Sermon #S045 - Role Play (Part 1) 00:00:05.77\00:00:19.41 Snell: Let's get into it today. This month, each Sabbath, we are kind of talking under the 00:00:19.45\00:00:29.56 subject God is, and last week, Dr. Doggett did a tremendous job on talking about how God is a 00:00:29.59\00:00:37.47 deliverer, and this week spend some time this communion Sabbath, talking about the fact 00:00:37.50\00:00:44.84 that God is a redeemer. What do you say? And one of the things I want to say church that we can 00:00:44.87\00:00:49.88 never do, is we can never allow ourselves to stop being amazed 00:00:49.91\00:00:57.05 by grace. We should never get used to his long suffering. 00:00:57.09\00:01:00.46 It ought to be the foundation of constant celebration amongst the 00:01:00.49\00:01:04.59 people of God. Can you say amen? I invite you to go with me in your bibles to the book of Hosea 00:01:04.63\00:01:14.44 chapter 1, Hosea chapter 1, and we'll begin together at verse number 1, and I'm going to 00:01:14.47\00:01:19.57 invite all of our digital disciples online. Apostles, all of those who are electronic 00:01:19.61\00:01:26.65 evangelists. If you don't mind sharing, if you're on Facebook, copying the link, if you're on 00:01:26.68\00:01:28.62 YouTube and sending it to somebody. Hosea chapter 1, and I want you to put your finger over 00:01:28.65\00:01:35.69 in Hosea chapter 3 as well as we talk today. Hosea chapter 1 over there in the Old Testament, 00:01:35.72\00:01:41.60 Hosea chapter 1. When you get there, let me hear you say Amen. [Congregation: Amen] 00:01:41.63\00:01:43.67 Hosea chapter 1 and verse number 1. A very interesting way that God gets his message across to 00:01:43.70\00:01:51.04 his people. Hosea chapter 1 and verse 1, when you get there, say, pastor, I'm there. 00:01:51.07\00:01:55.78 [Congregation: Pastor I'm there] 00:01:55.81\00:01:57.88 The Bible says the word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri in the days of Uzziah, 00:01:57.91\00:02:05.39 Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, the 00:02:05.42\00:02:12.26 King of Israel, and check out how God tells Hosea to preach this sermon. He says, when the 00:02:12.29\00:02:21.97 Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take yourself a wife of harlotry and 00:02:22.00\00:02:32.98 children of harlotry. Why? For the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the 00:02:33.01\00:02:41.09 Lord. He went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 00:02:41.12\00:02:48.50 Now skip over to chapter 3 and verse 1. The Bible says, then the Lord said to me, 00:02:48.53\00:02:53.54 go again and love a woman who is loved by a lover and is continuing adultery, 00:02:53.57\00:03:00.54 just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who looked to other gods 00:03:00.58\00:03:08.22 and loved the raisin cakes of the pagans, so I brought her for myself for fifteen shekels of 00:03:08.25\00:03:15.16 silver and 1 half homers of barley, and I said to her, you shall stay with me many days. 00:03:15.19\00:03:21.63 You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man, so too will I be toward you. 00:03:21.66\00:03:27.87 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or 00:03:27.90\00:03:35.54 sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim, and afterward the children of Israel shall return 00:03:35.58\00:03:43.99 and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they shall fear the Lord and his goodness 00:03:44.02\00:03:53.66 in the latter day. Today, saints, I want to just spend a little while talking to you 00:03:53.70\00:04:00.17 under the subject Role Play Role play. Let's pray together. 00:04:00.20\00:04:02.84 Father, in this little while, would you please say much. Father, would you let strong 00:04:02.87\00:04:11.65 and heavy anointing rest upon this message today. 