Well, we've finished Romans. We've spent over 30 weeks in that book, Hearing of God's Righteousness, revealed in the Gospel, and that righteousness credited to us by grace through faith. We had our church family camp, speaking of families, last weekend, and James spoke to us there about a God who is love. Not just God who loves, but a God who is love, and what that means for us, who have been made in His image and likeness and have been called to love Him and love one another in His love. And now this morning we begin a new series through this book of the prophet Hosea. I don't know if you've read Hosea much beforehand. In this book we're going to read of how God in all His holiness and His righteousness, this God who is love, how He responds to those He loves dearly when they do not love Him in return. How does God, who is forever faithful, respond to His people, His bride, His wife, as we read in Hosea? How does He respond to them, to her who has betrayed Him, who has been unfaithful to Him? The short answer is He responds as He always does, according to His character. He never speaks or acts contrary to His nature and His character. He is the God who is love. And so, as we heard last weekend, everything God does is of love. It's His love in action, both His mercy and His judgments. God is holy and He's righteous, and so everything He says and everything He does comes from His holiness and His righteousness. He is pure and just. and all of it together in his divine purpose. Despite our unfaithfulness, our slowness to learn and our rejection of him as we pursue our own agendas and pleasures, God is forever faithful. Slow to anger and in constant, steadfast, strong, jealous love. But as we hear in Hosea, his people have rejected that love. His holiness has been defiled. His covenant people have gone and sought after other lovers. His wrath, his righteous wrath has been provoked by his own dearly beloved bride, Israel, his people, his son. And through this book of Hosea, the Lord shows us how it is in his holiness and his righteousness and his love, how it is he responds to Israel's unfaithfulness and so to us. If you've read the Narnia Chronicles, you'll know how C.S. Lewis writes of the great Aslan, he is not a tame lion. God's love is not tame. God's love is ferocious. And so his wrath and his judgment, which come out of his love, are equally ferocious. Before we get into the text of Hosea this morning, there are three things I just want us to know by way of context. There's probably more than three we should know, but for now, three will do. We've got eight weeks in this book, so more of this context will come out as we go. But as we begin, let's just lay a bit of a background for us. First of all, from the Kings mentioned in verse one, as the very first verse here introducing who Hosea is and when he was ministering, when he was prophesying, we know that this all took place during the middle of the 8th century BC. Hosea's ministry began around 750 BC. And he prophesied for 35 years or so. And in the lead up to that time, things were going so well for Israel. They were enjoying a time of peace and prosperity second only to the days of Solomon. Things were going really well for them. But sadly, as so often was the case then and still is the case now, when there's peace and prosperity, with that comes complacency. and also a downward trend in moral values, in integrity and faithfulness. As one writer puts it, the increased prosperity of the land led not to increased faithfulness to Yahweh. It's not as if they saw all his goodness and fruitfulness that he'd given them and said, thank you, Lord. Instead, it led to godlessness and an abuse of their power and privilege. May the Lord keep us in our own land, our own churches, free from any further prosperity that might lead us to that same demise, if it's not already too late. And that leads us to the second point of background, that in their peace and prosperity, whilst Israel did still worship the Lord, they didn't just worship the Lord. They also worshiped other gods, what we call syncretism. started to grab some of the gods and idols of the foreign lands around them, the other nations. And that was a direct breach of the covenant the Lord had made with them. You shall have no other gods before me. And thirdly, during this time of great peace and prosperity in Israel, while they were all very, thought they were very safe and secure and everything was going well, there was another nation, another kingdom, not that far off, growing in strength and number. the great Assyria and that nation becomes a key player in the very near future for Israel. They were the means through which the Lord would judge his people for their unfaithfulness. Now there's more we could add to that background and context but that will do for now and we'll have opportunity to flesh it out a little more in the weeks to come. But with that background in mind, let's take a look at Hosea 1. This first chapter provides us something of a snapshot really, a broad sweep in one sense of the whole book. But in particular, these first three chapters and this first one gives us something of a family portrait for Hosea. And the backdrop, the context we've just heard is the backdrop to this family portrait. You've seen family portraits, you might have had one done. especially back in the 