Seek Me and You Will Live
First B Jackson
2022-04-24

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Good morning, church. How is everybody today? You look well. Would

you like to sing together? I shouldn't ask, should I? I'm just gonna say, let's sing together. Here here's what I love about the gospel. God is always offering us an invitation.

Always. He's always extending his grace in our direction. From Revelation 22, let anyone who is thirsty come and drink freely from the water of life. Isn't that good? Shall we sing of it?

Let's sing of it. How's that sound? Would you stand with me? I know this sounds really crazy, but we're gonna actually sing another song. We're not even gonna go to welcome announcements right away.

And then after that, the BLTs are gonna share share, the the blocks, the Lampas, the the Tulsans. But before we get there, like singing of God's faithfulness.

Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I'm gonna speed through the announcements, I hope. Mondays, first b.

Yep. We're on tomorrow. James three And James says, seek the wisdom from above. That's the message tomorrow. Seek God's wisdom, the wisdom that's from above, and we're gonna have lasagna, 06:00, and it's another worship gathering here.

Feel real joyful. Meal music and a message tomorrow night. Happens at the same time as Awana. That's going on tomorrow night in this room. Starting off in here.

Games and council time and scripture memorization. It is a good time for kids because kids matter to God. That's here tomorrow night. There's a prayer group that meets and has been meeting for long, long, long, long time. Wednesday mornings, it is an open group ready to receive more members in the church office at seven: 3zero am.

If you're up and you want to come here and pray with us for missionaries and for whatever else is going on in the church in the valley. There are directories available, paper copy directories if you would like to have those with the pictures and the kind of the the information for everybody that has given us their information. We have those available if you want em. A prayer vigil. I'm going invite, would you grab the yellow mic right there?

This is Phil Baxter who is serving as moderator right now but he's also a lot more than that. I'll let him tell you about One Miracle Night.

Hey, I need a show of hands. But there's a

lot of hands already. There's another question. I love it.

So, the question is, who believes in answered prayer? Wow. That's terrific. That's a good start. So if you do, this this will be exciting for you.

Right now, Muslims all over the world are celebrating Ramadan. That's a month of fasting and intense prayer. And they believe that on the last night of Ramadan that God will reveal to them special truth and a refreshing of their spirit. Tradition holds that on that same night centuries ago, God began revealing the Koran to Muhammad. So you can see it's a very special night.

There'll be about a billion Muslims praying on that last night of Ramadan for truth to be revealed in their life. So on that very night, about 60,000,000 Jesus followers from around the world will be praying that God will indeed answer their prayers, will intercede, and will give them a revelation of who Jesus is through signs and wonders and miracles and dreams. And we have been asked to be a participant in that 60,000,000 group. And so we're gonna have a prayer vigil. You'll see it on the screen.

This Wednesday in this room at 07:00, Probably last about an hour or so. And in addition to that, we are also going to be praying for 24 specific unreached mega cities in the world. We already have there's already teams going into these cities right now in the middle of Ramadan sharing Christ in a number of different ways. You'll know these cities by name, places like Karachi, Tehran, Damascus, Mecca. There's 24, 25 of those cities that we'll be praying specifically for.

So that's the invitation. I hope that you'll be able to join us and be a part of this. We are praying for an immense harvest for the kingdom that night. Amen. Thank you, Phil.

And

French toast fundraiser breakfast. I knew about this, but I have not seen it in print yet. Kaylee McClinihan, one of our number, is going to be going on mission to Senegal, and we're going to do a French toast fundraiser on May 15. It's still a ways off, but we're letting you know. If you'd like to help out, she's going to use the skills that she has acquired and that God has given to to minister.

It's a sort of a humanitarian aid and carrying the gospel forth. So French toast fundraiser, May 15, in between services. That's for Kaylee McClinaghan to Senegal. Check the lost and found. Oh my goodness.

There is an overflowing. Our cup runneth over. It is the lost and found. There are winter coats. In this time of season, when the kids come in with coats and they leave without them, they just stack up back there.

So if you would, check the lost and found. It's to the left of the sofa as I'm looking at it. The left of the sofa back in the back of the sanctuary. And I'm going invite the blocks and the lampas and the tulses to come forward. Y'all can share these as you would.

There's Dan. And here's Anika's. There you go. Clicker? Yep.

There's the clicker. Hit that one. The one that's worn out right there. Lakesh.

That is a Mayan greeting that means, hello, my beloved brothers and sisters who with whom I am spiritually spiritually connected. And it's a word we learned in Mexico over spring break. My name is Dan Tolson, and myself and my family and two other families from our small group traveled to the Yucatan over spring break for a michcation or a vacation with a purpose. And and it was not a first b affiliated trip, but many of you supported us by buying cocoa every Sunday afternoon on the street corner over here when the kids were trying to raise money, and so we appreciate that. So I'm here to report on that.

