[0:00] Well, take your Bibles and go with me to the book of Hosea if you would. While you're turning, in 1972, I saw this girl and I liked her.
[0:13] And she was dating one of my friends. And so I found out that he wasn't going to keep on dating her. He would later marry one of the young people out of my youth department.
[0:25] And so I kind of stole his girlfriend, but she didn't like me. She thought I was a redneck. I was hard to get along with, hard to fall in love with. And so we had a date, a double date, between me and her and Juergen and Sally, who later got married.
[0:44] And she only went with me because she liked Juergen. And she thought at least she'd be in the same car with Juergen. But I won. And I have tortured her for almost 48 years now.
[0:57] On our first Valentines, I went into my dorm room. And there was a massively large poster board with a heart made out of candy.
[1:08] All the kinds of candy just kept going and going and going. This massive piece of poster board. And all the guys were like, good night. That's got a girlfriend to have. And so every day before class, everybody came by, got a handful of my candy off of what Betty had provided for me.
[1:25] I want to talk to you for the next 30 minutes or so about marriage. No, you can't talk about marriage without talking about how God loves us.
[1:35] It's just impossible. Because that's where it's all founded and where it is all rooted is his love. The book of Hosea, we've preached through it.
[1:46] But as time goes by, you kind of may forget things. But Hosea is a crazy story where God wants his people to know how much he loves them. And so he has this prophet named Hosea marry this woman who is not a good woman.
[2:04] She's actually a sleeping around kind of woman. She's been with lots of different people. She's not a virgin. She's not a virtuous woman.
[2:15] And they get married. And the reason they're married is so that Hosea can be a picture of God. And Gomer can be a picture.
[2:26] Her name was Gomer. And she could be a picture of the nation of Israel and what they're doing. And they could get a lesson across. It's kind of similar to what's in the New Testament. In the New Testament, it's Jesus.
[2:37] The husband's a picture of Jesus. The wife's a picture of the church. It's the same thing around there. And so the story is about how he wants Hosea to live much of what he has lived so that his life becomes a sermon about what's going on.
[2:57] And so all of a sudden, Gomer and Hosea are married. They're having children. And Gomer leaves home. And she begins to sell her body.
[3:08] And while she's selling her body, Hosea continues taking care of her. So she's out. She's being promiscuous. She's in a hotel room.
[3:20] She's doing wrong. And the guys that she is sleeping with are supposed to be leaving the payment outside the door for her. But they don't do it.
[3:31] But Hosea does it. Hosea does do that for her. And she gets up, goes out, and sees all these things. And she thinks that her lovers left it.
[3:42] But it wasn't her lovers. It was God. It was Hosea. It was the picture of how God loves us. No matter how many times we fail him, he just keeps on being good to us.
[3:56] And he just keeps on coming back to us. Finally, she was used up. And the men no longer wanted her. And so they decided to sell her into slavery.
[4:11] And when they put her on the stand, after she has been this vile and wicked and reprehensible woman, they put her on the stand to auction her off and to sell her. And as they go to bed, in the back door walks Hosea.
[4:26] And he buys his wife back. And he takes her home and rebuilds the relationship with her. It's a beautiful story. Can you imagine everybody in a small town?
[4:40] Peruvians have a saying. Again, small town, big hell. Meaning, you live in a little town. Everybody knows your business. And it ain't comfortable.
[4:51] That's really what it boils down to. So in every picture that we look at, and I want to read you about four or five of them real quickly. And we'll be done. But in every picture, it's not really a picture of Hosea loving her.
[5:05] It's a picture of God loving Israel. And how God is after Israel. He's pursuing Israel. He's pursuing Judah. He's pursuing his people.
[5:15] He is relentless. He won't give up. Hosea. Which is the picture a husband ought to have about the way he loves his wife. It's the picture a wife ought to have about the way she loves her husband.
[5:29] Because it's the picture that our God gives us to look at. And so I want to read that with you in just a second. The other thing I want you to realize is, if there's ever a story in the Bible that illustrates that there's always hope for your marriage, it's Hosea.
[5:46] I don't care how bad your husband's been. I don't care how bad your wife has been. They have never been as bad as Hosea. Hosea actually names one of his kids something like, not mine.
[6:01] He's like, I ain't sure nothing belongs to me. But he still goes and gets her. I want you to imagine your wife sleeping around with everybody. And you loving her enough to keep paying all of her bills.
