The Power of Love: Transforming Beasts Into Beauties

Well, good morning Summit. Good to see you all here at this particular campus.

I want to say good morning to those who are checking us out across different campuses. What a great, great church this is and what a joy it is to be here. I've long been a big fan of the Summit Church and have long admired what God is doing here in this section of the vineyard and have actually taken plenty of notes and have tried to cut and paste some things you all are doing here in the various places of ministry.

I've been in and around the country. I want to also just give a word of honor to your pastor, Pastor J.D. Greer's lovely wife Veronica. God has really gifted them to the body of Christ at large and especially to you all. And my heart has just been encouraged by their faithful witness especially this summer. As I'm sure many of you are familiar, what a breathtaking act of humility that Pastor J.D.

Greer showed at the Southern Baptist Church. And unfortunately, we live in a day and age where humble is not only always synonymous with lead pastor, but God has blessed you all with a humble lead pastor. And if you are grateful to God for your pastor, would you just join me in giving God a handclap of praise. Amen. If you have your Bibles, I want you to meet me in Hosea chapter 3.

So if you're old school like me, you can turn pages. If you're new school, take out your devices and don't click on your Pokemon Go apps, but click on your Bible apps and meet me in Hosea chapter 3. As you're navigating your way there, what a joy it is to be here with other great leaders of this church, Chuck and Chris and Ricky Harris. And did a little, started to call it Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, my fault. Dame's Chicken and Waffles last night, that was good.

And met KJ. What a great team that you all have here. Well, last year I preached about 20 different sermons here at the church. And so this year they said, well, what one sermon, pastor, has Brian put, has God put on your heart? And they said, we're doing a series here going through the whole Bible, which I love. Tom Nelson says that the goal of the believers should be to be able to palm their Bibles.

That's a basketball metaphor. We should be able to get a grip on the Word of God and to be able to examine it, use it and apply it appropriately. And I love this series you all are doing. So I've been asked to share with you all out of a section of the Old Testament known as the Prophets. Specifically, we're going to be in a section of the Prophets today known as the Minor Prophets.

They're called the Minor Prophets, not because they're insignificant, but because these prophetic books are typically smaller than what we would call the major prophets or the longer prophetic books. And specifically, I want to hone in on Hosea chapter 3. Pick me up in verse 1.

Hosea is talking. He says, And the Lord said to me, underline this phrase, Go again, love, a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins. So I bought her four, underline this phrase, fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lithic of barley. And I said to her, verse three, You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore or belong to another man. So will I also be to you, for the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king.

They shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days. Will you pray with me? Father, I do again praise you for the opportunity to be here. Lord, my role over the next few moments we have together is to not to try to change anybody. I can't even change myself. But my role is to, in the words of Matthew chapter 13, just scatter the seed of your word. My hope, Lord God, is that in scattering the seed of your word, that this word falls on good ground, that it takes root and it produces a harvest. Again, I can't change anybody.

I can't change myself. But I do stand on that promise of scripture that says that your word will not return void, that it will accomplish what you said it would. That your word in tandem with the Holy Spirit is a powerful combination, Lord God, that can reroute and redirect lives. And so it's to that end, Lord God, that I pray that you would stand in my body, think with my mind, speak with my tongue, those things you would have us know, say and do. Give me great clarity and power under the direction of your Holy Spirit. And Lord, would you be so kind as to save someone's soul today, either at this location or across all of our locations? May someone pass from death to life. And for those who do know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, may they be convicted where appropriate, challenged where appropriate, encouraged where appropriate, but ultimately changed. As my grandmama used to say, God, would you put shoe leather on this message today and show us how to walk therein? It is to that degree that I pray in Jesus name, amen and amen. Wow, they've got a clock on me.

33 minutes and 46, 45, 44 seconds. Clock on a chocolate preacher. OK, so I grew up I grew up in Atlanta and one of my great hobbies that I enjoyed in the 80s was collecting baseball cards. Parenthetically, me and my mom had words because when I went off to college, she called herself cleaning out the garage and getting rid of these useless cardboard things with statistics and pictures on them. Thousands of them she got rid of.

So I had to be reminded of one of the Ten Commandments to honor your father and mother. But anyways, I collected baseball cards and I can remember I can see them now. The little fleer baseball card packs and you'd rip them open and there would be the pink stick of gum and you pop it in your mouth and then you start thumbing through the baseball cards on occasion. You would find someone find a card that was either valuable or you knew was going to be valuable. And when that would happen, what you would do is you would take this card, this card that was what's called in mint condition.