I'm gonna tell you a little bit about the ministry that we went to work with. Annika is gonna tell you a little bit about the experience that we had, and then we have a really short video, to to close it up. So we went to work with a ministry called Yucatan Peninsula Mission, and it was a family connection through my wife's sister. We didn't know much about them, but we decided it would be a good good scouting trip. Yucatan Peninsula is there.

It's basically in The Caribbean. And if you travel if you fly into Cancun and then a short drive inland, you go into the jungle where that little red star is and you find yourself in the center of a rich cultural group of villages, towns, communities. And we went to a town called Leona Vicario in the jungle. And excited the world. About excited able the And

we're going to do

for their ministry work. And it's this house that you can see there. The reason they went to the place they were, it's strategic. It's in the center of a of an area where there's about 36 other communities within a short one hour drive that they could that the groups that travel there can travel out and work with. In 2007, they began work on an institute which is a high school and a university.

In that area, the average person goes to school for about three years. And then because of money, because of time, they have to work, they can't get an education. So they began this school to offer scholarships and opportunity for kids in the area to get a higher education. They shared with us a vision that they have for 2030. And there's a lot of people involved in this ministry down there and this is a much shorter version of their presentation.

But they're attempting to minister to body, mind, and spirit in a way to improve the social, let's see, the overall social structure of their area. Ministering to the mind is their high school, their university. That's where we work. That's what our project was focused on was expanding the buildings for the university. They offered degrees in business, law, computer, systems, engineering, theology, marketing and finance.

Their first class just graduated last August and had 15 students and where we stayed was where their graduation ceremony was. And it was really cool to see the fruit of all the work that they've put into it. But this coming fall, they have over 100 students enrolled in the university. And these are all local students that came through their high school that are from their community and they're students who are going to stay local when they graduate to start businesses and produce something good in their communities. Ministering to the body, they toured us through their water plant that they've developed.

They provide clean drinking water. It's a water purification plant to the communities around the area, and then they have a lot of outreach and medical clinics that they're establishing in the area. Ministering to the spirit, Willie on the the host is a pastor, and he has been planting churches and aggressively training pastors in the area for the last eighteen years. And that top picture, there is a a church that we visited that they're in the process of building. They have service in there every Sunday, but all the walls are open and it's not done yet.

And they just peck away at it over time and and do what they can do. And then the bottom picture is the church where we actually attended a service. We met two of the pastors that he has mentored and trained and who are now leading their own churches. They have dozens of church restoration projects happening simultaneously all the time. Go ahead.

Okay. So as Mr. Tolson said, my name is Annika, and I'm just going to show you guys a couple pictures and share a bit about my personal experience at YPM. So our main project was pouring floors at the university. We developed a pretty efficient system, I would say.

Here's some of our buff young shovelers filling buckets. And next, that sand and gravel that they're shoveling would be dumped into the mixer. And after being combined with water and cement, our concrete haulers would go and pour it for the guys with the trowels to smooth out. So in the evenings, we hosted a VBS for all the kids in the area, and there's nothing that keeps a smile on your face better than playing sharks and minnows with the kids, who they're all dressed up in their nice clothes and talking your ear off even after you tell them, This is a picture of a skit we did about Jesus calling Andrew and Peter to be fishers of men. So looking back on the trip, I was wondering what makes what made that experience so fulfilling and fun for me?

And I came up with this. When I made myself available to God and the work that he had for us there, he revealed a purpose, a passion, and a peace within me. But the thing is we don't have to limit that experience to a missions trip. So here's my challenge. What can we be doing every day to make ourselves available to God so he can work through us to advance his kingdom?

First Corinthians ten thirty one says, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Should be a little short video just to show some pictures. Those are pictures of the floor we were pouring. So as you could hear in Phil's voice when he with what he said, the the church just feels strongly about missions. The church supports a lot of missionaries, and there's a lot of opportunities for people to go on mission trips. This isn't the only one, obviously, but if somebody felt inclined to put a group together, if your small group wants to go, youth group wants to go, guys trip, girls trip, whatever it might be, all of the three ministries that I talked about have opportunities within those ministries.

So construction projects, they do what they can do with locals, but they inch along with what they have. When we go, we give them a huge shove forward. We did in a week what would have taken them months when we poured that's a before and after of the floor that we poured. We poured 3,000 square feet of concrete. It was 60,000 pounds of gravel and sand that we shoveled.

And all told, think we moved over 100,000 pounds of material with shovels and buckets. But it would have taken them months to do it and we did it in like four days. So encourage you guys to talk to me if you're interested. I can tell you more info. But any mission trip, any country, there's opportunities.

Having been on the receiving end of American Work teams when you said that about the leaps forward, it's kind of you go with the help that you have, but you also go with the money that you have. And when they come down, you feel like, well, this is a vacation kind of for us. But when just paying to stay there, it moves the progress forward so much. We have I know that Aaron Anderson is heading to Belize, and we have several others that are going on trips coming soon and so thank you all all for just being involved in the mission of God. Miss you a day, a blessing for all peoples.