80s, there was a nice background and then the family sits down. That's what chapter one is like. We get a picture of Hosea, his wife Goma, and their three children. Jezreel, their firstborn, then his sister Lo-Ruhamah, followed by the younger son Lo-Ami. But the photographer, the one behind the camera, The one setting the scene for the shot and placing each subject in their appropriate place, getting the right balance and composition and perspective is God. And this family portrait that we're given is not just going up on the wall in the family home of Hosea and Goma. This portrait is going to be shown to all of Israel. It's going to be plastered on billboards in all the major cities, north and south. It's going to be shown on all the news. It will go viral on YouTube and Facebook and Instagram and everything else. Well, it would have if it was today. But this family portrait of Hosea and his wife, Goma, and their three children is not just a family portrait. This is a picture of all of Israel. And it's for all of Israel to see and to hear of. This is a snapshot of God's family, God's people back in the 8th century BC. And it's not such a pretty sight. Verse two is crucial for us by way of interpreting this chapter and this whole, especially these first three chapters of Hosea. Everything we read, everything the Lord tells Hosea to do, everything that happens as a result is not just happening to Hosea or speaking to Hosea. It is the Lord speaking to his people through Hosea. Verse two reads, when the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, So God speaks directly to his prophet, Hosea, but he's speaking through him to his people, to all of Israel. Now, a lot of Old Testament prophecy, as you would know, is spoken word, oracles of God that the prophets declare either to the king or some representative or to the whole nation. And they're delivered as spoken words. But there are times, and this is one of them, Ezekiel has other examples, where the nature of prophecy is not only a spoken word, but it's actually what the prophet does. their life, what you see in their life tells a symbolic, a very visual and physical message to the people. Isaiah we read walked about naked and barefoot for three years as a sign of the coming exile. Ezekiel is a classic and at times he's got some bizarre examples in his prophetic, in his books. So much so that some scholars assign him posthumously with a clinical diagnosis of being either schizophrenic or catatonic or absolutely psychotic. Because he's called by God to do some very weird and wacky things, like lie on his side motionless for over a year, eating a cake baked on animal manure, or playing something akin to Lego by building a model of Jerusalem with a brick and building a replica siege wall against it. and battering rams and all the rest. So if you come up here one day during the week and you see me playing with the crèche toys or lying down doing absolutely nothing, be warned, it might be more than meets the eye. But here for Hosea and for the people of Israel during the time of his prophetic ministry, as we're about to see, this family portrait is not just a picture, it's the very reality of Hosea's life. And in particular, his marriage and his family are just one way the Lord chooses to speak to his people through Hosea. There's nothing private about his home life. And what he commands Hosea to do and all the ensuing results are not private matters. They're matters for all of Israel and Judah, the southern kingdom as well, but predominantly Israel is where Hosea is focused. They're all going to see this and they're all going to hear about it. Because through him, through his spoken word and through his life and his family, the Lord is speaking to his people. Now there's a sense, isn't there, where every marriage and family is a display, never a perfect one, but to some degree is a display of God's covenant love and his bond with his people. That profound mystery of Christ and his bride is displayed in marriage. But Hosea's situation here is particular. It's God's chosen and specific means through which he is speaking to his people. And so when we read the rest of verse 2 where the Lord asks Hosea, go, take a wife of Hordan, or go take a prostitute as a wife, a promiscuous, unfaithful, adulterous wife. Possibly one already known to have lived that way of life. Possibly one whom the Lord knows and now Hosea also knows is going to end up betraying him and defiling her marriage bed and breaking her marriage vows. When Hosea hears that, all of Israel hear it and they see it play out in his life. And their response would be and should be just as extreme as ours should be. What the Lord is asking Hosea to do here is preposterous. I wonder how Ali felt reading that chapter actually. I could sort of sense it in her voice. How could the Lord even consider asking Hosea to do this? How many of us here who are married? went into our marriages looking for, expecting, pursuing even a husband or a wife who we knew would betray us and would be unfaithful to us. Husbands, how many of us here, when we fell in love with our wives, looked them in the eye and said, I know you're the one for me. You're perfect because I know you're going to be unfaithful to me. It's not what we go looking for, is it? I know you're going to chase after other lovers, that's why I