Undiscovered - Amos 1-2 - Darren Larson

you ready grab your Bibles if you got him we're gonna jump into the word this morning we are in the Book of Amos Amos we're in a series called undiscovered which the reason why we're in a series called undiscovered is because many of you may not have ever read amos before in fact it's interesting i've preached in my life probably hundreds of sermons right I know what you're thinking he should be better but that's not the point right I've preached hundreds of sermons if you count the time that I was in youth ministry and and all those things I have preached many many times and I have heard hundreds of sermons maybe thousands I don't know how many sermons I've heard and sat in classes I have heard Amos preached on a total of one time that I can remember in my life it's really funny and the reason why is because Amos is a little bit tough as I jumped into this war week I was kind of confronted by the message of Amos and and it's it's Amos is a guy who when he when the people he went to twenty-eight hundred years ago when he wandered through the land talking about what God wanted for them he was not that popular either and it's a message that he was not you know unwilling to share but it was a message that brought him a lot of unpopularity among the people and I think that's probably why we don't like to read Amos today because the same is true for us today as well when we read this message we kind of go that's kind of uncomfortable I'm not sure I really like that it's a different story it's it's something different than the Jesus of the New Testament I like the whole thing about the baby born in a manger that's kind of nice and pretty but Amos is a little different and so if I'm being honest with you when I look at this thing I had a tough time with this message this week not only because it's 9 chapters long and I know how is gonna fill the whole time with 9 chapters or I didn't know how I was gonna do that but also because I found out that aim has smeared in my life a little bit and some of what I saw was not as pretty as I always hoped for to be honest with you it kind of confronted me now reading the Bible sometimes is not you reading the Bible but the Bible reading you have you experienced that before when you when you read the Bible and you kind of hold it up to yourself it's kind of like a mirror and it reflects kind of the uncomfortable things in your life the things that you may say oh I'm I'm okay life is okay spiritually I'm good but then you hold up the Bible and you go am not quite there I have made it yet and and there's so many images and Amos that are about that and I'll talk about one in particular today which I felt was good for us as a church to kind of dive into you so let me just give you a little background here and then we'll dive into the word together Amos speaks to a people who had been living pretty well and some luxury and subsist for a time their 401ks were okay they had discretionary income you know no one has discretionary income in the United State and the in the world except for us United States people in Western civilization Airy income and their jobs were fine however though everything was outwardly fine inwardly they were kind of a mess and even the way they treated one another was a mess as well we find out in the Book of Amos that they were not treating each other justly and so God ultimately condemned them for the way that they treated one another and they were not being righteous in their lives they were not doing justice they were not walking humbly and they were not loving mercy and so so Amos comes and he tells them that which was not all that popular so I'm not sure any of us would really liked Amos to be honest with you I'm not sure he would have called him our friend or not he's a bit of a revolutionary and right off the bat were kind of introduced to him and I want to give you a picture of who he is let's read together just in the first chapter of the first verse of Amos and see who this guy is the words of Amos who was among the Shepherd's of Toccoa which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of joash king of Israel two years before the earthquake all right so here's Amos for you this is the picture of who this guy is maybe a different guy than some of you were expecting he's not a religious person he's not a professional religious guy or something like that what is he he's a shepherd that's what he does he's tending the flocks is what he does and he's a guy that that lives out his life in the fields with his sheep some of you were like oh man I was kind of hoping for cookies today not gonna happen he's not quite as famous as the Famous Amos now you finally got it right he's not quite as famous as the Famous Amos that we know this is a guy who lived a life in relative obscurity but he was a guy who had a big message for the people of Israel and the people of Judah he gets this unique phone call from God one day if you will and God tells him to go north into the Kingdom of Israel and prophesy and tell them things about themselves that they might not wanted to hear and you just have to understand how unique this would have been to Amos because when it says he he's from Tekoa in Jerusalem near Jerusalem we understand that he's from the southern kingdom of Judah and so God tells him to go to Israel and so go up there and proclaim this message to him now this would have been a little unique for this guy for multiple reasons number one is the kingdoms didn't really get along all that much now this is all Israel so Israel is a big heading this is both the people of Israel the people God's chosen people of God that are there but they separated into a couple kingdoms there was history there if you will and we know that all this happened during the time of Isaiah and Jeroboam two years before the earthquake interestingly the Jewish historian Josephus talks about this earthquake as well Josephus was not a Christian he was just a historian he talked about how this earthquake happened at this time and so there's this history to that we know that this is placed in history and we know what happened during this time the reality is this was only a few years after the reign of a guy named King Solomon who was David's son many of us have heard of David before less of us have heard of Solomon Solomon wrote some of