[6:13] Though she doesn't live with you. I want you to imagine a man loving his wife so much. Yet when she loses everything and her life is over, he goes and buys her publicly and takes her home.
[6:27] I want you to imagine him when he takes her home saying to her, Boy, you watch this. I'm going to love you. And I'm going to win you back. And when it's all said and done, our marriage is going to be like it was when we were young.
[6:42] I'm going to win you back. You cannot picture a greater love than that. The only greater love possibly you could picture is this.
[6:55] For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. All you can think about is how God loved you and God came for you.
[7:06] So go with me, if you would, to Hosea chapter 2 and verse 8. If you take notes, here's what I would like you to write down somewhere. Pay attention to what your spouse does for you.
[7:18] Pay attention to what your spouse does for you. It is hard to realize all that's going on in your house. It's hard to realize all that she's doing.
[7:29] I want you to read Hosea 2.8 with me, if you would. It says, For she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold, and they took what I gave her and offered it to a demon called Baal.
[7:48] Look at that verse, if you would. There's the verse I told you about. What kind of love is that? What kind of love is it that God would love somebody so vile, so wicked, so backslidden, so far away that he would continue to give all that was needed?
[8:05] Corn, wine, oil. That's staples and luxuries were being given to her. And not only that, he multiplied her silver and her gold.
[8:17] And they took that and they prepared it for Baal. I just want you to picture here just a second. First, I want to talk about Hosea and Gomer and God and Israel.
[8:28] Now we'll talk about our marriages. First thing I want you to think about is this. God so loved Israel that he said, I am going to be good to you even though you're bad to me.
[8:41] He said, you may not be treating me right. In fact, as you are so vile, you don't even know what I'm doing for you. Notice that. Underline it. She didn't even know what he was doing for her.
[8:54] She didn't pay attention. And then secondly, notice this. He just kept on being good to her. And I want you to underline in the verse, multiplied. He didn't just keep giving it.
[9:07] He multiplied. That's the Bible word for it. If you see that, say amen. He was like, you know what? I'm going to be good to you and I'm going to be even better to you. And I'm going to multiply your silver and your gold.
[9:19] You would hope that she would see that and realize how good he was and turn around. But she doesn't realize that. She takes it and offers it to Baal.
[9:30] Baal is a false god. Baal, in all essence, is a representation of a demon. Of a devil from hell that they are worshiping.
[9:43] I would like to say to you that it is hard maybe to realize what our spouse does for us. But you and I ought to take some time and just think about how good and kind and gracious they are.
[9:56] This is a good time maybe to squeeze her hand or put your arm around her or rub your leg a little bit closer to her and say to you, Boy, you've been good to me.
[10:08] And I think about all you've done in my life. Look if you would at Hosea chapter 2 and verse 7. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them.
[10:19] That's right before verse 8. It's verse 7. But notice what happens. Israel's not looking for God. The spouse isn't trying to get right. The spouse is actually following sin.
[10:33] Now, when somebody's following sin, you know what we want to do? Let's call it off. Let's get a divorce. Let's leave. But thank God God didn't do that.
[10:43] Can I get an amen right there? God didn't look at you and say, You have pushed me long enough. And I'm out of here. You're going to hell and it's over. I'm going to bring punishment on you.
[10:53] He said, She shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them. She shall seek them. She'll go looking for them, but she won't find them. And finally, you know what happens?
[11:05] Sin takes you, uses you, abuses you, and dumps you. Sin finds you, uses you, abuses you, and dumps you.
[11:16] And all of a sudden, here she is. After all this time, and she's chasing after them like, I didn't like being with my husband. I like being with sin. I didn't like being with God.
[11:27] I like doing what's wrong. And she's chasing after them. And they're running from her. That's what sin's going to do for you. You need to understand something. John chapter 10 and verse 10 explains exactly to you what goes on in life.
[11:42] The thief comes but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy. That thief is the devil. It's Satan. And when he may make sin look appealing today, he may make pornography look appealing.
[11:55] He may make adultery look appealing. He may make sin look appealing. But he is only there to steal from you. He is only there to kill you. He is only there to destroy you.
[12:07] And that's who he is. But look what she says. This is what the Lord's doing. Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband.
[12:17] For then was it better with me than now. Then you're back to verse 8 again. She didn't know I was being good to her all along. You know those lovers that she thought was paying her bill?
[12:30] They weren't paying the bill. You know those lovers that seemed like they were so kind to her? Come to find out they don't care anything about her and they're not helping her.