We're all standing. Let's sing a couple of songs and

You can have a seat here for a minute. This is the worship through giving part of the service, and I'll invite the ushers to come on forward. We're gonna sing a song called gratitude from Psalm 62. It says, all my people, trust in him at all times and pour your heart out to him for God is our refuge.

Ray, would you pray first?

God, thank you for this, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the blessing that's already been just hearing about how you are moving in various places. God, I pray that we would be a part of what you're doing. Would you bless all that is given to you, Lord, the time, the effort, the study, the understanding, everything that we have been given, lord, including our financial resources. I pray that you would take it, lord, and that you would do with it as you will, your will, done in your way, lord.

Would you advance your good gospel through our words and deeds. Amen. Amen. Amen. It's time for children's church downstairs.

Oh, for the last few weeks, I mentioned it several times about the book of Amos. Now, I don't know if it's I've been threatening or I've been promising to to preach it but I have been building up towards it myself. I am unapologetically a New Testament guy. I've been doing mostly New Testament since I got here But the book of Amos is one I just feel like the message is right. I couldn't get away from it.

Just before Easter, during Easter, I've been thinking a lot about how this goes. And just this week, this week, two different people came to me who had been taken advantage of financially. So one of them is virtually destitute, has been homeless most of the time that I've known this person and was scammed. Was scammed into believing that she was going to receive something big, $70,000 actually. And all she had to do was just send in a little bit of money to get the paperwork done.

And she went for it. And so it's just heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking that people take advantage of the poor. It's not something new, but it's something that happened. That was one instance. I had another one call that was taken for a lot more than that.

And it's taken for advantage of people who cannot help themselves. Right? So the book of Amos speaks to social injustice. That's what it's all about. It's a collection of the sayings of Amos.

So some of them are straight up, Thus saith the Lord, straight prophecy, and some of them are visions that he received that probably impelled him or compelled him to share this word. It's a lot. They're nine chapters, and I've got less time than I usually do. So if you all listen fast, we'll do this. Now first Corinthians starts off.

Corinthians Annica hit something from Corinthians ten a minute ago. Now these things happened to the Israelites, particularly the wilderness generation, but these things happened to them as an example, and they were written down for our instruction. This is a New Testament passage that says, pay attention to the Old Testament because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but our circumstances have changed because of the because of the Christ, the the anointed one. We have hope where they may not have had that same kind of hope. They did, but it's less seen in the Old Testament.

Now these things have happened to them as an example and they're written for our instruction upon whom ends of the earth come. Romans 15 says the same thing. Whatever was written down in the former days, the scriptures, was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. All of the prophets, all the minor prophets are very, very dark clouds. Okay?

They always are because it's speaking about God's judgment, but there's always a silver lining in every single one of them. And when it says that we might have endurance and encouragement, we're looking for that silver lining in there. So the book of Amos is about social injustice. And if you already have said, okay, he's gone liberal. You've crossed your arms on me.

This is what the book is about. Okay? I am not preaching this from a political point of view. I'm just going try to say what it says. Amos, that's for me, not for you.

The words of Amos, who was among the sheep herders of from Tekoa which he saw in visions concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah the king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel two years before the earthquake. Two years before the earthquake does not help us at all. Earthquakes happen all the time. We don't know when it was. We do know when it was by when these guys were kings.

Amos, first of all, southern boy in Yankee territory. Okay? If you think about the divided kingdom, Judah is in the South and Israel is in the North. It's been about a hundred and fifty years since the split. Northern Israel seized the land and said, we're not having anything to do with y'all anymore.

They even set up temples in a couple different places so that it that their northern people didn't have to go spend their money in Southern Judah. So Amos, the man, is from Judah right there where the star is, Tekoa, and he's ministering or prophesying in Israel which is up there north. At this point, Jeroboam the second is king. We just saw that. And Jeroboam had expanded the boundaries of Israel.

They were militarily very strong and they were growing and they were prosperous and they had lots of money. And what happens when a society gets a lot of money? They tend to turn away from God. That's the way it is. Judah down below is still there.

So he's a sheep herder and a sycamore fig farmer. We'll see that from chapter seven. He's a working guy. Some people have tried to say, well, was a very wealthy working guy or they wouldn't have listened to him. I say they didn't listen to him.

Okay? He was a sheep herder and a sycamore fig farmer. He defends himself. We'll get to that in a little while. Reign of Jeroboam II was that time period.

Reign of Uzziah is that time period. Because both of them started off as co regents, We think that this comes in a fifteen year span from 767 to seven fifty three BC. That's the time frame we're talking about. Assyria is on the rise. It's never mentioned by name, but there is a threat of empire coming.

God's judgment at this time was oftentimes a conquering nation. The Babylonian exile, the Assyrian exile, and we will see the way this gets started off. Assyria is up at the top off of the map and Egypt is down below. They have been delivered from Egypt and almost every time any of the prophets start to say anything to God's people, he says, he delivered you from Egypt. Egypt's a big cat and a series of big cat and Israel and Judah are mice usually.

At this point, Israel's becoming a big cat. So prosperous. Amos one:two. I'm not going go through every verse of all nine chapters. Okay?

