"Who Will be the Hosea at Your House?" (MP3 Audio)

"Who Will be the Hosea at Your House?" Hosea 2:14-15

All of life is a searching or a longing for love. There is not a person alive who can honestly say that they do not wish to be loved. This starts at an early age. Children want and need to be loved by their parents.

Likewise many grown women still want and need the love and acceptance of their fathers. It does not matter what type of man their father is, he could be a low-down something, yet that daughter will want to know him and indeed will need his love and acceptance.

The home is the hearth where the warmth of unconditional love is cultivated. It is in the voices and presence of our mothers and fathers that we either learn love and acceptance or resentment and rejection. This weathered love and acceptance process of bonding occurs within the first five years of a child's life.

Many grown men are, at heart, still mama's boys. They go to mother's house for cooked, alone, smells love, and a good nap on the couch. Not all men, but many of them, have found the secret to love in their mothers.

These years are the most sacred years in terms of natural character formation. Much like the gestation period in other mammals, the human gestation period is one of the longest. This is because much of the relational intimacy that is needed to function as a whole being requires complex interaction in the home. If a child does not experience unconditional love and acceptance early in life, he or she is going to have a rocky road ahead. Consider the following four points.

1. Today's homes create Gomers.

a. The prophet Hosea was commanded to marry a woman named Gomer (Hosea 1:2-3).

b. Gomer was likely a temple prostitute (Hosea 1:2).

c. Historically, 8 out of 10 African-American children are born as a result of sexual immorality.

d. To unsaved men, power and sex go together (Genesis 3:16).

2. Marriage is a chance to heal.

a. Hosea's marriage to Gomer would illustrate God's love for His people (Hosea 1:2).

b. Hosea's marriage started out well. Gomer bore him a daughter and a son (Hosea 1:6-9).

c. Christian marriage is a symbol of Christ's relationship with His Church (Ephesians 5:31-32).

3. Unless there is some undressing on an emotional and spiritual level, there can be no true love.

a. Gomer left Hosea and returned to a life of prostitution (Hosea 1:2; 2:1).

b. Children suffer when parents can't heal (Hosea 2:4; Malachi 4:6).

4. Blended marriages (and all marriages) need Hoseas.

a. God commanded Hosea to go get Gomer (after she left him) and love her again (Hosea 3:1).

b. God said that He would win His people back, though they had been unfaithful Hosea 2:14-15).

"Christ First, Christ Only, Christ Always"