[12:41] Sin used, abused, and stranded. Eventually people realized that God has been better to them than any other. Life that sin gives is not as good as what you had before.
[12:55] I'd just like to stop here and say this is really not as much about a lost person here as it is the people of God that we're doing wrong.
[13:06] And some of you are going to be tempted to leave God because of his legalism, because of his rules, because of how much he asks from you, because he doesn't want you to have fun.
[13:21] He wants you to only be with one woman or be with one man. And he wants you to honor God. And you'll quickly begin to think to yourself, it's so restricting to be a Christian. They won't let you have fun and you'll want to leave.
[13:35] But when you leave, you need to know sin's going to dump you. I don't care how alluring it looks, it's going to dump you. I've told you this story before, but I've been here long enough.
[13:46] I just got to tell the same stories. In the first church I started in 1977, there was a guy named Leroy McConnell and his wife's name was Mary. Wonderful people.
[13:58] And Mary went to church and Leroy would never come to church. I witnessed to Leroy until I was blue in the face. Mary came. I believe the daughter's name was Patricia. She was in our Christian school.
[14:10] And all the time she'd come and tell us, I just wish God would kill him. I just wish God would get rid of him. Because he was a functioning alcoholic.
[14:21] He was a drunk that could work from Monday to Friday. But he had to get drunk on Friday night and stay drunk a couple of three days. And then maybe by Monday morning early, he could return to work.
[14:32] So he spent a lot of their money. They lived in a very small apartment. He made good money and they lived in a bad apartment. And over and over she told me and Mr. Shelton who used to visit them.
[14:43] She told different people in our church, boy, I just wish, man, I wish God would kill him, you know. And one day Leroy had gotten right, supposedly, for a brief time.
[14:55] And then he went out and got drunk one more time and had a wreck and died. I told Mr. Shelton as we were on our way over to see her at her house.
[15:06] I said, boy, is she going to be happy today? I mean, she'd been praying for this for like 10 years. Well, I was only there eight. So five years. And so we went to her house and we got there.
[15:18] And she's like, oh, no, what am I going to do? I need Leroy. And I was like, you need Leroy. I didn't say it. It was in my mind. I was going, is this the same woman I talked to last week? But you know what?
[15:29] She realized she needed him. Tonight, I would challenge you. If you really want to work on your marriage, think about how much you love your husband. Think about how much you love your wife.
[15:41] Think about all the things they do for you and notice things. Don't think it's a coincidence. At our house, the towels have a way of going down.
[15:55] When I open a little door right under the sink to get my towel and my bath cloth out, I'm one of them everyday users. And I pull one out. And I pull it out. And every day, it just gets lower and lower and lower.
[16:07] It gets down to the bottom. And I'm like, I hope. I don't know what's going to happen now. We're out of towels. We're about to go to the store. But magically, I go in there the next day and it's full again. Same thing with my underwear drawer.
[16:17] Same thing with my sock drawer. It's just amazing. At our house, there's some kind of magician there that's just taking care of things. I want to notice that.
[16:28] I want to say thank you. Number two, I want to fix things while they're small. I want to fix things while they're small. That's not how sin works.
[16:41] But let me explain something to you. None of us live together as husband and wife without there being some strife, some friction, some discomfort. I have a tad of experience.
[16:53] We have a fantastic marriage. I really love being married. It's the greatest thing that ever happened to me after getting saved without a doubt. But in the book of Hosea, chapter 8 and verse 7, He said, You sow the wind and you will reap the whirlwind.
[17:13] You know, what happens is, it's like little things lead to massively big things. Little things lead to massively big things. They sinned small at the first, but the consequences were horrible.
[17:28] It may start out small. It might be just playing with porn or flirting at work, but it will bring about tremendous trouble. What you think is small, what you think is easy, what you think isn't that big a deal will destroy a relationship.
[17:48] You sow wind, you reap whirlwinds. As believers, we are not to let the sun go down on our wrath.
[17:59] You know what that amounts to? That amounts to keeping small accounts. Do you know what causes massive conflict between believers and between husbands and between husbands and wives?
[18:12] It's a mountain made by little deposits till it gets very big. It's a mountain made of little deposits till it gets very big. So very seldom is there a big, big, bad thing that causes the lid to blow.
[18:30] I have done marriage counseling since I was like 20. And that's 46 years I've been doing this. And I can tell you that I have sat down with them and they said, We're getting a divorce.
[18:44] And I say, Well, what's the problem? And they said, We have never loved each other. I said, Well, you've been married for 20 years. You must have loved each other a year or two of that anyway.
