living life in God’s ways – and contains God’s answers to our questions in life. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that:

^“16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

This summer we’re looking at some of the issues and questions we may face in our lives – and how God would have us deal with them.  Today we are looking at an issue that most of us face from time to time – how to know that we are loved – important – and cared for.

Knowing that we are loved – important – and cared for is a basic human need.  One of the core things we need to know to survive and thrive in the world is that we are loved – that God loves us – and that someone else loves and cares for us.

If we know that we are loved we are on the way to being the happy, well balanced, loving life God created us to live.  If we know that God loves and cares for us – and that others love and care for us – we are well on the way being a happy person.  However, if we don’t feel that God or anyone else loves and cares for us – we have a hard time in life.

The wonderful truth is that God loves you – and there are probably many others that love you also.  You just have to accept that – know that — celebrate that – and live your life in joy and praise because of that.

But – how can you know that God loves you?

Listen to God’s word in Hosea 2:14-20:

Many of you know that I serve as a volunteer Chaplain at Carolinas’ Hospital. The volunteer Chaplains play a vital role at the hospital as we visit patients and their families – many of whom do not have a minister – and listen to their stories and pray for them.  We are a vital part of the healing team that includes doctors, nurses, therapists, and a whole host of others who make a difference in the lives of the patients and their families.

When Sally and I lived in North Carolina I served as a volunteer Chaplain at 2 community hospitals.  I never will forget an experience I had one week that I was on call at one of them.  One night when I was on call the hospital called me and said they had the body of a man who had committed suicide – and his family was asking if the Chaplain could “bury their brother”.  I felt very sad for the family – they seemed to have no one else to turn to — so I agreed to do the service.  I didn’t know anything about the man whose funeral I would be conducting – but I knew that God loved him.                  For the purpose of this illustration I’ll say his name was John Smith. The service wasn’t held in a church — it was a graveside service.  The family had no Church home. When I arrived for the service, it was raining hard – and before long the rain turned to sleet. The funeral director told me where to stand to lead the service. I said, “That’s fine, but when will the casket get here?” The funeral director pointed to a tiny box and whispered, “There are Mr. Smith’s remains.” The funeral home director couldn’t tell me much about Mr. Smith – except for that he had lived a very hard life, had been in prison, and had committed suicide a few weeks after his release.

When the time came for the service to begin, only four people had showed up. I had planned to offer them words of comfort, but it soon became obvious that none of them were experiencing grief. Instead, they seemed irritated to have been inconvenienced to come out in the sleet for the service.  At one point his sister said, “You know, it’s just like John to do something like this!” I stumbled through the ceremony, and closed with a prayer. On my way home, I couldn’t help but feel sorrow for Mr. John Smith. He had lived a tough but short life that ended as tragically as a life can end, and I didn’t see evidence at the service that anyone in the world even cared. Maybe that’s why he committed suicide — he felt unloved and all alone.

You know — there is no greater feeling in the world than to know that you are absolutely, completely, and unconditionally loved. And there’s no greater emptiness a human can experience than to feel—either rightly or wrongly—that no one loves or cares for them.

Through the years a number of people have expressed this to me, and it doesn’t come from just ex-cons and other down-and-outers. People from all walks of life feel this way. Some are married, some have families, some are surrounded by acquaintances, yet they live with an  emptiness—a loneliness—that cannot be ignored.

Not too long ago I read about a successful entertainer who said:

“In all my fame, I’m all alone. No one really loves me. I provide security for some people, I’m a source of entertainment for others—but if I were ever to become unable to do those things, no one would have any use for me.”

Maybe you feel this way.

Maybe for months or years you’ve been going through motions of life with a nagging sense of emptiness, wondering “Does anyone love me?”

The journal of a noted criminal – someone who seemed to be “tough as nails” and who seemed to hate everyone – was uncovered.  Many times in that journal the words “Somebody, please love me” were written.

People will do just about anything in order to feel loved. Some people think: “If I succeed enough, people will love me” or “If I have a relationship with this person, he or she will love me” or “If I am pitiful enough, people will feel sorry for me and begin to love me” The problem is, none of these strategies work. Those who pursue love by means of success usually end up feeling used and unappreciated. The same can be said for those who try to trade sex for love. Those who use a pity as a means of earning affection usually find that pity soon turns to contempt, and they end up feeling alone and abandoned.