00:04:11.68\00:04:15.55 Would you please hide me in the shadows of the cross that Jesus alone might be seen, 00:04:15.58\00:04:20.96 that Christ alone would be heard, and at the end of our time together, may Jesus alone 00:04:20.99\00:04:27.36 be praised. Bless us to this end we ask in the wonderful name of Jesus, let those who believe say 00:04:27.40\00:04:34.24 together. Amen. [Congregation: Amen] 00:04:34.27\00:04:35.97 Amen. You may be seated in the house of the Lord. Again talking under the subject today, 00:04:36.00\00:04:39.11 role play. Role play. In our text friends, 00:04:39.14\00:04:45.28 we find God choosing a very extreme demonstration to communicate his love for the 00:04:45.31\00:04:59.83 people of Judah and Israel. Hosea in this text is not just permitted to preach judgments 00:04:59.86\00:05:06.10 and rebukes. He is required in this text to make himself a spectacle and a very rare form 00:05:06.13\00:05:15.24 of role play, but to be clear, this role play is not just about 00:05:15.28\00:05:20.95 Hosea's goodness, it's actually more about how deceived the people actually are. 00:05:20.98\00:05:26.29 You see the issue here is not just that the people are in 00:05:26.32\00:05:31.49 great rebellion, the issue is that the people are under strong deception. You see Hosea 00:05:31.53\00:05:40.27 prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Ahaz, Jotham and Hezekiah, kings of Judah and 00:05:40.30\00:05:51.08 Jeroboam the king of Israel, and note that during the reigns of these kings, there is a relative 00:05:51.11\00:05:58.82 prosperity in the land. They have not been carried away by foreigners. They have military 00:05:58.85\00:06:06.96 victories against their enemies, and there is a financial strength that sets them apart, 00:06:07.00\00:06:15.24 and even though they in engage in idolatry, no plagues have yet to befall them, and instead of 00:06:15.27\00:06:25.31 seeing God's faithfulness as mercy, they see it as an endorsement of their sin, and 00:06:25.35\00:06:32.69 see a part of their problem is that they don't measure God's displeasure by the word, they 00:06:32.72\00:06:37.53 look for judgments as a sign that God is upset, and as a result they create a dynamic 00:06:37.56\00:06:45.17 that won't allow them to repent according to the word, they'll only repent when calamity comes 00:06:45.20\00:06:49.47 upon them. You see, for most of Hosea's ministry, Judah especially is in a position of 00:06:49.50\00:06:58.21 strength. There is a peace in the valley, there is a calm on the horizon which causes them to 00:06:58.25\00:07:06.39 falsely assess their condition. In other words, they come to the conclusion that because 00:07:06.42\00:07:14.93 everything is okay, then everything must be okay, and in many ways saints, we adopt the 00:07:14.93\00:07:23.10 same posture. You see, the immature will not repent at the word. We will only evaluate our 00:07:23.14\00:07:28.14 lives when calamity comes. You see, this is referred to as what the Bible talks about, the 00:07:28.18\00:07:35.62 provoking or the testing of the Lord. It is when we will not correct ourselves according to 00:07:35.65\00:07:40.06 the word. It is where we almost dare God to correct us by judgment or sanction 00:07:40.09\00:07:46.49 and the reason saints that you ought not think this way and use circumstance to evaluate God's 00:07:46.53\00:07:55.54 pleasure or displeasure, is because God's goodness will never reflect your goodness. Are 00:07:55.57\00:08:01.71 y'all hearing me today? Is there anybody that understands that God's goodness is better than we 00:08:01.74\00:08:07.78 deserve, and even his chastisement is not as bad as what we deserve. It is why Psalm 00:08:07.82\00:08:15.02 103 and verse 10 says that God has not dealt with us according 00:08:15.06\00:08:20.40 to our sin and he's not punished us according to our iniquity, and he says, as the heaven is 00:08:20.43\00:08:28.70 higher than the earth, so great is God's mercy toward those who fear him, and I need somebody to 00:08:28.74\00:08:37.75 understand that God is not petty and he doesn't go tit for tat 00:08:37.78\00:08:40.98 with his children. In other words, I need somebody to get that God provides even when you 00:08:41.02\00:08:48.66 don't give. Y'all mighty quiet today. That God watches over the house that you are shacking up 00:08:48.69\00:08:53.46 in, that God protects even when you don't pray, that God 00:08:53.50\00:08:58.93 