[18:55] And they said, I don't even remember where it started. I don't even remember where it started. But it started small and you let it get big. I like to tell, I like to tell people, You know, if we forgave at the end of the day, it wouldn't get big.
[19:14] If we got it right while it was little, it wouldn't get big. If we did what Barney Fife says do and nipped it in the bud, it would never grow into a tree.
[19:25] Say amen right there. Nipper in the bud, buddy. Nip it in the bud. Stop it when it's small. I'd like to tell you what I think happens in marriage and in relationships with other Christians and other believers.
[19:40] I like to compare it to a thermostat. And, or excuse me, a thermometer. And a thermometer, you got that big ball of red down at the bottom and it goes all the way up. And up there somewhere it says 212, or it says 100 if it's centigrade.
[19:55] And at that level, it's going to, it's going to pop. It's boiling. The water starts moving. Violence starts happening. A tranquil pot is no longer tranquil.
[20:07] And here's what ends up happening with most of us. Husband and wives, we have a little fight. And when we have that fight, it, the temperature rises. We don't say sorry.
[20:18] We don't get together. We don't talk about it. We sweep it under the rug and the temperature drops, but not where it was. It drops down almost where it was, but now you got a new base.
[20:30] Now you got a new base. Then we have another fight and this temperature now doesn't rise from here. It rises from here. And we fight. It drops down to here. And now these other bases are gone.
[20:41] We've set a new base. So the first fight got us up to 10 degrees and then we brought it back to five. And the second fight got us up to 20 and we brought it back to 15. And before long, we're at 200 degrees.
[20:54] And one small thing, we even use terms like this, the straw that broke the camel's back. One straw can't break a camel's back, but it can when it's the last straw.
[21:09] Or in Spanish, one drop, one gota, the last gota, and all of a sudden it spills over. And so if we want to have a happy marriage, we want to keep a good relationship, we need to say, I'm sorry quickly.
[21:25] Finally, I would like to say to you that Betty and I have never had a fight. But I'd only like to say that because it wouldn't be true. We have had some doozies.
[21:39] And she's always been wrong every time. Amen. I mean, I've always, excuse me, I was wrong about it. I mean, I've always been wrong. We've had some doozies. But if you fix it quick, you can just get on with it.
[21:51] People that are committed to each other, gotta fix it. People that are committed to each other, gotta fix it. So you gotta say to yourself, hey, I am committed to my, you know, it's amazing.
[22:07] Your mama and daddy can be so mean, you wanna kill them. You ever been there? Most of you, if you told the truth, you had some fussing and fights with your parents or your brother and your sister or somebody, but you know what?
[22:19] Blood's thick, buddy. We might fight today, but if you need me, I'll be there tomorrow because we're family. See, that commitment says, we're gonna have to fix this. We're gonna have to fix this.
[22:30] We don't split. We don't run. But since you're married, you don't fix it. And you need to fix it. While it's small, fix it. Number three, I'd just like to take you to one of my favorite passages of scripture.
[22:44] And I think we'll not even get around to the rest of it. I just wanna talk to you about this one. Hosea 2, 14, and 15. This is the steps to rekindle a flame.
[22:55] This is the most beautiful passage of scripture about marriage I can think of. It's really not about marriage. It's really about what God told Hosea to do with Gomer, which is a picture of what God did with Israel, but it sure works with us.
[23:13] So, Hosea walks in the room and he buys his wife back. She just got through committing all of this horrible, terrible sin.
[23:24] She is probably racked with disease, venereal disease. She's been with everybody in town and they haven't even been paying her. She's probably missing some teeth because some of them got rough with her.
[23:37] She's probably got haggard skin, hanging and drooping. Her eyes are probably setting really dark, droopy eyelids and all because she's lived in a dark, dingy room at night, smoking, cussing, drinking, doing all the stuff she's doing and all of a sudden, it's all over and Hosea walks in the back door and says, I love her, I'll buy her and I'll take her home.
[24:01] And he does. Now, if he was an independent Baptist, we know what he'd have done when he got home. He'd have bought her, got her to the door, killed her. Or chained her up and beat her.
[24:13] Or locked her in the back room and said, see you in two or three years, maybe after you've had time to get over what you did wrong. That's not what he does. Look at what he says to her. He says to her, therefore, behold, I will allure her.