the Bible and so we know him as well but he was a guy who had also a son and that son became the ruler and what's interesting about this story is when this guy became a rule ruler his name was Rahab Owen Andrea Boehm was a guy who became the ruler of a people group who didn't want to be taxed anymore and what happened is these this this these kingdoms were fighting amongst each other and they were fighting and fighting and fighting and what happened Israel boom got to be king after Solomon died and Saraya boom got up there and he said oh you know what I'm gonna tax these people even more I'm gonna make it even harder on them and as I jokingly said a few weeks ago he came up this thing called Rehoboam care and everyone revolted against that whole thing you know it's terrible I don't want that anymore you know and so when that happened all the people said no we don't want that and so the good geordie of them raised up a leader among them a guy named Jeroboam no relation alright Jeroboam who was raised up and Jeroboam and most of the Israelite people took off they left went north and created the the Kingdom of Israel the place called Israel now in Israel it was a unique place because in the middle of Israel their capital city was Samaria now down in Judea which was really only two of the twelve tribes of Israel those two tribes had their capital in Jerusalem and so these kingdoms didn't get along well half of them didn't wanna be taxed half of them stayed with kind of the the kind of idea of having Jerusalem as their their capital and being in the original place that God had given to them and so what happened is after this time they started fighting together there was a lot of bickering going on there was a lot of skirmishes in fact quite honestly there was a lot of killing going on there was civil war if you will during this time and we learned that Israel was in a state of civil war throughout both roja booms 17-year reign and any of the kings after them there was just so much fighting going on there there was defenses and strongholds put up between the borders there there was crisis after crisis and the reality is that that God had prophesied until done this before that when you give yourself a king bad things are gonna happen he wanted to be their king he wanted to be the ruler over one people that he created to be his blessed people to be a blessing to all the earth and instead when they said no we want our own king they separate into people and massive fighting happen it's a little bit of the reaping what you sow in their lives of what's going on here so Amos gets this phone call from God and God says I know you live in Judah I know you're near Jerusalem with your sheep I want you to go north into the Kingdom of Israel those people you're fighting against and having a crisis with I don't know how he's getting across the border I don't know what that's looking like for him but go there and proclaim the message I have for you this would have been crazy when I was the security guard for the Olympics in 1996 I was even skinnier than I am now actually so I don't know I wasn't that threatening but that's the way it was I was a security guard there it was really interesting I got to be at the most intense match of the entire Olympic Games the most vaulted and everyone said this was the biggest match of the entire games of anything do you have any idea I bet you no one would guess what this is they don't have an idea what this would be soccer clothes soccer was a big one as well this is weird field hockey you guys even know what field hockey is we don't have in America but field hockey not just between two people in particular field hockey between India and Pakistan right this is one of the most amazing rivalries in history no one knows I had never heard this before in fact when I saw that I was assigned to field hockey I was totally bummed out I was like why can't I go to like gymnastic or some of the shows on TV no one shows field hockey on TV but they sent me to field hockey little did I know what was gonna happen at the field hockey game because the first few were boring I was like no this is lame USA does have a field hockey team I don't even remember how they did it was that memorable to me about field hockey but in the end Pakistan on the other hand that was intense they called other security guards to be part of this thing they gave a special training on what to do because they assumed there was going to be crisis that broke out and they told us basically here's the things you can't do which it was so funny we were all volunteers for volunteers there they basically said you can't do anything there you you can watch things happen you know that I think a few of us had pepper spray so we could protect ourselves but that was about all because we they weren't insured to help us or anything like that so our job was to call the police if things got weird right so I got stationed there the place was sold out and a riot broke out in the middle of the field hockey you know what I did that's what I did I just stood there and watch the whole thing people were falling off the stands there was there was like surfing I mean it would crowd sir it was amazing it was one of the most unique things in the world because these two countries don't get along when it comes to rivalry I mean this isn't Seattle San Francisco right this happened in today this is worse I mean this is something amazing some of you I think have been to India and you've experienced some of the animosity between India and Pakistan I think I read this week secondly is cricket have you heard of cricket before cricket is also a huge one between India and Pakistan is a lot of fighting there so when I first read Amos and I thought about this I thought God's calling Amos Indian Amos to go to Pakistan right this is what's happening here there's there's some challenge going on here so Amos gets this call he's being called to go to the other side to the other team and in reality this is this is really all we know about Amos this is all we know except the message that he gives because he's you know profession there we can assume he's uneducated may be poor but I read some commentaries this week that think he was actually a business owner and that he owned all these trees as well which Amos talks about and then he fed his sheep with these trees and