Well, good morning, everyone. I apologize in advance for those who are hoping to see Brother Lloyd standing here finishing Romans Chapter 8. However, Lloyd had to go up and, I think, help Alan with a car wash up in the St. Louis area. So hopefully, Sean, this won't be too disappointing to you. I have to echo what Aaron and Pastor were saying about Sundays. Sundays are important for me, important for my family. It's an opportunity to be in God's Word. It's an opportunity to be among God's people. I'm always amazed, and having done this myself on multiple occasions, I'm always amazed at sometimes not wanting to come to church when I'm not feeling good, or I'm feeling down, or I'm struggling with something, or whatever, because that's absolutely the last worst thing you could do. You need to get around God's people. I mean, after messing with Jessica for five or 10 minutes, my whole day feels so much better. But that's what we do for one another. And we can only do that, though, if we are a church that is unified in fellowship. I don't think we've been as unified in a very long time. And I think that has a lot to do with it. And it's like, and then also the other thing is the reason why I think you don't want to ever miss church, especially Sunday school, is because you might see somebody give their heart to the mission field. You might have a young man call to be a pastor. You might see somebody get saved. And so you just never know what's going to happen. So you don't want to miss, because you never know what you're going to miss until you miss it. And it is good that we have live streaming. That does help. that we have the ability for when you are sick and you don't want to spread the plague, bubonic or otherwise, to the rest of the church, you do have the ability then to stay at home. So I want to thank Brother Aaron for the opportunity to teach for the next couple of weeks. I have really appreciated listening to Chad's lesson. on Joseph. Joseph is one of my all-time favorite Bible characters, you know, in the sense of what he stood for. He was a type of Christ, and what he went through, and yet he always kept a positive attitude. And I think of myself, oh ye of little faith, and yet someone like Joseph, who can serve as a role model. Now, a lot of people say today that we don't need to use the Old Testament, you know, that we're just a New Testament church. We don't need the Old Testament. But the Old Testament, not only did it paved the way and show God's people that they needed a Messiah. But it also applies to us today and what we're going through. And then Brother Lloyd's lesson on Romans chapter 8, I really appreciate that one point he made. When the stress is on, does the flesh come out or does the spirit come out? That's one of the best points I've heard in a very long time. The secret ballot, which one comes out, flesh and spirit. But every time the spirit comes out, it shows that you're one of God's newborn creatures. So let's talk a little bit about Hosea. And why talk about Hosea? Well, first of all, I want to do Hosea because I want to, you know, it's like, What's your favorite, okay, let's do it this way. What's your favorite character in Star Wars? Think of a character in Star Wars that was supposed to have a commercial appeal. So remember, you don't just make movies, right, Sean? But you have to make movies that tie in with merchandise so that you can sell the merchandise. Well, my least favorite character in all Star Wars is Jar Jar Binks. I mean, that is just an absolute, you know, remember that, Cherie? Jar Jar Binks, what do you think, Caden? Big on Jar Jar Binks. I mean, it seemed like he was put in there just to sell stuff. How about the Little Furry Ewoks? The Little Furry Teddy Bears? They were put in there. Okay, so the whole reason why I agreed to do Sunday School was to push Faith Bible. Faith Bible is a program that we do on Mondays nights. We do it in the spring and the fall, and then typically we do a summer elective. And next week, I hope to have the final details of whether we're going to be able to do archeology this summer. And that would be kind of neat, cool to do that. But the reason I wanted to do this was, is that, as you know, I have a Master's of Theology from Luther Rice Seminary. I learned more Bible. from Faith Bible as far as practical, hands-on. As you know, some of you may know that we go to the mission field. And because we go to the mission field, and because I'm a guy, it is automatically assumed at least that I can preach. If you're a guy, you preach, right? And I would never have been able to do that without the help of Faith Bible. because it provided me the ability to have a grasp on Bible characters, Bible stories, Bible themes, and then be able to select it in a teaching and a preaching setting. And so that's really what I want to do. I was going to take Hosea, which is in our semester five, which we're in right now, and I want to take that and use that as a springboard and try to encourage more people to come in and take it. And so if you'll please Forgive me for that commercial interruption. So let's go ahead and pray real quick. Dear Lord, I just ask that you would help me with this lesson today. I pray, Lord, that