promotes even before you begin praising that God kept syphilis off of you, HIV off of you, 00:08:58.97\00:09:06.98 bullets from hitting you. Can anybody testify that when we were stuck on stupid, that the 00:09:07.01\00:09:14.78 hedge of God was still in camp, that the angel of God was with us in our coming and our going, 00:09:14.82\00:09:19.09 and I'm just thankful that God doesn't treat me like I deserve, but he is long suffering even in 00:09:19.12\00:09:29.23 our foolishness. Are you hearing me today? But please friends, don't get it twisted. Don't 00:09:29.26\00:09:39.41 confuse the room that God gives you to repent, to assume that there is no need to repent. In 00:09:39.44\00:09:46.95 other words friends, I need you to get that our trifling, this in the midst of God's goodness 00:09:46.98\00:09:53.02 actually testifies against our character. In other words, when you can't respond to mercy and 00:09:53.05\00:09:59.03 you can't respond to grace, and you can't respond to long suffering, you are announcing to 00:09:59.06\00:10:07.54 God that the only way you can reach me is calamity. Let me say it again. That when you can't 00:10:07.57\00:10:14.28 respond to goodness, and you can't respond to grace, you are saying, God, the only way you 00:10:14.31\00:10:22.75 can reach me is catastrophe, and the truth is, y'all not going to say amen for the pastor today, 00:10:22.78\00:10:33.83 but the truth is that we remain prayerless as long as we are problemless, oh, let me preach 00:10:33.86\00:10:37.63 it to this side. As long as we are problemless, we remain prayerless. In fact, the truth 00:10:37.67\00:10:45.04 is that the consistency of our prayer life is going to reflect the consistency of our problems. 00:10:45.07\00:10:50.98 That the intensity of our prayer life is going to reflect the intensity of our problems, and I 00:10:51.01\00:10:58.45 know some of y'all are saying, pastor, I pray over my food at dinnertime, I pray before I get 00:10:58.49\00:11:06.36 in the bed. You might walk down to the alter and close your eyes until the pastor says amen, but 00:11:06.39\00:11:12.33 the truth is that we don't get between the ports and the altar. We don't begin calling on the 00:11:12.37\00:11:22.71 name of God for ourselves. We won't stay up in the midnight hour until God gives us an issue 00:11:22.74\00:11:30.69 that we can't manage by ourselves, and it's crazy because there are times where we 00:11:30.72\00:11:34.92 get mad at the problems, but the truth is, it's the problems that make you prayerful, and it's 00:11:34.96\00:11:41.83 crazy because there was a time where I used to be mad at the problems, but I get to a place 00:11:41.86\00:11:49.70 now where I thank God for the problems that chase me to the savior. Let me say it this way, 00:11:49.74\00:11:56.31 I remember just a couple weeks ago I was traveling and I was in a hotel and before I leave, I am 00:11:56.34\00:12:02.75 in search of my cell phone, Avery, and so man I can't find it anywhere where I look. I look 00:12:02.78\00:12:06.65 on top of the dresser and I look on top of the bed, and I look on top of the couch and I cannot 00:12:06.69\00:12:11.66 find the cell phone anywhere, and see, one of the things I have is I have sometimes a 00:12:11.69\00:12:17.13 pinched nerve in my back, and whenever it begins to get irritated, there are a series of 00:12:17.17\00:12:22.84 stretches I have to do. In my search for the phone, my back gets irritated, and so I begin 00:12:22.87\00:12:29.88 to do my stretches, and one of the stretches requires me to get down on the floor, and when I 00:12:29.91\00:12:36.52 get down on the floor, I look underneath the couch and I see where the phone had slipped 00:12:36.55\00:12:43.36 between the cracks, and it was only because I was on my face that I could find what I was 00:12:43.39\00:12:50.90 looking for. Y'all didn't get it. It was the pain that put me on my face to help me find what 00:12:50.93\00:12:52.57 I was looking for. Y'all not here yet. In other words, sometimes there's got to be a 00:12:52.60\00:12:57.81 pain that puts you on your face, so that you can find what you stand in