want to marry you. It's so ludicrous, so much so some of the old commentators want to shy away from it and they want to water it down and dilute it and change what God actually means here, saying this was never really going to happen, it's not really what God asked Hosea to do, it's just a metaphor, it's just a parable, it wasn't really a real-life situation. Maybe Hosea was just a preacher spinning a story about his wife and his family, not a true one, just a way of illustration for Israel. God helped every preacher and their wife and family if that's the case. Why do the commentators want to do that though? Why do they not want God to command Hosea to do this? Because it's so appalling. It's atrocious. It's unthinkable. And wait until we get to chapter three. After all of Goma's adultery, her sleeping around, God asks Hosea to take her back to restore himself to a woman who's defiled herself and her marriage bed. And that would defile Hosea. Old Testament law required Goma to be put to death for her adultery. To ask Hosea to take her back was an abomination according to God's own law. Those hearing all of this in Hosea's day would have been incensed at the very thought of it. Go take to yourself a wife of Horeb, Hosea's commanded, and have a family, have children of Horeb. But why is it the Lord tells Hosea to do this? The rest of verse two tells us. Four, because the land, God's own people, are committing great whoredom. They're the ones who have been unfaithful. They're the ones who are betraying their true husband, the Lord. They are forsaking him and going after other gods, other lovers. Goma, this wife of whoredom who Hosea has been asked to marry, with all her promiscuity and adultery, she's a picture of Israel, of God's own people. It's not the world out there that God is portraying through Goma, the adulterous, unfaithful wife. It's his own people. It's Israel. It's the church today, all dolled up and adorned, as she so often is, to attract the world and fraternize with the gods of this age. It's the church who needs to prick their ears up, God's people, to listen to what the Lord is saying to us here. But if Goma is God's people, who is Hosea representing in this picture? It's God who has done the most preposterous and appalling, unthinkable thing, to take for himself a wife, a nation, a people like you and me, who he knows has been and will be unfaithful to him. But he goes ahead nonetheless and loves us and betroths us to himself in covenant love and faithfulness. And out of this defiled but divinely appointed relationship between Hosea and Gomer, a family is born. Jezreel, Lo-Rahama and Lo-Ammi. If it's not appalling enough to marry this adulterous woman, what do you think of the names that God gives to these children? What's in a name, asks Shakespeare, or Shakespeare's Juliet asks regarding Romeo and the family he's from, which is her family's rivals, the Montagues. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. We all know it, don't we? But just as a picture paints a thousand words, a name can convey much. Do you know what your own name means? When you've thought about naming your own children. Most of us take great pains trying to work out the names for our children and sometimes we choose names with sentimental significance, reminding us of family members and loved ones of the past, hoping to perpetuate something of their name and their legacy. Sometimes we might do that more with a middle name and their first name these days is something more unique, something special to us personally. Some of us like to choose biblical names for their children, perhaps with a hope that our child might grow up to display something of the character of that person, or at least give them a story and a person, a man and a woman of God to read and to look to, look up to as they grow up and to see God's faithfulness in their lives. David, Nathaniel, Andrew, Peter, Elizabeth, Mary, Ruth, Naomi. and others choose more biblical concepts. Concepts rather than actual names. Aspects of life and Christian faith like grace or faith or mercy. I know a few families with children of those names. We've got two young ones among us here called Hope. But would any of us ever choose to name our child not Faith but Faithless? Not mercy, but no mercy. Not hope, but hopeless. It's almost as unconceivable as marrying someone we know is going to be unfaithful to us, isn't it? But that's what Hosea is given to do. That's Hosea's next instruction from God after he marries his wife of Horeb. And remember, everything God says to Hosea, he is saying through Hosea to his own people. And Hosea's firstborn son is to be named Jezreel, which has a lovely meaning. It means God sows or may God sow, possibly associating it with the Lord providing fruitfulness in the land. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? especially in the context of a land where there's foreign fertility gods being worshipped, like Baal, to acknowledge in the name of your firstborn that it's God who gives life and fertility. Except that Jezreel, whilst it does mean God sows, it was also the name of a town and a valley in Israel, located in the north between Galilee and Samaria. And that valley was the place of much bloodshed. It's where Israelite forces prepared to battle with the Philistines. It was where Jehu, in obedience to Elisha, killed Joram and Jezebel and all the rest of Ahab's household and allies. It was where judges like Deborah and Gideon did battle with Israel's enemies. Jezreel was a place of bloodshed, of battle. And in the mind of an Israelite in Hosea's day, to name your child Jezreel may have been something akin to one of us calling our children Auschwitz or Chernobyl. And the rest of verse four tells us, if God sows, is the intended meaning. It's not a positive one. God sows wrath or judgment in wrath. Call them Jezreel for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel and on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. The Hebrew is a little ambiguous where it says the Lord will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Israel particularly since that whole event was under the Lord's instruction. But whatever the case, because of Israel's present idolatry and unfaithfulness and all of Jehu's dynasty, what's going on there, they are going to come under the same judgment as Jezreel. That is, Jehu's blood will be shed. Just as Ahab's entire family line and dynasty was wiped out in that act against Jezebel and Ahab, the Lord will do the same to the tribe of Jehu. When it says, I will break the bow on that day, break the bow of Israel, that's treaty curse language. It means total defeat. The Jezreel Valley was the place where Israel, the northern kingdom, lost its independence at the hands of the Assyrians. Jezreel was not a name to be proud of. What God was about to sow was his wrath and his judgment. Perhaps Jezreel's younger sister would have a bit more luck with her name. But no, that wasn't the case. Hosea and Goma's second child was a girl, and she was to be named Lo-Rehama, which means no mercy, or I think we heard no love. Her birth and her naming spells the end of the northern kingdom of Israel. any future hope for the people of God now lies with Judah in the south alone. Call her name No Mercy, Lo Rahama, for I will have no mercy, no more have mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them at all, but I will have mercy on the house of Judah and I will save them by the Lord their God, not with bow or sword or by war or horses or by horsemen, but by the Lord their God himself. As if to confirm the meaning of Jezreel's name, the abolishing of an entire nation and dynasty, lo Rahama, no mercy, seals Israel's fate. The 10 tribes of the Northern Kingdom, they've done their dash. They will no longer receive mercy from the Lord. He will not forgive them at all, is what verse 6 tells us. And the moment little sister was eating solids, verse 8, when Goma had weaned her, she conceived again and bore a son. And he was to be called Lo-Ami, not my people. Now for God's covenant people, Israel, this was the ultimate word of judgment. If it wasn't already clear and certain, it would be by now. That name, Lo-Ami, is a complete undoing of God's covenant promise with his people. Instead of that great prophetic anthem, which rings throughout the Old Testament, I will be their God and they will be my people. Here the Lord's declaring, you are not my people and I am not your God. Now just standing here and saying these things, I can feel the weight in the room. How could God say that? How could God do this? The Lord who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, how could he reject his own people and annul the covenant that he's made with them? God just doesn't do that, does he? Those words, even the name of Hosea's third child, not my people, should bring tears to the eyes and break the heart of any covenant child of God. Imagine a marriage where a husband says to the wife or a family where the father says to his son, I don't want anything more to do with you. I'm gonna show you no mercy any longer. I've had enough. I don't even consider you to be my wife, my son, my family anymore. Because for some time you've treated me as though I was not your husband or your father. I've had enough. Get out. Now sadly that kind of thing happens. Marriages, families, friends. Maybe some of us here have suffered under words like that and all the pain that goes with that. And we will know the pain of what Israel is hearing here if that's the case. Maybe some of us here have uttered words like that in the past. That is what Hosea and Goma experienced. through their own children. They had those words enshrined before them, continually confronting them in the names and lives of their children. Jezreel, Lo-Rahama and Lo-Ami. Judgment, no mercy, not my people. But it wasn't just for Hosea and Goma, was it? Those are the very words God speaks to his own covenant people. Everything the Lord said to Hosea, he spoke through Hosea to Israel. These are not just the names of Hosea and Goma's children. These were the words of judgment from God towards his own chosen beloved nation, Israel. And they had those words before them continually in the lives and the names of Hosea's children and through Hosea's prophetic ministry. Those names, Hosea's life, his marriage, his family, carried with them all the constant warning and threat of covenant annulment, rejection and divorce hanging over their heads from Yahweh. You are not my people and I am not your God. I will no longer have mercy upon you. I will no longer forgive you at all. The end of the kingdom. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. And he keeps steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. But he will by no means clear the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate him, of those who reject him and refuse to repent. Now that's some family portrait, isn't it? Hosea, the prophet, the man of God. Goma, his unfaithful, adulterous wife of Hordan and their three children. destined to pronounce judgment upon the people of God wherever they go. And as we said earlier, it's clearly stated in the Old Testament law that if a man is found lying with a wife of another, someone caught in adultery, they should both die. So the evil should be purged from their midst. That's Goma. That's Israel. And if a woman's been sent out or has been with another man, her husband is not to take her back again. That would be an abomination before the Lord. That's the consequences of adultery according to God's own law in the day. Death, no chance of reconciliation, no chance of restoration. The holiness and purity of God's people is paramount. And that's what the Lord's people deserve. And it would seem Hosea and his family seal Israel's fate. And Israel does lose. It's important for us to remember that. The Lord fulfills. He carries out his threat of verse 4 and 5. I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. On that day, I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. They do receive the Lord's judgment for all their sin and idolatry and unfaithfulness. Assyria comes and defeats them. And they're banished, exiled from the land. And the northern kingdom of Israel is never restored to what it once was. That kingdom effectively dies. Yet. Verse 10. Yet. Have you ever heard a sweeter sound? I don't think there's a sweeter word in all scripture than that word, especially when it's the Lord telling us as it is and how we are and what we deserve. But then almost in the same breath, we hear that glorious word of grace. Yet. But. This is what you deserve. Yet, in the Lord's mercy, he doesn't give us what we deserve. This is how it is. All your sin and unfaithfulness exposed. But, in his grace and redeeming love, he gives us what we don't deserve. His favour. Not only a second chance, but his unfailing love. And this, again, is not only the story of Hosea and Goma, not only even the story of Israel, this is our story. This is our family portrait. Remember, says Paul, we were once separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. We were not the people of God. We were strangers to the covenants of promise. We were without hope and without God and without mercy. even after being saved do we like Israel continue in adulterous idolatry seeking after and fraternizing with gods of comfort and wealth and health and ease rather than seeking his kingdom and his righteousness do we as God's people today like Israel lack faithfulness love and knowledge which we'll hear of in chapter 4 Israel was rescued and redeemed from slavery in Egypt and are blessed in the promised land flying with milk and honey. We've been rescued, delivered from sin, and have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Israel was led to a place where God would make his name dwell. And we have had his spirit poured into our hearts that he might dwell in us. But still we're so often blind to his love and his gracious provision. Still the church continues in unfaithfulness, looking to the world for things that only God can give. Seeking fulfillment and satisfaction in places other than Christ, not trusting him. not content with God and with the daily bread that he provides, the husband or wife he provides or not, the church, the life, the parents, the children, the suffering or success he gives or not. Yet, yet the Lord himself comes to us in all of our sin and our filth and unfaithfulness. and in mercy and hope and unfailing redeeming love, he betroths us to himself. As we'll hear next week, he woos us, allures us and speaks tenderly to us so that we would again call upon him and call him my husband, my Lord. We too, once separated from Christ, alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel, we were not the people of God, strangers to the covenants of promise. We were without hope and without God and without mercy. But now, yet, in Christ Jesus, we who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. And as much as all of what the Lord has asked Hosea to do and what we read in this chapter, as much as all of that might repulse us and seem completely appalling together with the names of his children, turn the tables on all of that and hear the yet of gospel grace and mercy and recognize just how much therefore the Lord loves us and has showered us with grace and mercy. no mercy, no forgiveness, not my people. That is our just deserts. That is what we deserve, all of us. And yet the Lord in his holiness and justice, he demands that judgment for our sin. Yet, verse 10, The number of the children of Israel should be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. It should be ringing bells in our ears. That's covenant language. That's covenant renewal. That's what God promised Abraham centuries ago. And he's just told us he's going to completely annul our covenant, but now he's establishing it with us again. And in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, it shall be said to them, children of the living God. still