ultimately had a lot of business in there as well it's funny because he denied any connection to professional ministers of any kind of fact if you've ever said the words I'm not the Prophet nor the son of a prophet do you know you're quoting Amos actually that those are Amos his words he vehemently denied being part of the religious connection crowd and when he went to when he went to Israel he didn't want to be part of that in fact I think he came in kind of saying I'm kind of one of you I'm a worker I'm doing my thing but I have a message for you so so what does he say here what is the message he says I think the message can be broke down into four ways the four part break down the Book of Amos and here's the things he says Amos 1 & 2 talks about 7 judgments against the surrounding nations so he goes to Israel and the first thing he does he doesn't condemn the Israelites or the people from Judah he condemns the nations that are surrounding them I tried to put a map up here but it's just these are small screens so I can't really show you but there's certain nations surrounding Israel and Judea this time like Philistine Philistia and Edom and there's some of these other nations that are surrounding them he goes into Israel and starts proclaiming judgment against them we'll read a couple of those in a second in Amos 3:6 then he turns his attention to Israel and judges them for a good three chapters and says all kinds of terrible things about what God's gonna do to the Israelite people aim is 7 through 9 he talks about five visions of judgment against God's people here and then an Amos 9 there's this surprise ending that happens in the last I think it's five verses of Amos there's a really surprise ending so if you're Rickett down the judgments against the nations are really interesting like I said usually a prophet goes into an area to judge the people that are there but Amos is different he goes in there and starts judging the other nations surrounding them best to read a couple of these things so you see what he says so I'll have these on the screen behind me if you don't have your Bible because I'll be jumping through scripture a little bit in the first two chapters Amos 1:2 says these words and he said Amos the Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem the pastures of the Shepherd's mourn and the top of Carmel withers he's bummed Amos feels the weight of things that are going on coming from Jerusalem I have a message for you that's brutal here it is three thus says the Lord for three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not revoke the punishment because they have thrashed Gilead with threshing sledge 'as of iron that's what he says here skip down to verse six here thus says the Lord for three transgressions of Gaza and for four I will not revoke the punishment because they carried into exile a whole people to deliver them up to Eden verse nine thus says the Lord for three transgressions of Tyre and for four I will not revoke the punishment because they have delivered up the whole people to eat him and did not remember the Covenant of Brotherhood verse 11 it happens again thus says the Lord for three transgressions of Eden for four I will not revoke the punishment that's not familiar so that all the time because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity and his anger torpor Pecha Lee and he kept his wrath forever and finally in verse thirteen thus says the Lord for three transgressions of the ammonites and for four I will not revoke the punishment because they have ripped open pregnant women in gilead brutal that they might enlarge their border this all happens also in chapter 2 this same pattern for three transgressions and four for this this pattern is kind of a Jewish idiom which you know Jewish saying if you will which kind of means completeness it's a it's a poetic way of saying I've seen it all if you will God's saying I've seen all the things that are going here and so it's an indefinite number of things that are going on here and he starts with RM or Damascus here Damascus was the capital of Aaron's surrounding them and he quickly moves through all these nations Philistia Tyre Edom Amon and Moab and all of them were condemned now the funny thing is I can almost hear the is while he's doing this be like amen yeah the stinking nations around us yeah let's get him you know I got it you know and then things change a little bit he changes his tune a little bit when you get to Amos two verses Amos chapter two verses four through five for thus says the Lord for three transgressions of Judah and for four I will not revoke the punishment because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his statutes but their lies have led them astray those after which their fathers walked so I send fire upon Judah and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem now here is where the cheers are starting right yes God's gonna finally wipe out those crazy people those people in the South I'm finally gonna be justified we've been fighting with these people forever gettime Lord you know that's exactly right so I can imagine that people are getting all sided but then then Amos changes gears once again and it gets really really personal in fact the next thing he says is in a.m. is t6 thus says the Lord oh no here it comes for three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not revoke the punishment because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted a man and his father go into the same girl so that my holy name is profaned brutal tough words there yes it means what you think it does and we don't need to explain any more than it really says there but here it is he judges the nation's he judges Israel yeah amen we get all that don't don't don't we like it when we hear a sermon or something like that and we're like yeah I have a friend it needs to hear this you know I know exactly what this message is for this person you know but then the interesting thing is when when when the Bible when the sermon is turned towards our own eyes and our own minds and we go oh this is about me too I didn't realize that I may have even been worse than my neighbors than people around me I didn't even know that interestingly enough is Amos blast them in so many ways I kind of am reminded of a parent we have two kids we have Bethany and Zachary and so sometimes