It's perfect. No frayed edges, no blemishes. You would take this card in mint condition and you would drop it in a plastic sleeve to preserve and protect this card. And you would do that because you understood that that you wanted to keep it in mint condition. That if it got frayed or had blemishes or damage on it, its value would decrease.

You wanted to keep it as you found it in mint condition. Now this is wonderful in the realm of baseball cards, but this is not how things work in the economy of God. When you got saved, you did not come to God in mint condition. You didn't come to God with all of your theological eyes dotted and all your theological T's crossed. You came to God, in the words of my cousin, as a hot mess. You had blemishes and marks on you.

In fact, if I could use another metaphor, we came to God as hoopties, jalopies. I got a friend of mine, he specializes in restoring cars. He loves to find cars that people see little to no value in. He loves to find these cars that people would pass over and he buys them for pennies on the dollar. And he takes these cars and over a period of time, days, weeks, months, thousands upon thousands of hours he invests in them, he restores them.

He loves taking cars from messes to masterpieces. That's what God does with us. We came to God as a hot mess. But God now, having justified us, declared us righteous, one time act at salvation, now engages us in present tense salvation called sanctification. That is his act of restoring us. That God finds us in the middle of our mess. That's why Romans 5 verse 8 says that God demonstrated his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Tim Keller says that God, when he saved us, saw us as is, accepts us as is, loves us as is, saves us as is. Yet by his grace, never leaves us as is. He is restoring us. That the great truth to salvation is everybody should be able to look through the rear view mirror of their journey with Jesus and conclude two things.

One, I am not all the way where I should be. We used to sing a song written by James Cleveland. I grew up in an old black Baptist church.

James Cleveland wrote a song and bequeathed it to the black Baptist church when he wrote, please be patient with me. God is not through with me yet so that we should conclude while I'm not all the way where I once was at the same time. Secondly, I should conclude I am not all the way where I once was.

I am still on the move. He is changing me. My pastor, I don't know if y'all are getting it because y'all ain't saying amen and I understand I'm in a different context.

And for many of my white brothers and sisters, your amen tends to be, hmm. I get it. I'm not guilting you. I just have to work a little bit longer. There's 28 minutes and 53, 52 seconds that I have. So I got a pastor who said to me, he says, he says, he says in front of 13,000 people says, when I first got saved, I used to cuss at the drop of a hat.

Oh, if you're watching at a different location, we just had a moment here and I won't recap for you. He says, I used to cuss at the drop of a hat. But now since following Jesus, he said, I don't cuss that fast anymore. Now, we're not condoning cursing, but I love the theological implications of that. He says, I am, I'm changing. I'm growing.

I'm progressing. Any so-called Christian who says Christ has been in their life for X amount of times, but they haven't changed, you need to check out your salvation. To be with Jesus is to embark on this journey of sanctification. And God's primary weapon of mass transformation that he uses in our lives to take us from where we were to where we shall be is the weapon of love. God uses his love, not guilt, not shame, not condemnation. Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

He uses his love. Jesus said it this way in John chapter 13. That by this will all men know you are my disciples, not by the arguments you have on Facebook.

Not by your political position, not by what church you attend, not by the amount of quiet times you've had, not by your ability to argue fine points of theology. But by this will all men know you are my disciples by your love. Jesus understood that God changes us by his love and yet his arms of love are his people. So that God saves us by his love, changes us by his love, uses other people to incarnate that love as instruments of his love and restoration in our lives. New Testament scholars tell us that it is love that is the penultimate New Testament virtue. Many of you at your weddings, you may have had 1 Corinthians 13 read and Paul writes, now abideth faith, hope and love, these three. But the greatest of these is love.

Paul to the Ephesians talks about the spirit filled life when he says in Ephesians chapter five, do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. The Greek word filled play Romo, play Roma. It was used of a pregnant woman in her last trimester. It was used of a woman who was overflowing with baby. It was used of a woman who was show enough pregnant, was used of a woman who was so pregnant she couldn't bend down, tie her shoes, was used of a woman who couldn't get comfortable at night. It is it is a woman so full with baby.

I know you just met her, but step to her and ask her when the baby is due. Because, you know, likewise, Paul says, may you be filled with the spirit. May there not be any guessing who's in control of your life. May they look at you and say third trimester with the Holy Spirit overflowing with the spirit. Now, what does that look like to be play Roma with baby with the spirit?

What does that look like? Paul tells us in Galatians Chapter five. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithlessness, self-control.

The lead off batter. Is love. Oh, summit, they say a lot of things about you. May they ultimately say, look at how they love. Now, here's the question I want to entertain for our next twenty four minutes and fourteen, thirteen seconds that we have together. What does love look like? Pastor, you've been hovering at thirty five thousand feet. This is very ethereal in the nitty gritty. What does it look like to love? Pastor, what does it look like for me to love my teenage child? What does that look like?