need of. Are y'all 00:12:57.84\00:13:04.61 hearing me today friends? And so remember now I shared with you what undergirds their rebellion 00:13:04.65\00:13:14.76 is their deception, somebody say deception. [Congregation: 00:13:14.79\00:13:16.29 Deception] See, the problem with Israel and Judah at this time is they think we are okay. ] 00:13:16.32\00:13:22.43 They feel like we are members in good in regular standing. They have not completely abandoned or 00:13:22.46\00:13:31.77 substituted God. What they've done is supplemented God with idols, and so God says to Hosea, 00:13:31.81\00:13:39.25 listen, your normal sermons ain't going to reach this group right here. In other words, 00:13:39.28\00:13:45.69 we got to do something a little different to reach this particular group of people. 00:13:45.72\00:13:50.76 In other words, if you start preaching judgments and rebukes, 00:13:50.79\00:13:55.23 their deception is going to make them think this sermon ain't for 00:13:55.26\00:13:59.67 us. It must apply to somebody else, so you can't preach this from a pulpit or from a lectern, 00:13:59.70\00:14:07.24 I need you to get down Hosea with a little bit of role play. God says to Hosea... are y'all 00:14:07.28\00:14:16.72 still with the pastor today? He says, you going to preach this sermon different than any other 00:14:16.75\00:14:21.72 one you've ever preached, so he says, Hosea, go down to the red light district, and there I want 00:14:21.76\00:14:32.53 you to find a working girl, and I don't just want you to get one of those new girls to the group, 00:14:32.57\00:14:36.50 I want you to find the one that everybody then been with. 00:14:36.54\00:14:40.54 I want you to find that doorknob girl, the one where everybody 00:14:40.58\00:14:46.48 gets a turn. I want you to get the one that attracts the men and threatens the women, 00:14:46.51\00:14:54.26 and I want you to marry her. I want you to start a family with her, and I need you to know 00:14:54.29\00:15:01.43 Hosea, that after you marry her, she's going to go back into the streets, and when she goes, I 00:15:01.46\00:15:08.60 want you to go and purchase and bring her back. Now again, friends of mine, we look at this 00:15:08.64\00:15:17.05 text and we say, poor Hosea, but I need you to get that this is not about Hosea's inconvenience, 00:15:17.08\00:15:25.15 it's about the people's salvation. In other words, what God is doing is he's creating a 00:15:25.19\00:15:33.60 formula for which they will be able to hear the gospel. In other words saints, I need y'all 00:15:33.63\00:15:38.10 to get how absurd this is, that you got Hosea who is a priest and a prophet walking around arm 00:15:38.13\00:15:48.38 in arm with a prostitute. Okay, y'all not with me. I need you to get how absurd this is. Let's 00:15:48.41\00:15:55.38 just say for some strange reason that somehow I become single, and here I am the pastor of 00:15:55.42\00:16:01.46 Oakwood, the director of Breath Of Life, and before you know it, you get an invitation in the 00:16:01.49\00:16:10.37 mail that says, I'm getting married to Lil Kim. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying now? 00:16:10.40\00:16:12.67 Now Saint, I need y'all to get man like the stir that this creates in the nation. When they 00:16:12.70\00:16:22.28 get this wedding invitation, and they see the prophet with Megan Thee Stallion and that they are 00:16:22.31\00:16:27.85 about to get married, I need you to know that they decide that we going to have a have a town hall 00:16:27.88\00:16:32.72 meeting. We going to have to set the prophet straight. We cannot let this go down in the name of 00:16:32.75\00:16:39.43 Jehovah. In other words, we got to have a meeting where he's going to have to answer for 00:16:39.46\00:16:44.23 himself. He's going to have to give an account for how it is that he can allow the name of 00:16:44.27\00:16:50.97 Israel to be disrupted, and destroyed in this way, 00:16:51.01\00:16:53.31 and the thing that's got them upset is that they believe that this marriage is going to give 00:16:53.34\00:17:00.62 fodder to the enemies of God. That the marriage is going to invoke the anger of