we yell at them I'll just be honest sometimes we yell at them and it's so funny because sometimes when we're like yelling at Zachary or something like that I can kind of see Bethany kind of get a smug look on her face and then we're like you but you are even worse let me tell you all the reasons why you know it's it's just like a kid you know I can almost see this when Amos is going in there and telling them yeah and someone else is getting yelled at oh now now mom and dad's yelling at me too this is what's happening in this cry and and the worst is that for three chapters even three and a half chapters the last part of chapter two and chapters three through six are all judgments against Israel this guy was not popular this guy was proclaiming a message which would have been brutal in the in the in the chapters after that it's visions of future judgment as well so so all of this is judgment judgment judgment and then visions of what the judgment is going to look like so these judgments are things like locusts which sounds familiar if you were here last week in our Joel series a fire a plumb line summer fruit and the Lord by the altar these are all visions of judgment of things that will happen because of judgment and these are all judgments against God's people for their great corruption and then interesting enough in the break down in in chapter 9 verses 8 through 15 there's hope at the very end of it there's not much hope but there's a little bit of hope at the end of this book and so most of this book is really judgment and that's a hard thing to get most of what Joel said was judgment for you here last week we talked about how God is a judge he's one who judges people and that's kind of hard sometimes to understand well Amos kind of picks it up a little bit and this judging happens throughout Amos as well now now interestingly enough the same message is it's the same dripping faucet message that God used for Joel when he talks about the day of the Lord he says the day of the Lord is coming and Amos 5:18 through 20 woe to you who desire the day of the Lord why would you have the day of the Lord it's darkness and and not light as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall and a serpent bit him this is not a good thing it not the day of the Lord darkness and not light and gloom with you brightness in it and in 412 we hear this other warning where where Amos says the people because you do all this here's a great line prepare to meet your God that's what he says this is a judgment that's not a happy saying hey prepare to eat your God it's gonna be great this is God's coming as a warrior God's coming to judge you because of the way that you've treated one another we could not read the minor prophets and see that God doesn't have a desire for ruling over everything as king and for people to treat each other just Lee and to live righteously and I said last week the day of the Lord really refers to any day which the Lord actually shows his desire to rule over everything and the reality that he actually does rule over everything and sometimes he needs to prove that to people in a really really intense way and that's what happens through Amos so let me turn a corner why is all this in here why is all this judgment I think it's different than the book of Joel and it's and it's hard to talk about judgment every week because I kinda want to talk about happy things sometimes you know but but the reality is I think there's something for our hearts and our lives when we see this message the message of Amos I think the big reason is the judgment in Amos is because they are turning first of all from the Lord's leadership they're turning from his rule the day of the Lord refers to a day when people are saying I don't want God to rule over me I don't want God to have his say over me I want to do my own thing and they continually rejected him as ruler I mean it's really interesting if you read more in chapter 4 God says in verses 6 through 11 I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities in lack of bread in all your places yet you did not return to me declares the Lord I also withheld rain from you when you were there three months to the harvest I would send rain on one city and rain and no rain to another city one field would have rain and the field on which it did not rain would wither so two or three cities would wander to another city and drink water and would not be satisfied yet you did not return to me he says this multiple times if we read this you did not return to me he he's proving that he's King he's proving that he's over everything and he's wanting peace to kind of bow the knee and say yes Lord I trust you you're the king you're the rule or instead people were doing their own thing saying I'm I I can control everything that's going on here and gods saying look at all these things that I've done can't you see me working if you can't see me working in a good way I'll show you how I work also in a way that's judgment and that's a crazy thing so then in he says the Lord of Hosts says to the house of Israel seek me and live do not seek Bethel do not enter Gilgal or cross over Beersheba for Gilgal shall surely go into exile and best little Bethel shall come to not seek the Lord and live in other words here get real with God in other words get real with his lordship over our lives you know there's a sense that many of us in here are are sometimes just kind of doing our own thing I think this is where the mirror of Scripture was held up to me this week because a lot of times I think that I'm in control of things a lot of times I think that I've got a handle on things in my life and and then things happen right I mean I didn't think of this this morning this morning getting ready for church you know trying to get some sleep last night which shouldn't happen and then my wife was actually on worship team so we practice and then she's like I got to stay home with my throwing up daughter we get here the the heats not working the children's ministry area so we had to scramble everything's like broken it was so interesting I got done and I was like god you're the King here you're in charge like I can try to put the show on as best as I can and sometimes I just gotta be on sometimes I just go through those motions and and it's sad to say that but sometimes I think all I can I got this