And I need this word. I got a 15 year old son came to me the other day and said, I can't wait, dad, to get up out this house. I said, you ain't the only one who's excited. We will have a party and cupid shuffle to the left, to the left, to the left. What does it look like to love?

Me and my spouse ain't right. What does that look like to love? What does it look like to love that neighbor?

I got one nerve left and they river dancing all over it. What does it look like to love? What does it look like single person to love that roommate who's always drinking up all your orange juice? What does it look like to love that tenant who's always paying that rent late?

What does love look like? As we come to the book of Hosea, God is frustrated. He has a conversation with Hosea who maybe has just graduated from seminary. New prophet, preacher in God comes to Hosea and he's saying, Hosea, I'm frustrated with my people. I have entered into holy matrimony with them.

The Hebrew word for that is called his said God's covenantal love. God is saying, I've said I do to these people and I've yoked myself with them. And yet I'm frustrated, Hosea, because while I am faithful to them, they are faithless to me. Here I am, Hosea. I never give up on them.

I never quit on them, but they are cheating on me. In fact, if I could use God's own vernacular, he says to Hosea, they are whoring after other gods. Here I am blessing them day after day. I make my sunshine on them. I send the rain.

I bring the crops. I open up the windows of heaven. I pour them out blessings they don't have room enough to receive.

And what do they do for a sense of thank you? They cheat on me by worshiping other gods. Now, I guess, Hosea, maybe you're thinking I should just quit on them, but that is antithetical to my nature. For as John would say of God, God is love. God just doesn't love.

It is who he is. He is love. So Hosea, I want to show my people how much I love them. I want to show them that my relationship with them is not quid pro quo. I want to show them that my relationship with them is not transactional.

I want them to understand that even though they were on porn last night, I have not given up on them. In fact, Hosea, what they should understand about my love is they should see my love against the backdrop of my omniscience, my all knowingness. In order to understand the love of God, you must see it against this backdrop that nothing ever surprises God. Nothing ever occurs to God that before God got in relationship with you, he knew you. He knew everything you have ever done to break his heart are doing and will ever do. And yet he still said, I want you. It's like me coming to you on your wedding day and putting your spouse her life up on the big screen and showing you everything she's ever done to break your heart is doing and will ever do.

And yet you still say I do. Love. So, Hosea, here's what I want you to do.

I want to use your life as a cosmic show and tell for my love for my people. Hosea, hop in your chariot on the other side of town. You're going to meet a girl named Gomer. She's not an ex prostitute. She's a prostitute. She's the kind of girl, as Rick James would say, you would not take home to mama. If you don't know who Rick James is, the chocolate person on your row does. She's out there.

I just imagine Hosea going, huh, what? I just graduated from Southeastern Seminary. My ministry is just getting started.

I've got the MDiv degree hanging on the wall in my office. You want a preacher to marry a prostitute? Now, that's strange, God.

Oh, yes, Hosea, but that's the point. I'm with you. See, what we must understand as we excavate this text is Gomer is not just some person locked in the pages of antiquity. We are all Gomer. We are all prostitutes whoring after other gods.

We all have idle factories in our hearts. We worship status gods and financial gods and sexual gods and money gods and you just go down the list. There's not a day that goes by in which we don't cheat on God.

We're all Gomer. And what our text wants us to understand is God is showing us his love. And not only is he showing us his vertical love towards us, but in some small way, as best as we can, leaning on the Spirit of God, he is calling Summit Church to incarnate this same love horizontally. So the first thing we must understand about love, can't you just see them, the preacher with the prostitute, first lady Gomer? Love is strange.

I don't know if you've ever seen this guy before, you can put the image on the screen. It's Dick Hoyt and his son, Rick Hoyt. Dick Hoyt and Rick is a picture of strange love. Father and son, Rick is disabled, they've run scores of marathons. Can't you just see the strange sight of a dad pushing his son?

And once the dad was asked, why do you run so many marathons with your son like this? And he responded, because my son says that I'm never more alive than when you're pushing me. In some way, every single day to be in relationship with God, it's to have God push us. It is to be yoked with God.

We disabled people spiritually. To be in relationship with God is to be in relationship with one in which we bring nothing to the table. And yet God says, in some small way, I'm calling you to incarnate this love to others. Who's in your life that when you love them, the world scratches its head?

Who's in your life that you're in relationship with who seemingly brings nothing to the table? What God wants Hosea to know is this ultimately is not about you. But I want you to love in such a way that the world is wowed by that love. And through that love, they see me.