I did myself in the study but I'm going to try not to share everything with you. But the major points. The Lord roars from Zion. The Lord roars. It brings up an image of a lion from Zion which is in Judah, the lion of Judah.

The lion is roaring and from Jerusalem he utters his voice and the shepherd's pasture grounds mourn and the summit of Carmel dries up. This is going to be a message of judgment. He starts right there in the third verse with oracles against the nations. And there are seven nations to begin with and then there's a plus one. And since he's a southern boy and he is ministering up north, he starts off, we'll say like this, with an oracle against each of their surrounding neighbor nations.

The oracle will be like this, an announcement of judgment. And usually it goes like this, for three actually every time it goes like this, for three infractions even for four. You've gone beyond what is allowable. You've gone beyond the pale here. Announcement of judgment.

It's happening and it's unavoidable. And then the reason for the judgment. Because of this and then the nature of the judgment. He'll say how it's going to come out. Now, I'm a New Testament guy.

I love grace and mercy and I love forgiveness. This is after the point of having exhausted all of that. So the announcement of judgment, reason for judgment, nature of judgment on these nations surrounding Israel, he deals with these seven kingdoms first. And if you'll listen to it, they probably are saying amen for the first six, maybe seven of these nations. Are you with me?

This is deep. It's it's dark stuff, I know. So here it is, Oracle against Damascus. I will share these because it gives you the the announcement is, this is what the Lord says, for three offenses of Damascus, that's all of Syria. Damascus is the capital.

For three offenses of Damascus and for four, I will not revoke its punishment because they threshed Gilead with iron sledges. Now you might read that. I've had several of you that mentioned to me and said, I've read Amos. I don't get any of it. I hope you're going to clear it up.

This is, they were ruthless in their warfare. They went beyond what was necessary to the point of adding to the injury, extreme insult. I think that's enough. They it's a social crime. It's against their surrounding area.

They went after them mercilessly. And so God, who opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, says, I'm gonna send fire upon the house and blah blah blah. It's mainly fire. It will consume the citadels of Ben Hadad. It will break the bar of the gate of Damascus.

You who thought you were so mighty are going to be brought low. Next one. Against Gaza. So Damascus, if you're looking at a map, Damascus is up here above Israel. Gaza is down here.

This is what the Lord says. For three offenses of Gaza and for four, I will not revoke its punishment because they led into exile an entire population. They took a people into slavery and they sold them to Edom. You remember Edom? Jacob and Esau?

Jacob's the father of Israel and Edom is I mean Esau is father of Edom. And so because you enslaved a people and sold them to Edom, this is what's gonna happen to you. You're gonna consume the citadels. Gaza is the the Philistines. So it's got every major city mentioned except for Gath.

The reason Gath is not mentioned is because it's recently been decimated. Oracle against Tyre. This is what the Lord says, For three offenses of Tyre and for four I will not revoke its punishment because they turned an entire population over to Edom. They saw that the slave trade was profitable, from the other guys probably, and they sold the whole people, a whole people group over to Edom and they did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. They went back on their word, treaties that they had made with surrounding peoples.

All of this is a social crime. All of these we've seen so far is man against man, if you're looking at it man against man or nation against nation. But the way that you deal with each other matters. God is ruler over all. There is a divine law that matters and he will have justice.

So he's going send a fire on the Wall Of Tyre. It will consume our citadels. That one's a little shorter than most. This is what the Lord says for three offenses of Edom. Okay.

Edom, like I said, Jacob and Esau. This is the ones that that started a big rift and it says here that because he pursued his brother with the sword, because Esau was upset with Jacob is what you're thinking, because he pursued his brother with the sword and he stifled his brother's compassion. His anger also tore continually and he maintained his fury forever. It's taken the land of Edom with the characteristics of Esau because they hated Israel. Absolutely hated them.

They felt like they stole the birthright. They did. They could be right, but they were still allowing anger to fester. And they acted on that and they chased them continually of the sword. They're always fighting against the Edomites, right?

Oracle against Ammon. Are you all with me? This is I don't usually do this. Damascus, Gaza. We have gone around and around and around and we're getting closer and closer to Israel now.

Ammon is closer. It's like a crosshairs. It's sort of closing in. This one, this is what the Lord says, For three offenses of the sons of Ammon and for four, I will not revoke its punishment because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their borders. Old Testament is so hard.

This was another insult to injury situation where everybody knows that that's not right. Everybody knows that's not right. And so I'll kindle a fire on the wall of Rabbah and it will consume our citadels. There is judgment for Ammon because they're not doing what they should do. Now do these people know God?

They don't. They're pagans. Absolute pagans. They don't have any understanding of the law, but everybody knows that's not right. Are you are you with me there?

Okay. Oracle against Moab. Now put yourself in Israel. We're listening to this southern boy with his drawl and he's saying, yeah, all your enemies are going down. Their cities are gonna be burned up.

If you're Jeroboam or anybody listening to the sermon, you might think, amen. This is pretty good. I like this. Go get them, God. Wonderful.

