Sermon Outline Title: The Devil’s Old Playbook—America’s New Problem
Text – Hosea 4:1-6
Theme – Spiritual decline always follows moral decline.
Big Idea – A nation that refuses to hear God will eventually feel God.
1. HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD (Hosea 4:1)
Hearing is not the same as heeding. Israel listened with their ears but not with their hearts, and America is doing the same today.
a. Hearing without obedience always leads to trouble. People say, “I hear you,” but they aren’t listening. God warns, “Hear Me,” meaning—take it to heart.
b. Suffering follows selective hearing. When we choose not to heed God, He removes His hedge, and the enemy slips in.
c. Critical reflection can prevent disaster. Think carefully about God’s warnings; they are meant to protect, not to punish.
2. THE CONTROVERSY GOD HAS WITH HIS PEOPLE (Hosea 4:1-2)
The sins listed in Hosea are the same sins filling America: lying, killing, stealing, adultery, swearing, violence, deception. Same devil, same tactics, new technology.
a. Deception and division flourish without truth. No truth → no trust.
b. Cold hearts follow when mercy disappears. No compassion → no conscience.
c. Moral collapse begins where God is ignored. No knowledge of God → no moral boundaries.
3. THE CONSEQUENCES OF SPIRITUAL NEGLECT (Hosea 4:3-5)
When a nation rejects God’s Word, God allows them to feel the weight of their choices. Israel felt it through drought, sickness, and suffering—America is now feeling it through division, exploitation, crime, corruption, and fear.
a. Judgment often mirrors the real spiritual condition. A drought of obedience leads to a drought in the land.
b. Leadership bears great responsibility. When priests drift, people drift.
c. God sometimes “gets up” to make us listen. When gentle warnings fail, painful ones follow.
4. DESTROYED FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE (Hosea 4:6)
This is God’s heartbroken indictment: “My people are perishing because they do not know Me.” The failure began in the pulpit and spread to the people.
a. When ministers abandon truth, the people lose direction. Spiritual leaders shape the spiritual climate.
b. Communities fall apart when God’s Word loses influence. Less Scripture = more sin.
c. Revival begins with the restoration of truth. A nation can only recover when God’s Word recovers its authority.
Illustration / Example
A shotgun-wielding thief backed out of robbing a small country store when your mother simply said, “God is watching you.” Knowledge of God and influence of Godly people has a way of restraining unrighteousness and evil. Ignorance of what God requires from people multiplies it.
Alliterated Main Points (Summary)
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Hearing
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His Controversy
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Hard Consequences
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Hazard of Ignorance
Conclusion / Invitation
America’s crisis is not political—it is spiritual; it is moral decay from inside the nation. Hosea’s warning is God’s warning to us: Hear Me… or you will feel Me.
If God is trying to get your attention, respond now. Be a doer of the Word, not a hearer only.
Return to obedience, return to truth, return to Him—before He has to show you that you need to listen, to make you hear him clearly.