I would only speak your words. I pray, Lord, that I would not be negligent of what you would have me say. In thy name we pray, amen. OK, so Hosea, a menstruating book. It's one of the minor prophets. And again, why do we call them the minor prophets? What was that? They're not as important. Obviously, right? Or maybe they were all the same height as Pastor. That was one of my best lines. It's not even as short as Denny. Sorry Denny, Pastor left. Obviously, they're not unimportant. They're just shorter in length. And Hosea is the first of 12 minor prophets. in your book. And the other thing that's neat about minor prophets is that if you ever want to win a Bible drill, always pick the minor prophets. I mean, it is hard to find Nahum. Talia, have you ever had any trouble finding Nahum in the Bible? How about D? Have you ever had trouble finding the book of Hezekiah? Wasn't he one of the 12 minor prophets? No, he wasn't. That's just made up. The first book of Hezekiah. It's just made up. But it's good. It's fun. It's fun to do that every once in a while. It's just to ask everybody to turn to the book of Hezekiah and watch everybody turning their pages. But so anyway. But he put up, Aaron put up, gave me a title of the book of Hosea about a story of redeeming love. And it really is. And we think about it. The book of Hosea was to illustrate to God's people the importance of faithfulness in a marriage, the importance of unconditional love. And then, of course, God tied that and used that as an example of God's relationship with his people, Israel. And at this point, Israel, we're talking about the predominantly 10 tribes of Israel in the north and whose capital was in? We're going to have a little give and take here today. Who remembers the capital of the Northern Kingdom? Okay. Don't make me ask a teenager, because the teenagers will know this. Samaria, right? Remember? They'd gone forth. And then also you'll notice that in the book, as you're reading Osea, you'll see Ephraim. Why is Israel called Ephraim at times? And again, where does Ephraim come from? Hmm? Two of Joseph's children. Ephraim and the other one was Manasseh, right? Or Manasseh. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right or not. Okay. And Manasseh was the elder. And Ephraim was the younger. And remember, they went to have the final blessing of Isaac. And the blessing went to the youngest. So between Cain and Talia, which one of you is the youngest? Talia, you're going to get the blessing. And that simply meant what? That God chose the younger one to be blessed more than the elder one. Because typically, and this is still true today in Asia, it's very important the elder child, in God's word the elder child would get a double blessing. But also because the elder child, especially if it was a son, carried on the family's name, carried on the family's lineage. We have two adopted Korean children. Neither child would have made it in Korean culture, Korean society, because our daughter is half Korean, half American. And she actually looks American because she looks black, but she's actually Korean because she lived for 12 years as with her mother in Korea. Our son is full Korean, but he's actually American because he was four months old when we adopted him. So he doesn't know any difference. But our son did not have a father and a mother. Our daughter only had a mother. You have to have both. The other thing about talking about using the marriage and the unfaithfulness of Gomer with Hosea, imagine a prophet being asked to marry a prostitute. Imagine that. How could God do that? God did it, though, to prove a point. to show his, how to say this, his dissatisfaction with the way his people were treating him. Every time you and I put something ahead of God in our personal relationship with him, we're putting up an idol in place of him. That's why it's so important to come together on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and on Wednesday And whenever else you can get along with the Word of God and in your prayer closet and pray, is that you want to try to keep those idols from becoming between you and God, between you and Jesus. And with that, we have the help and the hope of the Holy Spirit inside of us to help us deal with that, to help us try to deal with that taking us away from Him. But not only, I think there's a third application, The unfaithfulness of Gomer and Hosea. The unfaithfulness of Israel to God. What about our country today? How are we doing today? Are we starting to turn away from God? How does a country come to World War I? What time do we come to World War I, Sean? Was it 1917? And World War II? We came in about, well, 1941, obviously. with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. But the war in World War I started in 1914. The World War II started in some cases about 38, 39. So we came in three, four years late every time. How can a country come into a war that late and be victorious? What was that? Because God was on our side. What country has been the number one supporter of God's chosen people? Israel. United States. Those who bless my people will be blessed. Those who curse my people will be cursed. We're at a tipping point. We're going