[24:26] I want to read it all first and then we'll come back and work our way through it. I will allure her. I will bring her into the wilderness. I will speak comfortably unto her. I will give her her vineyards from thence and the valley of Achor for a door of hope.
[24:40] And she shall sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. Now, it's a whole bunch of Jewish stuff going on there.
[24:52] But I think you know enough to understand. So let's walk, let's go back over the verse. So look back at Hebrews 2.14. She's his wife. He ought to be able to walk in the room and say, bless God, woman, you're going to tell me you love me.
[25:05] We're going to fix this right now. I'm calling you on the carpet. Let's get her going. But that's not what he does. He said, watch this. I'm going to allure her. He said, what's allure mean? Pretty simple. Lure.
[25:17] It's what you do when you're going to go fishing and you throw the lure out there. You don't go out there and you don't go out there and yell at the fish. You go out there and you throw a lure and the lure, the fish looks at it and goes, I like that.
[25:27] And he goes chasing that. And you catch him. You know what he's going to do? It's what I had to do with Betty. I mean, Betty didn't like me. Betty didn't want to marry me.
[25:38] Betty told her mom and daddy, he's a nice guy, but he's a little bit redneck. That was a very nice thing to say because I was a lot redneck. So she really did help on that. We get some people sometimes that come study here and I'm like, yep, I know where they are.
[25:51] I live there myself. But see, what happens is you allure. You speak sweet things. You invite. You are nice to her.
[26:02] I used to watch Peruvians back in the days of a terrible economic crisis and a guy from the Bible college would take a girl to town and I'd walk by and I'd happen to see him in a little store.
[26:12] Sometimes I'd just go in and give him a little money and say, you can have more than one Coke and one piece of pie. I'll give you some money. But they'd have one Coke and one piece of pie and it'd be a date and they'd both be sipping on a one 10 ounce, you don't get refills there, one 10 ounce cup.
[26:27] And he takes one small drink, she takes a little more and if you said something, he'd say, oh, I've already eaten. Well, I'm not thirsty. He's alluring her. He's lying like a dog. He wants the whole pie.
[26:39] He wants the whole drink, but he's going to catch her and then after that, he's going to have her running for the food. I lure her. Then look what he says. I bring her into the wilderness. Now when you see wilderness, maybe you don't know what that is, but that's not like I'm going to take her out in the backwoods and kill her and bury her.
[26:56] It's like, I'm going to find a nice place. I'm going to get her alone. I'm going to spend some intimate time with her. That's not sex. That's just being nice to her and kind to her.
[27:06] And the passage of scripture will make that evident. He said, man, I love you, baby. She goes, you can't love me. You know what I've done? And she's yelling and cussing and being ugly. And he just sweet as he can be, just keeps on being nice.
[27:19] And then he says, hey, I want to take you and I want to spend some time with you. I want to go out in the, I want to go out somewhere alone with you. And when he takes her alone, guess what he does with her? Look at your Bible. He speaks comfortably to her.
[27:33] Now, here's what we would say. Now, we're going to get this right, but let's clear up what you did first. I have 25 books written of all your messes. And when we get all that cleared up, we can fix this.
[27:45] Not what he does. I thank God that God doesn't save us and say, I'm going to save you, but come here. First, we're going to go over all your sin and everything. He doesn't do that to us.
[27:55] Amen. He just says, I'm going to forgive you. He calls her, takes her to the wilderness and he speaks comfortably to her. Then he gives her gifts. Look at it. I will give her vineyards from this.
[28:09] Underline, I will give her. You should underline, I will allure her. You should underline, I will bring her to the wilderness. You should underline, I will speak comfortably to her. You should underline, I will give her.
[28:19] You know what he's doing? What are you going to give her something for? You have spent all of your money, you've multiplied her gold, you've multiplied her silver, you've given her corn and oil and wine and she gave it to demon gods.
[28:33] You should tell her after she pays that off, you'll give her something. No, he doesn't. He said, I love her and I'm going to be sweet to her. I will say sweet things to her. I'm going to take her alone and I'm going to give her gifts.
[28:45] Keep reading with me what he says. He says, I'm going to turn the Valley of Achor into a door of hope. That Valley of Achor, that's 9-11 for them.
[29:01] That's the Alamo. That's World War II. The Valley of Achor, you remember? Oh, Achan sinned and people died. It was a horrible, terrible day.
[29:15] It was like the worst day in history and he said, I'm going to make her worst day be her best day. I am going to change the Valley of Achor for door of hope.
