John K. Jenkins Sr - What You Don't Know Can Hurt You

Preaching this morning from Hosea. You don’t have to turn there just yet; when you sit down, Hosea chapter 4. Today is Christian Education and Training Day, so we’re celebrating and recognizing the ministries in our church that play a critical role in educating, teaching, and training people. I want to talk to you today, and I want you to turn to your neighbor and say this: «What you don’t know can hurt you.» Tell the person on the other side, «What you don’t know can hurt you.» Tap the person in front of you on the shoulder, and turn around to that joker behind you. All right, you can be seated.

The book of Hosea tells the story of the prophet Hosea, who prophesized to the people of God for a half-century-450 years doing his prophetic ministry. At some juncture, God tells him to get married. He says, «Sure, God, I want to get married .» So, he thinks he 'll start looking among the choir members for a wife, and if he doesn 't find her there, he’ll look among the ashes and see if his queen is in the earth. But then, God gives him some strange instructions. God says, «I don’t want you to marry anybody in the choir. I don’t want you to marry anybody from the ashes; as a matter of fact, I only want you to marry someone from the streets .» So, God instructs Hosea to marry a prostitute, a woman of the night named Gomer. He goes out into the street and marries Gomer.

The problem with Gomer is that she marries the pastor, she marries the prophet, but she still has street in her. Some of y’all still have some street in you; go ahead-you may not want to admit it, you might not want to confess it. So, he marries her, and her problem is she continues to go back and forth between her husband and the streets. It’s a cycle he goes through. In fact, on a few occasions, he has to go and buy her back off the bed from the man she’s with. I don’t know why they call him «Johns»; I wish I had another name to call them. Maybe we should say " Bob» or " Ralph» or something like that. He ends up paying the man to get his wife back.

The reality is that the essence of Hosea’s life is that God wants to teach the children of Israel the magnitude of His love for them, and He does it through the life and the story of Hosea and Gomer. God says the same way that Hosea loved his wife Gomer — no matter what she did, he would keep going back to get her. He keeps on forgiving her time after time after time again-he keeps bringing her back. In the same way, God has said, «I want to teach the children of Israel a lesson about how much I love them and how much I will keep going after you and keep getting you, no matter what.» Somebody say, «Amen.» You all better be glad that we serve a God who loves you in spite of what you have done. I should have gotten a few more «Amens» than that on this point.

God wants to convey that story, and I’m thankful to God that He loves us unconditionally. His love for us is not measured or determined by us; He loves us regardless of how jacked up we are. Hosea simply demonstrates that; he exemplifies the love of God. It is through his story, through his life, that we see the magnitude of how much God loves us and cares about us. God gives us this story, but in the midst of it, He is challenging Israel to understand that judgment is coming and problems are arising- the fact that they have strayed away from Him. They 've done a lot of things, and it is in the midst of the book of Hosea that God wants to unveil that to them. One of the issues that comes to the surface is that God wants to challenge this adulterous people about the way they have behaved, how they have acted, how they keep turning their back on Him, and how they keep rejecting Him, not wanting to be around Him.

So, in chapter 4, there is a dialogue and a discussion. There 's a revelation to us about where the children of Israel are and what their issues are. As a matter of fact, as He is talking to them through this chapter, you would think He was talking to America in 2011. We can be a little more specific: He 's not just talking to America; He 's talking to Maryland. You all might not want to admit it, but He’s talking to Prince George’s County; He’s talking to the Metropolitan Washington D.C. area. In these first ten verses of chapter 4, He lays out some serious issues, and I hope you all will allow me a few moments to lay it out to you...