So for an oracle against Moab, this is what the Lord says, for three offenses and for four. That happens in Job and Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. We see that little thing. He's saying you've gone way beyond, way beyond, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom down to land. This is another one of those.

It's an insult. There's a people and Edom, he's already buying slaves. We see an oracle against Edom, but because you didn't treat your neighboring nations well, that's enough. Burning the bones was absolute desecration. And so because they did that, I don't know if it's metaphorical or actual, we don't see a record of that in the Old Testament, but it's God's judgment.

Because Moab burned the bones of the king of Edom to land. I'm going to send fire upon Moab. So everybody's getting judgment. So he starts with these first six kingdoms and I think Israel's kind of enjoying it. Yeah.

Alright. I'm with you. Yeah. Preach on buddy. And then he turns to Judah.

Oh, Israel and Judah. Now Israel seized the land from Judah a hundred and fifty years before, and there's been kind of animosity between them since, if not some before that. And now this Judah native is preaching against Judah. Yeah, I really like this guy. He's gone against that.

For this is what the Lord says for three offenses of Judah and for four. I will not revoke its punishment because they rejected the law of the Lord. They rejected the law of the Lord. They've not kept his statutes and their lies also have led them astray. They believed lies and they led them astray.

Those which their fathers also followed. That they didn't need God. That they were sitting pretty on their own with their relative wealth. They're fine. They rejected his statues.

So far so good for Israel, right? But the opening line, if you saw Amos is from Tekoa and it was at this time, it also said, Has an oracle for Israel. And this is coming. This one's three times as long and a lot more harsh than any of the previous ones. So he ends the eight oracles with judgment for Israel like this.

This is what the Lord says, For three offenses of Israel and for four, I will not revoke its punishment because they sell the righteous for money. And the needy for a pair of sandals, they take advantage of the poor. They take advantage of the poor. Those who trample the head of the helpless to the dust of earth and they divert the way of the humble, they make it hard for an honest, humble, poor person to have justice. And a man and his father resort to the same girl, they have sexual mores that have evaporated completely.

So as to profane my holy name. These are God's people. They're supposed to know better. And on garments seized as pledges, they stretch out beside every altar And in the house of their God, they drink the wine of those who have been fined. They're taking advantage of the poor.

It's kind of this is I wish it had happened in the study and not right here. You remember Boss Hogg in Hazard County? You remember that? He just corrupts justice on every hand all the time, always. He's taking advantage of people.

And I really wish I thought of that in the study. There's probably a reason not to use it, but corruption, right? Corruption. It's awfully corrupt and it's awfully sexual. And if people stop paying attention to the holy God of Israel by the way, Amos is serving at the same time as prophet as Isaiah and as Hosea.

And if you read those two, my goodness, it's a rough time in the history of Israel. But God has given the prophets so that people can see they're not living by his standards. So God makes an additional explanatory note here. He says, You know, I'm the one that destroyed the Amorite before you. I'm the one that did that.

Though his height was like that of cedars and he was strong as the oaks, I also destroyed his fruit above and his roots below. It was me that brought them up out of the land of Egypt. All of the credit that you're taking for yourselves, I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps. God is saying, no. That was all grace.

I did that for you. He keeps on. I raised up some of your sons to be prophets, mercifully to proclaim, thus saith the Lord. I raised up some of your sons to be prophets and some of your young men to be Nazarites, committed and consecrated people who were set apart to serve God. They had vows that they took, right?

You all know the Nazarite vows. John the Baptist is probably the most famous one. Is this not so, you sons of Israel? Declares the Lord. I know that I did it.

You agree with me, right? But you made those Nazarites to drink wine. That's against their vows. And you commanded the prophets saying, you shall not prophesy. He's saying, I have tried mercifully to give you my word and my way, but you stop it at every hand.

So the nature of the judgment against Israel is this, behold, I'm making a rut in the ground beneath you just as a wagon makes a rut when filled with sheaves. Refuge will be lost from the swift. The strong will not strengthen his power nor the warrior save his life. The one who grasped the bow will not stand his ground. All of the ease that y'all have had in battle, no longer.

Nor will the one who rides the horse save his life. Even the bravest among the warriors will flee naked on that day, declares the Lord. So what was Ephesians' problem? If you wanted to lay it out, it was bribes. They bribed the court.

It was easier for the rich man to get things done than it was the poor. Pledges, credit. Credit. The way that they used it. They took their eyes off of God and trusted in their own wealth and immorality is the result every time that happens.

Oppression of the poor happens when that happens too. And then he said, I'm the one who did all this for you. Basically, if you had to boil it down to one short little sentence, God's grace to them, his people, was answered with sin. That's rough, isn't it? Now, I said the things that happened to them happened so that we can hear and understand what's going on.

Have we answered God's grace with sin? Have we answered God's grace and tried to corrupt justice? Tried to corrupt the way? Have we oppressed the poor? Have we become immoral and not look to the holiness of God for our own holiness?