away. We used to be pro. Israel, it appears now that anti-Semitism, why is it, I guess it's just jealousy, right? That God's chosen people have always been hated, especially by the British Empire. It's just amazing when you see examples of that through history, maybe because Britain at one time occupied Palestine. I know you think it's taken a long way to get here, and it is taken a long way to get here, but I like throwing in the historical background, the biblical background, And I like trying to tie it together, because sometimes it helps me remember it better. Helps me give a sense of why is this important? Why is God's word that was written, this book was written thousands of years ago, why is it still relevant today? Because we believe that this is the ultimate answers to our problems, regardless what we're dealing with. And we're going to be talking about adultery. We're going to be talking about unfaithfulness. We're going to be talking about Hosea having children that may not even be his children, that may have been born out of Gomer's adulteries. So basically, I believe that not only is this within the context of the relationship of Gomer and Hosea, the relationship between Israel and with God, in this country today, with God. One of the things Faith Bible does, or Brother Yates, who's the instructor here, is he tries to give you a sense of how to remember the books. And so he likes to come up with titles for the books of the Bible that we cover, just like typically The pastor normally has at least, what, two titles for every message he does, and one of them normally rhymes. And I really like the way he does that with that alliteration where he starts off every point with the same one. I've tried to do that. It's hard. He's really got a way. So what do you think some alternate titles, if you're describing the book of Hosea, think of a couple of titles that you could call that. The first one would be Scandal in the Parsonage. You know, that sort of makes sense, you know, scandal in the church, you know. The second one was the faithful prophet with an unfaithful wife. Again, trying to show that sense there. So essentially, Hosea is a story of the unfaithfulness of Israel and the faithfulness of God. God is always faithful. Even when God judges his people, Typically, there is a still of a way out. This is a story of God commanding Hosea to marry a prostitute, and a story of Gomer's unfaithfulness. Her unfaithfulness gives us a lifelong object lesson of how Israel acted toward God. Now, what's going on at this time? What's the historical background of Hosea at this point? Who's the king of the northern kingdom? It is Jeroboam II. And at this point, he is more powerful. Israel has never been more powerful. They've never had more territory. And they've never had more economic prosperity. So then here comes Hosea coming, and he's preaching gloom and doom. You will fall. You will. And it must seem like madness to the people. We're safe. We're doing the best we've ever done. But were they? What were they worshipping in the northern kingdom? They were worshipping the two golden calves that had been set up by Jeroboam I in Dan and Bethel. Who were the priests? that were helping them worship the golden calves. They were the lowest of the low people. So basically, they were worshiping idols. And they were worshiping in such a way that it was actually bringing, it was going to bring judgment onto them. And yet, just like the prophet Jonah, who went to Nineveh, remember the history of Nineveh at that time, where they were rich and powerful, and he went in there and he'd repent or be judged, and they did repent for 150 years, until Nahum went in and did the same thing, repent, and they didn't repent, the same thing's gonna happen to the northern kingdom of Israel, because they would not worship God the way God's Word commanded them to do it. When the Northern Kingdom got set up, Jeroboam I was so concerned that if I allow my people to go to Jerusalem to worship Brother Eshan, they'll turn back, they'll turn from me. Yet the only reason Jeroboam was given to be king of the Northern Kingdom was because of the sins of Solomon. and Rehoboam when they had fallen away. So again, we just see this pattern all the way through history. Unfaithfulness, people judged, people repent, God restores. Once again, unfaithfulness. And it plagued. How many kings in the Northern Kingdom were saved? Anybody have an answer for that? Talia, how many do you think were? Do you think there was even one? It wasn't, was there? Because how can you set up a system that was built on idolatry and expect it to flourish? What do the agnostics and heretics say? The one with the most toys at the end wins? No. When we focus on the things of this world, we focus on fortune and and success instead of on God, God will judge us. The theme of the book of Hosea, this may make sense, the prostitution of Israel, how they had gone off after other gods and gone off other of the things of this world. The key word is the unconditional love of God. That is a real blessing. How many times, Dustin, have you needed the unconditional love of God? I mean, it's amazing. Now, Caden's never done this. He's never had to get mercy and