God, and so 00:17:00.65\00:17:06.86 they want to bring Hosea and Gomer so that they can keep this thing from happening, and so as 00:17:06.89\00:17:16.40 all the men and the women enter into the court, what they don't realize is that God has created 00:17:16.43\00:17:27.08 an opportunity for Hosea to have their undivided attention. It's crazy because some come with 00:17:27.11\00:17:34.92 stones in their hands, because Leviticus 21 in verse 6, says that a priest in his time was 00:17:34.95\00:17:42.56 not to marry a divorced woman, a harlot or a defiled woman, and this breaking of the law had to 00:17:42.59\00:17:46.76 have consequences, and it's crazy because I can see them coming in with their 00:17:46.80\00:17:50.67 phylacteries and their garments of outward religious expression, and they've got stones in their 00:17:50.70\00:17:58.11 hand ready to condemn Gomer, ready to separate him from Gomer, ready to kind of indict 00:17:58.14\00:18:02.91 Gomer. Guess what happens to their surprise when the first word of Hosea sermon is, y'all 00:18:02.94\00:18:14.89 are Gomer. He says, and the way y'all want to treat her is the way that God should be treating 00:18:14.92\00:18:26.67 us, and and he gets the sermon real good when he says that her harloteries are simply a symbol 00:18:26.70\00:18:38.71 of our departing from the Lord. Are y'all hearing me today? And it's crazy because when you look 00:18:38.75\00:18:43.02 at this text, it teaches us 2 brief things about grace. See, the first thing it teaches us, 00:18:43.05\00:18:53.76 number 1 is that God's grace is informed. See again, Hosea's marriage to Gomer is a symbol of 00:18:53.80\00:19:01.30 God's love for his children. Y'all still with me today church, and see a part of this 00:19:01.34\00:19:07.78 thing is that maybe there's some in the camp that's like, "We we got a man warn Hosea, maybe 00:19:07.81\00:19:13.92 Hosea has gotten deceived. Maybe Hosea doesn't know exactly who she is." So a part of their 00:19:13.95\00:19:18.85 objective before they stone her is they've got to put her on blast. They've got to out her so 00:19:18.89\00:19:22.46 that he knows who she is. He's got to inform Hosea of the type of woman that she is about to 00:19:22.49\00:19:27.60 marry, but understand that Hosea here is a symbol of Jesus Christ, and so when they come 00:19:27.60\00:19:36.40 with all of their allegations and they list all of her wrong, they are completely thrown off 00:19:36.44\00:19:41.54 when Hosea is like, "I knew all of that about her even before I went and pursued her." 00:19:41.58\00:19:47.02 In other words, Hosea's got to stand up before the church and say, "I know how many tricks 00:19:47.05\00:19:52.52 she's done. She's told me the number of her body count. I know how many lap dances she's given. 00:19:52.55\00:19:58.56 I know how many times she's run around the block, and guess what? I still want her." 00:19:58.59\00:20:09.04 Okay, and see the reason y'all ain't shouting yet is because of 00:20:09.07\00:20:16.21 dissociation. You still think this sermon is about Hosea and Gomer? No, no, no. We passed 00:20:16.24\00:20:24.72 that now. This ain't about Hosea and Gomer at this point. You ought to be seeing yourself and 00:20:24.75\00:20:31.59 God. See, this is what makes grace so amazing that it is not an ignorant pursuit. 00:20:31.63\00:20:41.47 It is an informed pursuit where God says, I know everything about you and I still pursue. 00:20:41.50\00:20:51.98 Where y'all at today? In other words, God is saying, I know what you watch online. 