Secondly, love is painful. As the text opens up, he says, Hosea, go again. Now we've got to read the white spaces of the text here because in chapter one, he comes to Hosea and tells her to get married. They end up getting married.

They have several kids together. But now in chapter three, go again signifies something's happened to the relationship, that there's been a falling apart. There's been an estrangement to the relationship. I don't know how it happened. Maybe Hosea came home one day from preaching and here he is kind of tired, yet filled with a sense of euphoria. It's that good kind of tired. And he's ready to just fall into bed and kiss his wife. And he opens up the door and there his wife is in bed with another man. Maybe that's how it happened.

I don't know. But however it happened, Hosea reached his breaking point. Maybe if it's me, I'm saying, well, good, you can go.

I don't want to be with you anyways. Kicks her out the house and a couple of days later, God comes knocking on the door of Hosea's heart. And he says, Hosea, you ain't done. Go again. Go again. Go again. Now, this is not about whether or not you should take that person who cheated on you back.

This is see it for the larger point of what it is. Hosea, I want you to go again and go again and go again, because every time you sin, that's what I do with you. I go again and I go again and I go again.

I never give up on you. This is what Lamentations three says, where it says the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to get to an end.

They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. If we sinners woke up this morning, we woke up because God decided one more again to go again. But it is in this act of going again. That love gets tough.

Because for Hosea to go again means to open up his heart all over again. To being vulnerable. And being stepped on. And being hurt. And that's where some of us get lost. Because we've all been hurt. But some of us, we get hurt and we go into this self protective mode. Something happens to us and we throw up some boundaries. And we begin to what I call emotionally moonwalk.

C.S. Lewis spoke to this moving passage in his wonderful book, The Four Loves. Listen to what he says. He says to love it all is to be vulnerable. Love anything in your heart will certainly be wrong and possibly broken. If you want to be make sure of keeping it intact. You must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries.

Avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken. It will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. In my years of pastoral ministry, I see this all the time. Oh, the wounded sheep. Something happens.

You can only get so far with us. Because we made up in our minds, we'll never feel that pain again. You cannot love without being vulnerable. And opening up yourself to the possibility of pain in here and we see gospel motivation is not this. What God did when God gave his only son in great pain to us.

I've got three boys, Quentin, Miles and Jaden. And I love you and my church family abundant life. But I'm not giving one of my three. Yet God gives his only. Is this not what Jesus did on the cross? The vulnerability of being nailed to a cross and the pain of it all.

And to be a Christian means to love and to love means to be vulnerable and to be vulnerable means to open myself up to the possibility of pain. So I counsel my black brothers and sisters in this thing of racial reconciliation and they get bitter and angry and upset because someone said something inappropriate. And they want to take their ball and go home. And I tell them, go back to the table.

These are our brothers and sisters. Get a thick skin, thin heart. For so many Christians, the older they get, their skin gets thinner and their heart gets thicker. Love is strange. Love is painful. Now, it's at this moment that if I'm if I'm Jose, I'm going, OK, God, you want me to go again?

OK, I understand that. Can I just quote you some scripture, God? Yeah, I know you wrote it, but but but there's a line in Leviticus. Leviticus 20. I've been studying Leviticus 20, God. You said in Leviticus 20 that if a woman commits adultery on a man, that not only do I have the right to divorce her, but God, you actually say that I can stone her. Now, I'm just reminding you, God, I have the right. According to your word. I've got a loophole.

To get out of this thing. God says, yes, yes, I I know what I wrote. But look at verse one.

Go again. And love. Now, this Hebrew word for love, I don't have time to get into all the nuances and intricacies of it.

I've really got to fly in our last eight, 15, 14 together. But but you need to understand this Hebrew word for love is a very rare word for love. It's not the typical word for love.

This word Hebrew word for love means to flirt. Try it another way. It it means to step to her. Not working. It means to get your Mac on.

Not not working. It means to romance. It means to buy flowers. It means to buy chocolate, to take her out to dinner.

In other words, this word means to romantically pursue. In other words, what God is calling Hosea to is not to look for theological exit signs and to just do what the word kind of gives him the right to do. But he's calling Hosea to fly at a higher altitude and to lay down his rights for the higher ethic of love. Hosea, I know what my word says. You can kick her to the curb.

I know that. But can you stop by the grocery store on the way home and pick her up some flowers? Love.