[29:28] It's actually going to turn out that her failure was the opening of the door for the sweetest relationship with God she's ever known. It's going to be the opening door for me and you are going to be like we never would have been because I love you in spite of you.
[29:45] And that's what Jesus said, isn't it? He said, who loves me the most? The one I forgive the most. And he looks at her and he says to her, I want to take your worst day.
[29:57] You remember the day you, he doesn't even say that. He doesn't say it's hard. He's going to say, I'll make it sweet and wonderful. So this is probably my favorite part.
[30:12] You need to underline this. She shall sing there. This woman's not singing. She has been humiliated.
[30:26] She has been embarrassed. She has been the laughingstock of the town. They had her on the auction block and they're standing there saying, check her out here.
[30:36] Everybody knows her. All of you know how she is. We're going to sell her today. She's a two-bit prostitute. Who will buy her? You can imagine everybody in the room going, I don't want her.
[30:49] I don't want her. I don't want her. I don't want her. And in steps Hosea and says, I want her. I want her. And I want her to give her life back to her.
[31:01] The thief comes but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. And he says, I'm going to make her feel like she did when she was a little girl.
[31:16] That's what youth means. You know, back when she used to skip. You know, like when my littlest granddaughter lives in my house, comes running into my room.
[31:26] You know, she busts the door open and she starts trying to scare us. And then she's jumping around and her and Caleb are just meddling in the room. They're happy and they're playing and having fun. He said, this poor, beat up, downtrodden, no teeth, hair falling out, haggard looking woman is going, whoa, things are good at home for me.
[31:48] What a wonderful thing. You know how good it's going to be? It's going to be like the day, look at it in your verse, when they came out of Egypt. It's going to be like the day when they say, all slaves are set free.
[32:02] You are a free man. You're a free woman. And God went down into Egypt and destroyed everybody who ran their lives. And he walked them out of there across the Red Sea and he provided for them and he gave them their freedom.
[32:17] That's what this guy's going to do for his wife. So if I really want to work on my marriage and I'm the man or I'm the woman, would you go back to verse 14? Can I just ask you real quick to do this?
[32:28] One minute. Attract them again. Attract them again. I'm not trying to make you feel like it was your fault.
[32:40] It wasn't God's fault. And God had every right to say, that's it. I put my foot down, but he doesn't. I attract them again. Spend time alone with them.
[32:51] The wilderness. Speak comfortably. Say sweet things. Tell her how pretty she is. Tell him how handsome he is. Don't remind them of their failures.
[33:02] Our God. We like to bring up people's messes. And God's like, I don't remember that. God's like, I don't remember that. You say, you remember when he did that? And God goes, I don't remember that at all.
[33:15] Well, God, he wasn't faithful to you. I don't remember that. He buried it in the bottom of the sea, put it behind his back, separated from us as far as east from the west. God is a good God.
[33:27] So, so speak comfortably. Give her gifts. Warm her back up. Love her. Give her things to let her know you love her. turn her most painful past into the most prosperous present possible.
[33:44] Oh God, I want it to be great. Take the worst failure of their life. And instead of reminding them of the failure, let God take that horrible thing.
[33:57] I need to quit. But let me tell you this. If any country's ever messed up, it's Israel. They're a filthy, stinking, worthless bunch of people. Remind me of me.
[34:09] They remind me of me. And God has every right to throw them away. But you know what he keeps saying? Nah, I ain't throwing them away. I'll always remember them.
[34:20] I made them my promises. I don't turn on my people. I'm a good God. You can't beat that. Speak comfortably to her. Verse 15, look at it.
[34:31] In verse 15, you're going to give her gifts. You're going to turn the horrible day, Icor, into the door of hope. You're going to put a song back in her lips. She's going to skip down the road like a little girl.
[34:43] Skipping and popping her heels together and having fun. It's going to be like I finally found freedom. You want to fix your family?
[34:56] Good formula. formula. I know the world's got another formula. They need to do this, this, and this before you forgive them. I'm just glad that ain't the way God does it.
[35:09] The way we typically treat it is like work salvation. If they really mean, if they're really sorry, I need to see it. I need to bring it up. I need to torture them. I need them to suffer a while, then I'll forgive them.
[35:21] not what God does. Don't fix your marriage. Father in heaven, I love you. I thank you for the chance to serve you. I thank you for these wonderful people.
[35:32] I pray you'd work tonight. I pray your name would be glorified. And I pray you'd show yourself and I'll give you praise for all that you do. In Jesus' precious name. I pray you'd love you.