Now, the next three chapters are sermons. Each one is a sermon. I won't go through all of those. I will go through chapter five, but if you look at chapter three, he says, You alone have I known from among the nations. You are my people.

You have my law. You have been shown the way, and yet you're acting just like everybody around you. In fact, in some ways, you're acting worse than the people around you. So the last one of those is a whammy. So this is God's indictment speech.

I won't go through all of it. It keeps on going, nine chapters. Oh my goodness, chapter four. Chapter four is embarrassing to read. It's so hard.

It's so hard. This chapter four specifically calls out the pampered women, which is so hard for me in the 20 what century are we in? Twenty first century to read. Amos calls them cows of Bashan. The cows of Bashan were known for having a lush grassland that was very, very, very healthy and they were overgrown.

They were, though, oppressing the poor. And that's what he calls them out for. He said captors would drag you away. Now that's interesting because he is blasting the social crimes of all of the neighbors around and captors carrying them away is one of the things where it receives God's judgment. But for God's own people to rest on their own blessedness, shall I say.

To just say, Well, I happen to be his favorite. There's no favoritism with God. We are all expected to take care of those who are less fortunate than us. Do not rob the poor because he is poor, nor crush the needy at the gate. People play on desperation.

Evil people play on the desperation of others. For the Lord will plead their case and he will take the life of the ones who rob them. That's from Proverbs. Proverbs 22, messianic proverb, by the way. So in chapter four, right after the cows of Bashan section that's embarrassing to even read, God becomes sarcastic.

Do you think of God as sarcastic? I don't. I generally do not. But he says, go ahead. Bring your old offerings.

Go ahead. Just do it. You're gonna do it anyway because it doesn't mean anything to you. It's pure religiosity. Go ahead and bring it in.

Whatever. I gave you cleanness of teeth. Gave you famine. He gave us famine? Yep.

He gave hard times famine so that we would turn to him, it says, and you did not return to me. I gave you a drought where it was hard to find water and the crops were all ruined and you did not turn to me. Now what they did turn to was the God of crops and the God of whatever. They looked in other places for that and they didn't return to me. I even gave you a plague which is supposed to call your heart back to me in desperation.

But you did not return to me. So the conclusion of this little passage is, prepare to meet your God. It's hard news, but it's the news. In chapter five, he sings a dirge over Israel. This starts out, everybody knows the funeral song and the funeral song is a technique to get Israel's attention.

And then he gets to, I think, a glimmer of hope, a little silver lining. So let's read this chapter five. I'll read it probably all the way through. Hear this word which I am taking up for you as a song of mourning, O house of Israel, the people of God. She has fallen.

She will not rise again. The virgin Israel. She lies unnoticed on her land and there's no one to raise her up. The hand that's been lifting her up all this time, this is the message from God. I'm not going to do that for you.

And this is what the Lord God says, the city which goes forth with a thousand strong will have a 100 left. That's 90% will be knocked out. And the one who goes forth with a 100 strong will have 10 left to the house of Israel. Wow. 90% of the people.

For this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel. Seek me so that you may live. That is an olive branch from God. That's offering the peace of God. Now the nation as a whole is going down.

That's happening. And actually, by the way, forty years later, Assyria conquered Israel. It was happening. No doubt about it. But he lays this out there because there's always gonna be a remnant.

He says, seek me so that you may live, but don't resort to Bethel. That's one of the false temples. It was set up politically to keep people in the Northern Kingdom. It was corrupt as it could possibly be. He said, don't go to don't go to Bethel and don't go to Gilgal.

Gilgal's another one of those false temples. Nor even cross over into the South to go to Beersheba. Beersheba would have been the closest place that they could go that was that was inside the land of Judah. Even if you figured out that, yeah, you messed up politically, and maybe God would have favor if you went back south. Nope.

Don't go there either. For Gilgal certainly going in captivity, Bethel will come to nothing. And then he says again, seek the Lord. Seek me so that you will live. Seek the Lord so that you may live or he'll break through like fire on the house of Joseph.

That was the most populous tribe in the Northern Kingdom. It'll consume with no one to extinguish it for Bethel. For those who turn justice into wormwood and they throw righteousness to the earth, seek the Lord that you may live. And he goes on, I am God. I'm the creator God.

I made everything that there is, and you all just hate me. He gets on down here. I know your offenses are many. Oh, this reminds me of Isaiah. Though your sins be as scarlet, they'll be as white as snow.

How is that? Seek the Lord and you'll live. For I know your offenses are many and your sins are great. You who are hostile and righteous. You who accept bribes and you turn away the poor from justice at the gate.

Therefore, at such a time, the prudent person keeps quiet because it's a very evil time. They try not to even be noticed because the oppression is so great. So this says, seek good and not evil so that you may live. Even though everybody else around you is cheating all the time, don't. Seek good and not evil so that you may live.

And so, may the Lord God of armies be with you just as you have said. Seek me and you will live. Seek the Lord and you will live. Seek good and not evil and you will live. Hate evil, love good, and establish justice within the gate.