unconditional love from his parents. I'm sure that's never happened. And how you feel like when you get that. And it's almost enough to make you not do it again. But we do, don't we? We do it over and over again. And it just seems like we never learn from this. But we need the unconditional love of God. The other thing we need is that we need His long-lasting mercy and grace, right? Because everybody in this room accepted Jesus Christ the first time, right? Nobody ever had to go past the first time, right? We did, didn't we? And yet God's got a second chances, a third chances, a fourth chances, and fifth chances. And I remember the apostle Peter was trying to show how Spiritual was, well, how many times should I forgive my neighbor for sinning against me? Seven times? And what did God say? 70 times 70. And again, he really didn't mean 490 times, did he? He meant as many as it takes. The key chapter is Hosea 3, the redemption of Gomer. We'll get into that. Talks about how he bought her back from her sin. The author is Hosea. Hosea's name means salvation. It's a shorter form of the same root word from which we get the names of Joshua and Jesus, which means Jehovah is salvation. Names do make a difference, don't they? Names really do make a difference. However, it doesn't always help you. Your name doesn't always help you. Who was the last king of the northern kingdom? before it was carried away into Assyria. Anybody remember? It was Hoshia, which means salvation. Didn't help then, did it? Because Hoshia was not a man after God's own heart. He was a man after his own heart, his sinful desires. And judgment had come, and judgment was certain. It may be that judgment is certain for our country today. It may be that we've gone down the path. It may be too late. But maybe, just like in the days of Judah and the last good king of Judah, who was Josiah, and how he turned back to God, and God held back the judgment as long as Josiah was alive. because he placed his hope and faith on God. Maybe the same thing can happen to our country. People, we are literally playing for time, aren't we? We're playing and praying for time, because we know there are individual family members, neighbors, co-workers that need to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as long as we still draw breath, and as long as the rapture has not occurred, we have an opportunity to see one more soul saved. And I've said this a lot of times. If you believe in the Bible, if you believe in God's word, and you believe there's a literal heaven and a literal hell, are you not thankful that God did not come in the clouds at the rapture until after you got saved? Because if you truly are appreciative of that, then what do you owe to the next man up, to the next woman up, to the next teenager up? What do you owe? Think of it this way. Hosea, we always talk about Jeremiah as the weeping prophet. Jeremiah was a weeping prophet who oversaw the Judah being taken into captivity by Babylon. Think of Hosea as a weeping prophet of the northern kingdom that Assyria took away into captivity. Hosea lived out his message as no other prophet. Think of that. He understood the anguish of God's heart over his people's sin as perhaps no other prophet because he was married to an unfaithful wife who left him and perhaps poor children that weren't even his children. Yet he still took her back because of his love for her, his unconditional love for Gomer, God's unconditional love for his people. The dates that Hosea ministered was almost 70 years, 770 to 700 BC. Hosea served longer than any other prophet, with perhaps the exception of Daniel and perhaps Isaiah were the only other two that served as long. Hosea served during the same time as the prophets Jonah, Amos, Isaiah, and Micah. Hosea prophesied to the last seven northern kings, starting through Jeroboam II through Hosea. And he served during the reign of four southern kings, Uzziah through Hezekiah. Hosea predicted and lived to see the Assyrian invasion, which carried Israel into captivity. He got to see it. The book was written to the northern kingdom, often called Ephraim, as we've already talked, because Ephraim was the first tribe to backslide. They were one of the largest tribes of Israel, but they were also the first one to backslide. Background, Hosea begins his ministry with Jeroboam II, which was at the zenith of Israel's power, both in territory and economic growth. So his crying doom and gloom seemed absurd, but his prophecy came to pass. One of the problems they were having at this time was there were false prophets. Now, what should have happened to false prophets? What was God's word said? And if you got even one prophecy wrong, then what happens? Right? Death. But at this time, there were so many false prophets. I think back to Jehoshaphat, good old King Jehoshaphat. How did he get suckered so easily by King Ahab? I was always amazed at how he got suckered by him. And all the false prophets were saying, go up, you'll be victorious. And finally Jehovah said, is there not a man of God? And there was. It was Micaiah. And Micaiah told him that you're not going to be blessed. Because King Ahab, you're following the idols. You're following your own pleasure. You're