Lays down rights. I've been with my girl for a long time. Can't wait to see her tonight, man. And, you know, when when when when two people get married, it's a collision of two sinners and and both of us kind of have our long list of idiosyncrasies. I've got a lot more idiosyncrasies than my wife does. But my wife is an over the top germaphobe, deep freak. She came to me one day a couple of years ago in marriage and she says, honey, I've noticed something about what you do in my bathroom. And it is her bathroom. She she says, well, when you get finished brushing your teeth, I notice you just kind of set your toothbrush down on my counter. It is her counter. And the residue from the toothpaste coming off the toothbrush leaves a stain on my counter.

It makes it harder for me to watch. So what I'd love for you to do, honey, is she said this to me. When you get finished brushing your teeth, if you could just take that toothbrush and angle it in such a way to where the bristles of that brush are dangling over the edge of the sink so that when it leaks, it leaks.

It doesn't link on my counter, but it leaks into the sink. I'm going this woman has lost her mind. Holy Spirit says, I know it doesn't make sense.

Shut up and do it. We just we just bought a new house. It's really her house. And I came out the shower and first time coming out the shower, she hands me a squeegee. She says, honey, it would really help me in cleaning up my shower. And it is her shower.

If if at the end of your shower, you would take the squeegee and just squeegee it. I'm going this woman done lost her mind. Holy Spirit says shut up and do it. It's going to take 20 seconds out of your day. You know.

Thanks for laughing at me. I've done a lot of marriage counseling, and a lot of times marriage counseling is like it's like watching a tennis ball match. And I'm counseling these couples and they're both making great points. And you're just kind of going.

Your advantage, deuce, your advantage, deuce, your advantage, deuce, your advantage, deuce, and you're just kind of. And at some point you want to go. Great points. Now, who's going to fly at the higher altitude and lay down their rights? Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, hey, if your enemy comes to you and forces you to carry his pack one mile, do me a favor, carry it with him to. This is interesting because he's talking to a Jewish audience and he's making a reference to their Gentile oppressors, the Romans. And by Roman law, there's actually a law that stipulated at any given point, a Roman soldier could come to you and toss you his pack. And under law, you are obligated to carry the mile. Jesus is saying at the end of the mile, don't just go fulfilled my rights.

He says, no, love doesn't just check boxes. It goes the extra mile. I know I said five points for your type A personalities. This is we're just going to do three points today. Praise God for last services, no clocks. We're going to end right here. Why should I lay down my rights? By the way, let me give you the last two points.

Some of you, your day is ruined unless you get the last two. OK, love costs. Love is not blind. Why should I lay down my rights? Because, friends, that's the heart of the gospel.

Jesus laid down his rights for us. I fly a lot with Delta. I'm diamond status with Delta.

It's nothing to brag about it. It's kind of symbolic that I'm spending a little bit too much time away from home. But the perk of diamond status is if ever there's an empty seat in first class, I pretty much get it. Now, I love sitting in first class getting the free upgrades, but I've had to learn the hard way that that chilling in first class when I'm traveling with my wife who has no status and she's in coach and I'm sitting in first class snacking on Biscoff cookies, not conducive to a healthy marriage.

So here's what I'm learning to do. When I'm traveling with my wife who's got no status and I've got all this status, I'll still take the first class upgrade, but because she's in coach, no status, I'll actually sit down next to her in coach, which means I'm sitting in someone's seat. Now, that person whose seat I'm sitting in will come at me and start barking at me, you're sitting in my seat. I will shut them up real quick by blessing them with my first class ticket. Now watch, I haven't lost my status.

I just refuse to use my status for my own selfish benefits. I give up my right and in giving up my right, two people are blessed. Jesus was sitting in the first class section of the universe called heaven, and he saw us sinners with no status here in coach, and Jesus took on flesh and walked among us in the coach section of the universe called earth. Live the life we could never have lived, died the death we should have died, all so that we can get the upgrade back to heaven.

He laid down his rights. And now he calls us in some way, shape, and form to incarnate that. With our roommates, with our neighbors, with our spouse, people at the frat house, college campuses, this love thing is tough. It's hard to love Gomer. But what makes it easier is you got to see your own self is Gomer.

Oh summit. Whatever they say about you. May they absolutely say, look how they love.

Father we thank you for your word bless you for it. It's easier said than done. I know, easier, easier, easier said than done. I know Father.

This is hard, hard stuff. But I pray that we would walk in it. If you're here and you don't know Christ as Lord and Savior fit one of our campuses you don't know Christ as Lord and Savior. I'm just trying to tell you where you want to find that kind of love.

Only way you will find it is in God through Jesus Christ. He loves you that much. You've been cheating on him all your life and God is still at the altar. Still wanting to say I do.

How are you going to turn that down. My prayer is that you would surrender your heart and life to the one who loves you immeasurably. To the one who loves you and me Gomers of us all. God we love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.