The thing is — most people who feel unloved have a distorted view of reality. They aren’t really completely unloved—they just don’t recognize the love that is in their life. Their emotional pain blinds them to the fact that they have friends and family who love them very much – and a God who loves them.

Here’s a truth I hope every one of you will always remember: If you sometimes feel unloved, or if you are in a position in life where you feel that there is no one at all that loves you – God loves you – and there is hope for you.

God loves you!

If you feel unloved, you are in the right place – because the Church can offer you hope today. This is the hope we can offer you today: The hope that there is someone who loves you, and to Him you matter very, very much — and He has gone to amazing lengths to prove His love for you.

God loves you!

Most of you have heard that statement thousands of times throughout your life–maybe so many times that the statement has lost some of its impact. Some people think:

“Yeah, God loves me. So what? He has to—he loves everybody.”

I want to make something clear: God loves you with all of His heart, and it’s not because He got stuck with you. He doesn’t love you just because you’re part of this big mass of humanity. He loves you individually. He loves you as if you were the only one in the world to love. No matter what you have done, or no matter what your life has been like, God loves you – and He wants to share His love with you.

Our scripture passage for today is a story that illustrates God’s love for you — and it shows to what length He will go to keep on loving you. It’s the story about a man named Hosea. It begins with God telling Hosea to marry an adulteress woman named Gomer. That’s right—her name was Gomer. Don’t get side-tracked by her name. I’m sure she was a very beautiful woman, and I doubt seriously that she looked anything like Jim Neighbors. Who knows, maybe in those days Gomer was considered a beautiful name.

Well — God knew that Gomer would be unfaithful, and yet God wanted Hosea to marry her anyway.

Why?

Because Hosea’s marriage to Gomer symbolizes God’s love for you. God  loves you even though he knows in advance there are going to be times when you are going to be unfaithful to Him.

After Gomer gave birth to three children, she left Hosea and became a prostitute. Hosea  stayed home and raised the children alone, while Gomer traveled throughout the world, selling her body to strangers. Years passed, and Hosea began to search for his wife. He wanted her back. Finally, he found her on an auction block. For a few pieces of silver and a few bushels of barley, Hosea bought back the wife who had deserted him. He took her in his arms and he said to her, “Come home. You’re to live with me now, and I will live with you.”

This story of Hosea’s love for his “runaway bride” is the story of God’s love for you. Whether you feel unloved a little or a lot, some of the time or all of the time, this story has much to tell you about the relationship God wants to have with you. It matters more than any other relationship in your life. Once you grasp God’s love, you will never spend another day feeling unloved — because you will be filled with love from the one who matters most.

God loves you!

Our passage from Hosea 2 describe in more detail the extent of God’s love for you.

1. First of all — God loves you – and directs His love to you — personally.

He doesn’t love you as “part of the crowd” — He loves you as an individual. He knows your name. He knows your needs. He understands your hurts and fears. His relationship with you is based not on what you do for Him, but what He does for you.

Listen to what he says…

(v. 16) In that day…you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’

You see — God doesn’t want to treat you like a slave — He wants to treat you like His loved spouse. God wants a relationship with you based on love — not based on the law.  God wants a relationship with you based on devotion, not based on duty. The relationship isn’t to be one of tyranny, but one of tenderness.

Listen to what he says about Gomer, — and realize that it can be said about you as well…

(v. 14) Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.

You may feel unloved because you have done some things that are unlovely, but God loves you anyway. He wants to have a tender, loving, devoted relationship with you — as a husband should have with his wife. And even if you are the worst spouse in the world, he will buy you back, just as Hosea bought back Gomer.

God loves you with all of His heart, and He directs His love toward you personally, as an individual.

God loves you!

He loves you like you’re the only person in the world — it’s a personal love.

That’s the first thing you can know about God’s love.

The second thing you can know it that:

2. God promises to love you forever.

His love is permanent.

Listen to what he says…

(v. 19) I will betroth you to me forever.