Perhaps the Lord God of armies will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Dot. Dot. I'm skipping a couple of verses. This one's a hard one to hear.

I think I'm actually going to have to close before I finish this, but I didn't want to. I wanted to do it all at once. Woe to you who are longing for the day of the Lord. For what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you? Think about this in Israel.

They had set themselves up. They felt like they were right. Everybody around them was wrong and that they were the shining city on a hill and God is saying, that's just not so. Woe to you who are longing for the day of the Lord. For what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you?

It'll be darkness and not light. As when a man flees from a lion and is confronted by a bear. Or when he goes home and leans in this place of security with his hand against the wall and a snake bites him. Will the day of the Lord not be darkness instead of light? Even gloom with no brightness in it?

I hate, I reject your festivals nor do I delight in your festive assemblies. Even though you offer up to me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I'm not accepting them. I'll not even look at the peace offerings of your fatten ox and take away from me the noise of your songs. I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. Man, that's hard.

The next verse is one that Martin Luther King quotes in his I Have a Dream speech and quoted quite regularly actually Because the social injustice of his time that he saw, he said this is the answer right here. Let justice roll down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. Righteousness is about having right relationships. Relationship being more important than being right. Okay?

Having right relationships and justice is the steps that you take, the actions, concrete actions that you take to make sure that you are righteous. Does that make sense? Let justice roll out like the waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. I can't remember where. There's a big fountain somewhere with this outside of a big building.

I think it's in Birmingham. I'm not positive. The image is it's just ever flowing forth that it it can be counted on. Justice and righteousness. So he goes on chapter six, another sermon to warn the complacent and the arrogant.

Chapter seven. God and Amos have a dialogue in chapter seven and God gives them a vision. First of all, it's of Israel being decimated like having a locust swarm come through. The second vision he gives is a fire vision because fire is just purging. It's so hard and so awful.

Once something's burnt, it's burnt. Locust. Fire. He then lays out a plumb line vision and saying, I'm not just doing this like the other gods of all the other peoples that are incredibly capricious that you can't ever tell what exactly they want. God has an objective standard for what is good and what is right, and he says, I'm gonna be holding up a plumb line up against Israel.

And the locust and the fire visions were awful, but the plumb line shows them how far they were out. Now it's at this point that there's a little historical interlude because everything we've heard from Amos so far is pretty awful, right? Do we kind of get a witness amen on that? Yes, it's pretty awful. And so we get that and he has gained some traction and he has made his way to the people surrounding the king.

He's speaking truth to power. Okay? He is working on this. And when he gets there, this, Amaziah the priest of Bethel. Now Bethel, don't go to Bethel.

Don't go there. I know it's historically important, but don't go there. It's corrupt. Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel saying, Amaziah has conspired against you. In the midst of the house of Israel, the land is unable to endure all of his words for this is what Amaz says, Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.

There was no doubt that that was going to happen. Then Amaziah said to Amos, go get you seer, flee to the land of Judah. Get on back home. Eat your bread there and do not be and do your prophesying there. Tell them what you got to say.

We don't want to hear it. Do not prophesy at Bethel any longer for it's the sanctuary of the king and a royal residence. That's the truth. It was not a sanctuary of God. It was a sanctuary of the king.

It was a political issue, not a godly righteousness issue. Don't prophesy here anymore. You get on back home. So Amaziah tells him, Go home and prophesy. Get out of here.

We don't want you messing up this good thing we got going. And then Amos replied to Amaziah, listen, I'm not a prophet nor am I the son of a prophet. I'm just a working man. I'm a herdsman. I'm a grower of sycamore figs, but the Lord took me from following the flock and the Lord said to me, go and prophesy to my people Israel.

So now, hear the word of the Lord, you are saying. You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you prophesy against the house of Isaac. And therefore, this is what the Lord says, your wife will become a prostitute in the city. Your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be parsed up by a measuring line and you yourself will die upon unclean soil.

Furthermore, Israel will certainly go from its land in exile. Does the does the message change? It only intensifies. God called Amos from his job to go do what he had deliver the message that he had him deliver. So Amos replied to Amaziah, I gotta do what God's called me to do.

So I I say, what has God called you to do? I hope it's not the same thing as Amos for crying out loud. I've only been doing this half a sermon. It's not fun. But what has called you to be?

If he's called you to be a carrier of his grace and a carrier of his mercy and a carrier of his love and a carrier of his word and have his message on your lips, then you need to do it. That's what he called you to do. Right? I'm gonna finish this. Bear with me.

Give me five minutes. I'll shorten the sermon Sunday. God and Amos are in a dialogue in chapter eight. It's another vision. So he's had this locust vision and he's had this fire vision.

Both of those are depleted. But the summer fruit vision is one where this fruit has already been plucked and it's already sitting in the bowl and it's overripe. And so it's it's going to be devoured or wasted, one or the other. And there's a warning, specific warning to the oppressors. Dishonest merchants who are taking advantage of the poor and Sabbath abusers.