married to Jezebel. You will be judged and you will be killed. And that prophecy came. Does it not seem, at times, that it's hard to find one good man, one good woman, one good family, trying to serve God today? One of the things that I strive to do personally, because I don't know that I'm strong enough, maybe, I don't watch the TV preachers. I don't go on the internet. You know, there's a lot of stuff out there, a lot of different teaching, a lot of wrong teaching, a lot of false prophets on the TV and on the Internet. Again, that's another reason to come into God's house, with God's people, with God's Word, because you know you're getting the truth of God. It's so much important. It would be so easy if we did see a false prophet here. We'd just have the Arkansas State Trooper arrest them, throw them out of the church as a false prophet. But that's why it's not just the pastor's responsibility to bring the message of God. It's also the people, your responsibility, to make sure that the pastor is preaching the true word of God. Remember what Paul said about the Bereans, how he praised them because he said, you hear what I preach, you go check it up on the word of God to make sure, oh, yep, that's good, whoop, you got that right, that's good, that's good. It is important for God's people to judge the preacher, the teacher, whoever is standing up before you to make sure that you're getting the truth of God. The purpose of the book of Isaiah is to picture Israel's unfaithfulness to God and God's faithfulness to Israel. God is always faithful. The importance and distinctives. For a book of Hosea's size, my Bible's got 14 chapters. Yours probably only has 12, but my little joke there. 14 chapters, it takes up about five, six pages. How many times do you think it is quoted in the New Testament? This little book. 30-some times. More than any other book of its size. Now, does that sort of convince us that maybe this has some importance to us today? Maybe we can still learn from the book of Hosea. It's also perhaps the strangest book in the Bible, the fact that God commanded a prophet to take a wife of whoredom. Why did God command Hosea to marry a prostitute? Three reasons. We have the experiential reason. Hosea could understand the anguish of God's heart over Israel's spiritual adultery. We have the illustrative reason. Hosea's marriage became a mirror became a mirror to his message. And then we have the prophetic reason. Hosea's children's names describe the future judgment and restoration of Israel. Remember I told you names are important. Names mean something. And so here I thought I would try an illustration of this. Sometimes we go into churches and we're sharing a light and 1040 window. And people sometimes have trouble remembering our names. So I've come up with this little example that I use at churches so that they'll never forget our names, Miss Jessica. OK, so here goes. See what you think. Our son's name is Matthew, or Matt. Well, in the Korean culture, you say the last name first. That makes our son a placemat. You like that? And of course, Rochelle. What's Rochelle known? She's known as Miss Placed, right? What is Dee? Dee is Dee Place. You know, remember Dee Plain? Well, this is Dee Place. And then I'm the best one of all because I'm P Place. So you'll never forget her name. You got that right, Jessica? Yeah, good. Excellent. But names do mean something. Names do make a difference. The first three chapters concerns the marriage of Hosea and mirror the next 11 chapters which concern the message of Hosea. And then the sin of Gomer mirrors the sin of Israel. The judgment of Gomer mirrors the judgment of Israel. And then Hosea's redemption of Gomer mirrors God's redemption of Israel. We'll quickly go through the outline and then we'll call it until next week. We won't actually get into what God's word until next week. You didn't miss anything, Brother Connor? You're okay? Doing good? Remember, if you've got to miss Sunday school, it's okay. Don't miss church. So, here's the outline. In chapters one through three, we see the prostitution of Gomer, who was the covenant bride of Hosea. We see the marriage and children of Gomer in chapter one. We see the judgment and adultery of Gomer in Israel in chapter two. We see the redemption of Gomer in Israel in chapter three. In chapters 4-14 we see the prostitution of Israel, the covenant bride of Jehovah. So you see that covenant bride of Hosea, the covenant bride of Jehovah. We see the rebuke of Israel in Hosea 4-5. We see the call of Israel in chapter 6. We see the sin of Israel in Hosea 7-8, we see the chastening of Israel in Hosea 9-10, and then we see the salvation of Hosea 11-14. Let's just read the first verse and we'll close with this. In chapter 1, verse 1, we see the word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, remember which means salvation, the son of Beeri in the days when Uzziah shot him Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. It's interesting, he's ministering to Israel, but he mentions the four faithful kings of Judah. And the Dades of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. We'll start right there next week. And Brother Connor, would you please close in prayer?