more the children of Judah and the children of Israel both south and the north those who were cut off divorced from God they shall all be gathered together and they shall appoint for themselves one head and they shall go up from the land for great shall be the day of Jezreel now none of that none of it took place in Hosea's day None of that was even close to being fulfilled. Not before Israel was defeated and exiled and 130 years later the same thing happened to Judah in the south. But listen to that last verse again. And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered up and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And now hear this from Ephesians as well. In him, in Christ, We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which is lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight. And He's making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, in Christ, things in heaven and on earth. God is going to unite all things in Christ whom the Father has put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things for the church. Christ is the one head that they shall appoint because he is the one head whom the Lord appoints. What we're going to find week after week here in Hosea is that wherever there is a word of judgment, it's always the case with the Lord. Whenever there's a word of judgment, there is also a great word of promise of hope and mercy and all the more when it speaks of Christ. Take a look at the rest of verse 11. And they shall go up from the land for great shall be the day of Jezreel. great shall be the day of God's sowing. Way back in Genesis 3 there was a promise wasn't there the offspring of the woman the seed of the woman and a bit further on the seed of Abraham but unless a grain of wheat unless the seed falls into the earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it bears much fruit Jesus Christ is the seed that God has sown. Jezreel, God sows. And in Christ, his own son, God has sown his judgment at Calvary whilst at the same time he has sown life and mercy for all the nations. So that he, so that God himself might reap a great harvest. so that we might be called the children of God, so that we would be the fruit of that seed of Christ when it falls to the earth and dies. They shall go up from the land like a seed which sprouts forth from the earth and grows up. It's not too long ago to say there's possible allusion to a resurrection here, a raising up. We sang a song of resurrection this morning. This is not just a family portrait gone bad, which needs a bit of touching up with Photoshop and an airbrush. Judgment needed to take place. Death needs to occur. If there was ever to be hope and mercy and life for the people of God. And all of that has happened. It's happened in Christ and it's happened in us as we're united in him. Now, Wayne and John are going to take the rest of chapters two and three in weeks to come. But this morning, the Lord's mercy, which we don't deserve, has come to us through his judgment, which we do deserve, but which his son bore for us. And as His children, even now, the peaceful fruit of righteousness in our lives is only yielded through the discipline of the Holy Father in heaven, where we know with Him there is forgiveness, with Him there is unfailing love. Christ, our true husband and our one head, has given up his life that we, in all our filth and unfaithfulness and shame of idolatry and adultery, so that he would actually present us to himself, clean, pure, washed without blemish, spot or wrinkle. and in our own relationships, our marriages, our families and friends, where there has been heartache and pain, where there's been ungrateful or spite-filled words exchanged, where there's been unfaithfulness and covenant bonds have been broken, defiled, destroyed. One thing that this story of Hosea tells us, and we'll see more clearly in the weeks to come, is that with God, When the Lord is involved, there is no marriage, no relationship, no matter how bad things have gotten. There is no rift beyond redemption. Such is the power of the Lord's redeeming love. And so friends, look around you. Say to your brothers, you are my people. And to your sisters, you have received mercy. because beloved in Christ Jesus we are his people one family under one head one Lord Jesus Christ and in him we have received mercy. Let's pray. Father God these words and truth in one sense are heavy when we see you and your holiness and love and our own sin and unfaithfulness in light of your holiness and love for us. And Father, as you present and reveal your Son to us, that one head who has come and washed us pure and clean from all of our sin and filth and even our ongoing selfishness and unfaithfulness, Father what wonder that we could be called your children that Christ would woo us and desire us to be his bride and so father we are grateful we are humbled and father we pray that you would show us more and more of your love that we would know more and more of your grace and mercy, even in our own unfaithfulness, such that, Father, we would turn to you and put aside our other gods and idols, our worldly comforts, and seek your kingdom and your righteousness alone. Father, we thank you that you have joined us together in Christ. that in him we are your people and we have received mercy. It's in his name we pray. Amen.