They're not resting. They're They're not taking the time to rest and keep the Sabbath holy. The next one is the temple vision and the temple vision is of the temple coming down. It's the temple at Bethel, not the temple in Jerusalem. Basically, it boils down to this.

God will get those who run away from him. You're you're not gonna outrun him. So run towards him in repentance. Now, we have the whole New Testament to say what God is like in his mercy and grace and everything for those who humble themselves instead of saying, no, I will stand and I will stand on my own. I can handle this.

He doesn't really even exist anyway. It's what our society is saying. No. God forgive me. I'm looking for you Lord.

Seek me and you'll live. Seek the Lord and you'll live. Seek after me and you'll live. The last little portion is the last few verses of this is the, no doubt about it, silver lining. On that day, I will raise up the fallen shelter of David.

Everything else has been doom and gloom. Well, that's a lot of the Old Testament stuff is in the temporal realm. You've acted outside of what you know to be right and true and good, and so you're going to lose the privileges of land and prosperity. You're going to lose that. He says, On that day though, I will raise up the fallen shelter of David and I'll wall up its gaps and I'll also raise up its ruins and I will rebuild it as it was in the days of old, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom.

There's still good folks in Edom. And all the nations who are called by my name. Wait a second. This is a gospel focus here. He's saying, I'm not just gonna raise you up Israel.

I'm gonna raise up the house of David through Messiah Jesus and all of the nations are gonna be coming in, declares the Lord. Who does this? I'm the one who does it. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the plowman will overtake the reaper. That's a pretty good season.

And the one who treads grapes will overtake him who sows the seed. When the mountains themselves will drip grape juice. It's grape juice not wine in this case. There is a difference. And all the hills will come apart.

I'm doing this, says the Lord. It will also I will also restore the fortunes of my people Israel and they will rebuild the desolated cities and they'll live in them. And I'll also plant vineyards and they'll drink their wine and I'll make gardens and they'll eat their fruit. They'll make gardens and eat their fruit. And I'll also plant them on their land and I will not they will not be uprooted again from their land.

This is a kingdom that has no end. He's speaking of restoration. Restoration for anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord, which I have given them. It's by the grace of God that he does this, says the Lord your God. Do I have another slide back there?

Yes. So if you didn't catch them, because they're nine chapters and I spoke really quickly, God calls and equips for service. In Amos' case, he didn't have this job. This was not he hadn't been raised. He wasn't the son of a preacher.

He wasn't the son of anybody that had anything to do with this. He was not one of the holy class. He was just a normal guy working a normal job, and God called him and equipped him for that service. And there were some who turned from their wicked way and were saved. But God called Amos and equipped him to do it.

True faith should always lead to righteous action. If you really believe, then you would not be taking advantage of the poor. That's what he says multiple times throughout. It's not religiosity. How hard was it for you all to listen to chapter five when it said, I don't even want to hear your songs?

That's hard. That's hard for somebody who loves to sing. He's saying that if you're singing those songs because you're really worshiping me, yeah. But if you're just doing it as a show, hypocrisy. Nothing is called out more in the New Testament than hypocrisy.

It's not religiosity but your righteous actions or your evil actions that reveal the heart's condition. Religiosity is not important, not nearly as important as a righteousness and justice. And the last one, our covenant privilege. If God has saved you, there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that. You are to walk in his way, not obstructing him, not in his way this way.

You're supposed to walk in the way that he would have you go. And it matters. It matters if you live your life with an open hand, generously, helping the less fortunate. It matters. If it's just me, my four, and no more, and we just go do what we want to do, and we don't have any idea of the suffering that's going on around us, or are we trying to alleviate it at all, Then you may just you may be missing the point.

Our covenant privilege brings with it great responsibility. Is that everything? There's one more. I think the Hosea verse, you wanna bring that up or you wanna sing first? Let's stand.

Hey, let's stand. Your festive gathering, I do know that I do know that God has the Old Testament there for a purpose. It is very hard for me. I struggle more with this sermon than any other that I've preached here ever, I think. God wants to know us.

He wants to bless us to be able to be a blessing to others. He wants for us to take care of the societal ills that are within our reach. God, would you help us to process this? In Jesus name, would you help this hard, dark cloud? Would you help it, pierce our hearts?

Would you would you illumine our way forward from here? Amen. Got a verse from another contemporaneous prophet here and one from the New Testament. I want to say, I think it's easier sometimes for a gathering on a Sunday morning to hear about all the sins of all the people around us than it is to hear about our own and that's the message from Amos right there. We need to hear it about ourselves.

All those other ones may be social crimes but there's a spiritual need that we have for God and that's what we need to pay attention to. Whoever is wise, let him understand these things, all of these things. Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right and the upright walk in them but transgressors stumble in them. And the next one is from James.

If any of you lacks wisdom, he said, whoever's wise. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God. He gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to you. He says, flatly, even in one of the darkest books in the whole Old Testament, he says, seek me and live. Seek me and live.

Seek after good and reject evil so that you may live. God, help us. Amen. Amen.