Podcast on The Way

In this week’s message, we see Israel ignoring the clear warnings God is giving and not repenting. This leads to God saying He will have no more mercy for Israel and that they are no longer His people. God’s patience has reached an end. Does this thought bother you?

This week we see that Israel was renamed Jezreel (yiśrā’ēl sounds much like yizrě’ēl) which means “God sows.” This would be like saying the reformed church is the deformed church. Normally with Sarai, Abram, and Jacob their names mean a promotion. Here we have an example of it being a demotion for the nation of Israel. Have you ever considered the importance of name changes in the Bible? The main point of the text and the sermon was that: The Lord sees what's going on in our hearts, and He bases His decision on what He finds there. As we learned by looking at the life of Jehu, appearances can be deceiving. Have you ever been deceived by someone you thought was a good Christian example only to discover later that they were not what you thought? Have you ever been guilty of doing the “Christian thing” with the wrong heart motives?The application portion of the message dealt with Perfectionism. “The thing about perfectionism is that our desire for perfection is generally self-focused. We desire perfection as a means to be accepted or to control our fear of rejection or failure.”In your pursuit of godliness, have you left Jesus behind? Are you more focused on your performance for him or His for you? Are you too busy being focused on “living for Jesus” that you think little about what Jesus has done for you?What is the difference between “working for your salvation” and “working out your salvation” practically in your life?What does it mean to you to know that you have a savior that was perfect not only in action but also in His motivations?

We were created to worship. Every day we wake up and worship something. Even “good” things can become idols. Spend some time discussing with one another what you idolize in your life. What are the most important things to you? How can and do those things take priority over God?God is jealous of our attention and affections. He will take us wherever he needs to win us back to himself. God will set up our lives, every circumstance, every relationship, to do this. He uses everything. Spend some time discussing with one another where you have seen this evident in your lives. What is your attitude towards suffering? Do you see it producing faith or bitterness? Do you try to avoid it all together?Does it comfort you to know that just like Hosea, God allows things he hates to happen in your life to create a genuineness in your heart for him and the people around you? Why or why not?Lastly, the sermon talked about our relationship with God and the idea that we want to be with him, but aren’t actually in love with him. We show up to church, we read our bibles, we participate in small groups, but we aren’t actually in love. Looking at not only your relationship with God but also at the relationships in your daily life, what does love actually mean to you? How do you show your love? Are you more in love with yourself than you are with God and the community he has placed you in?

This week's message focused on something that seems to be missing from the scriptures, namely, Hosea uses the Kings of the neighboring country to date his writing. He completely ignores a number of the Kings of Israel. These were men who were a part of the people of God, but their general attitude and focus on their own desires led to Hosea completely omitting them from his writing. This is a problem that persists.When you reflect on your own life (you do that, right?) in what areas are you living for your own desires?

This message is the introduction to the book of Hosea. Pastor Dale shares an overview and some background info on the book of Hosea.

In this message Pastor Dale explains why gospel parenting is counter-cultural.

In this week's sermon, Pastor Dale talks about the importance of having our thinking renewed.

Pastor Dale Tompkins shares the importance of transformed lives for the people of COTW.

Small Group Director Adam Crocker shares about why we do small groups.