The word “betroth” means engagement — in Hosea’s time it was a binding, unbreakable promise to marry. In fact, in those days it was easier to get out of a marriage than it was to get out of an engagement. So, God uses this phrase: “I will betroth you to me forever.”

God’s love lasts forever. It is permanent. It doesn’t come and go. He loved you as a newborn baby, he loves you today—and he will always love you.

In the seventies there was a song by the band “Pure Prairie League” that went:

Falling in and out of love with you, Falling in and out of love with you, Don’t know what I’m going to do, I keep falling in and out of love with you.(Falling In and Out of Love © 1974 Craig Lee Fuller)

This might describe how we sometimes love one another, but it is not how God loves us. His love lasts forever—it doesn’t get bigger on your good days or smaller on your bad days.

A few years ago there was a Wendy’s commercial that began with a mother saying:

“Kids.  Most days you love them, but other days, well…”

Then the commercial went on to say that Wendy’s was a great reward for good kids, or something to that effect. When I first saw that commercial, I couldn’t believe it. Wendy’s pulled it after a very short run — I guess they realized the message it communicated. Any parent knows that even on their worst days, you don’t stop loving your kids. And even on your worst day, God doesn’t stop loving you. His love is forever. In Jeremiah God says…

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you up with loving-kindness.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

God loves you!

God loves you with all his heart–and his love lasts forever.

The third thing you can know about God’s love is this:

3. God gives his love to you without holding anything back.

Have you ever been in a relationship where you were afraid to give 100% of yourself, because you knew you were going to get hurt? Of course, it usually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy —  if you can’t give love in a relationship, the relationship cannot last. But if you don’t trust the person you’re in a relationship with, you have to be careful. If you allow yourself to be too vulnerable, you end up getting hurt.

God takes a completely different approach with you and me. He knows from the start that He will be hurt. He knows that we will sin — and our sin will break His heart. And yet He loves you anyway — and He doesn’t hold anything back.

Most people are capable of loving you only half-way. We may try to love others unconditionally, but there is no way we can love one another as perfectly as God loves us — because we’re not perfect. God’s love for you is different than any other love you will ever experience.

Others may love you for what you do — God loves you for who you are.

Others may love you temporarily — God loves you forever.

Others may love you for the things they see on the surface — God loves you even though He knows the deepest, darkest parts of your life.

Others may love you in an on and off manner — God’s love for you is always on. He doesn’t hold anything back. Listen to what he says…

(v. 19-20) I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness…

Righteousness – justice – love – compassion — faithfulness.

God’s not promising Hs eternal love to you because you have these qualities – God’s promising His eternal love because He has these qualities. He is saying, in effect:

“I am completely righteous, and I will put my righteousness on the line for you. I am completely just, and I will put my justice on the line for you. I am always compassionate, and I will make my compassion available to you always. I will forever be faithful to you.”

When God loves you, he holds nothing back. He’s not watching you from a distance with His arms folded, waiting to see if you can become worthy of His love. He already loves you, and He always will– no matter what you have done. No matter what others think of you, and no matter what you think of yourself, God views you with a heart full of love.

You’re not unlovable — not according to the one who matters most.

God loves you!

God loves you with all His heart.

You.

Forever.

Completely.

Without holding anything back.

In fact, 2000 years ago, in a manner far more dramatic than Hosea buying back his wife, God sent His son into the world to die for the sins of the world. He did it for one reason: Love.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…“

He doesn’t hold anything back.

No matter how alone you may feel, you are not alone. No matter how unlovely you may think you are, you are not unlovable.

God loves you.

There is nothing you can do to deserve that love – all you can do – and all you have to do —  is accept it.

When Hosea found Gomer being auctioned in the town square, she could do nothing to save herself. She couldn’t undo the past and she couldn’t suddenly make herself worthy. All she could do was allow Hosea to pay the price, and then go home with him and start a new life.

That’s all you can do.

You can’t change the past, or undo any of the things that caused you to feel unloved.

You can, however, reach out and accept God’s love, and go on your way with Him by your side – knowing that you are loved.

Yea – God loves you! Amen.