00:20:52.01\00:20:56.45 I know how you fake in church. I know how you treat your kids. 00:20:56.48\00:21:01.69 I know how you creep in the midnight hour. I know everything you've ever done, and guess 00:21:01.72\00:21:08.83 what? I still want to call you by my name 00:21:08.86\00:21:15.84 and see I need you to get that grace is a pursuit that is based upon want not obligation, 00:21:15.87\00:21:25.75 and see the reason that some of us don't rejoice over the power 00:21:25.78\00:21:28.48 of grace, is because we see grace as a theological obligation, as opposed to a 00:21:28.52\00:21:36.59 relational pursuit. Do you realize that Jesus was not obligated to the cross? This was 00:21:36.62\00:21:47.30 a volunteer mission. Do you realize that if God just allowed mankind to suffer the fate of 00:21:47.34\00:21:59.11 eternal death, that is no indictment upon him. If we die, it's no indictment upon God. 00:21:59.15\00:22:06.99 That's just justice. The wages of sin is death. Are y'all hearing me today friends? In 00:22:07.02\00:22:13.60 other words, Jesus goes to the cross, not out of this theological obligation, but 00:22:13.63\00:22:22.14 there is a relational want that he sees you in me, created in his image, and he loves us so 00:22:22.17\00:22:31.65 much that he says, I will take their place, I'll be their substitute, and even though I 00:22:31.68\00:22:34.52 don't have to. See, the reason why some people still don't get it is because some of us still 00:22:34.55\00:22:43.96 see the plan of salvation as a contingency plan. Can I go deeper? See, we still see the 00:22:43.99\00:22:48.13 plan of salvation as an afterthought, but doesn't Revelation 13: 8 refer to Jesus 00:22:48.16\00:23:00.81 as the lamb of God slain from the foundation of the earth, and so I need you to know that there 00:23:00.84\00:23:06.92 is an epic truth at work. I need you to get that we see the plan of salvation and the plan of 00:23:06.95\00:23:15.56 creation as 2 separate plans, but I need you to know that creation is founded on the plan 00:23:15.59\00:23:22.56 of salvation, so that before he planned to create man, he already decided to redeem man. 00:23:22.60\00:23:30.27 It's crazy because there is an epic imagery in the creation order where man lies as an empty 00:23:30.31\00:23:38.18 shell, and when the first time Adam opens up his eyes, he is borrowing the breath of life in 00:23:38.21\00:23:45.02 order to live, and the first thing Adam learns is that in order for me to live, God has to 00:23:45.05\00:23:49.59 give up his breath. Oh, see, y'all still didn't miss it, because see I need you to know 00:23:49.62\00:24:01.00 at the beginning, God had to give up a breath for him to live at the cross, he had to give up 00:24:01.04\00:24:10.41 his breath in order for man to be redeemed, so God gave breath at creation and at redemption 00:24:10.45\00:24:23.46 because redemption is sandwiches creation on both sides. Are y'all hearing me today friends? 00:24:23.49\00:24:28.80 And one of the things that causes me to rejoice is that he knows you, and he still wants 00:24:28.83\00:24:35.30 you. Oh, y'all acting brand new up in here today. One of the testimonies in the Bible that I 00:24:35.34\00:24:41.64 never quite understood was the woman by the well. After Jesus talks to her, she leaves her 00:24:41.68\00:24:46.51 water pot goes into the city, tells all the men, come see a man who knows everything I ever 00:24:46.55\00:24:52.85 done, and guess what? The Bible says that they all came into the city to meet Jesus, and it 00:24:52.89\00:24:59.89 didn't ever make sense to me because if you say, come meet a man that knows everything I've 00:24:59.93\00:25:03.33 ever done, I don't want to see that man. I'm scared about what that man might say. Come on and 00:25:03.37\00:25:06.94 say Amen, but the reason the testimony was so powerful is that she is saying, I know a man 00:25:06.97\00:25:11.31 that knows everything I've ever done, but guess what? He didn't use it against me. He didn't 00:25:11.34\00:25:22.28 indict me, but he loved me regardless of it all, that Jesus still loves us, and is there 00:25:22.32\00:25:27.56 anybody grateful that in spite all of your grime and your dirt and having to say I'm sorry over 00:25:27.59\00:25:38.50 and over again, that Jesus still looks beyond our faults and sees our needs. Thank you so much for 00:25:38.53\00:25:47.51 joining us for the Breath of Life Television Ministries broadcast with Pastor Debleaire 00:25:47.54\00:25:53.48 Snell! We hope and pray that you have been blessed by his powerful message " Role Play". 00:25:53.52\00:28:04.65 Join us next week for Part Two You don't want to miss it! (Breath of Life Theme Music) 00:28:04.68\00:28:28.07 [END] 00:28:28.10\00:28:43.12