God you know I got I got this now I'm pretty I've preached hundreds of sermons Lord I've prayed a lot you know I'm ready for this thing our boards we've planned we've made this happen you know there's it's and so when I read Amos this week I thought about work where do I still need to bend the knee to the Lord and say you're king you're in charge you can you can do whatever you want you you could be in charge of my life and I think for many of us we just have to fill in the blank where that's at where's that at in our lives where's the places where you are still holding control over your life where is the places you're saying now I I don't really need the Lord's help in that I think all of us have pieces of our life that are like that God is saying get real with me I'm the ruler know me love me return to me some of us need help with that today some of us that's just the first step for us to say yes to the Lord Jesus and say ah okay Lord I've been running my own life doing my own thing for all this time today is the day today is the day I change and say you are the king and the second thing is probably the biggest message of the Book of Amos to be honest with you even Amos finds out here as he goes into Israel that people were doing their own thing by not living righteously or justly with other people some were even the religious type and not doing what God wanted as their rightful king and so what does Amos condemn them for in verse chapter 5 verses 10 and following he says these words they hate him who reproves in the gate and they abhorred him who speaks the truth therefore because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him you have built houses of hewn stone but you shall not dwell in them you have planted pleasant vineyards but you shall not drink their wine for I know how many are your transgressions and how greater your sins you who afflict the righteous who take a bribe and turn aside the needy in the gate skip down to verse 21 I hate it's pretty rough words from the Lord I hate I despise your feasts and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies even though you offer me your burnt offerings and green offerings I will not accept them and the peace offerings of your fat animals I will not look upon them take away from me the noise of your songs to the melody of your harps I will not listen but let chugs out let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like ever-flowing stream we read that again let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream oh the justice is super-important to the Lord if we've looked at these characteristics of God like God is kind of a God of love and Hosea and he cares for us like a like a wayward bride in a way words there's the picture of love in there and we see last week that in Joel that God is a God that judges and he is willing to do that and sometimes does judge we get a picture in Amos that's a little different God is a God that is just he's a god that has complete justice in his character which is a beautiful thing and and the reality is he condemns a people when they are not just to one another he says that is not the way I've created you to live I mean do you know what justice is do we know as a community I mean many of us think that justice is kind of getting what you deserve if you will many of us think of that the criminal system or the law law enforcement people and usually it has a sense like that when we think of justice by wonder if if that's the full picture of justice because I'm sure that's part of the picture of justice of what as well but what does God really mean when he says let justice roll down like waters let justice roll down I wonder what that looks like and what that means I think his very first words against Amos goes straight to the issue when he says that we read this a minute ago in Amos 2 6 and 7 for three transgressions and for four I will not revoke the punishment because they sell righteous for silver and needy for a pair of shoes they shall trample the head of the poor and the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted I think here we get a picture of God's idea and God's desire for us to be just people the idea of justice is the proper treatment of everyone around us the proper treatment of those who are surrounding in this matter who they are no matter what they look like and even in Amos here especially the poor and the need in the afflicted people who can't help themselves what's happening here in Amos is that people are making money by way of other people by oppressing other people by doing their own thing by saying I don't I don't care how they live as long as I get my share right as long as I make my money I'll be fine I don't care who I have to walk over to get there I don't care who I have to bribe to get there I don't care what that looks like and here it is God judges the people of Israel for that now I think it's fair to say we can't we can't not assume that God would judge them if justice was really gonna happen we can't allow a God who's good to keep that happening right and so when you think about judgment you think is that really fair I actually go yeah that's super fair that's God showing his justice by judging people for not being just in their own lives so let me give you a principle today as you go into Christmas all right the message of Joel I think can be wrapped up in a couple things the big principle here is this if we are not living right with the watching world we are not living right with God if we are not living right with the watching world we're not living right with God now that may be intense for some of you because I think a lot of us think of our relationship with God is a personal thing and it doesn't really affect how I do my work doesn't really affect how I do my business dealings doesn't really affect how I go to school doesn't really affect how I live in my family but the reality is I think if we're gonna take a message out of Joel in a big level if we are not walking right with the world around us so if we're not living righteously and living justly with the world around us we are not walking right with God he wants his people to be just more over who he who has been given much much is required this is why the Christian community should be generous and even care for such things as social justice what a great thing to think about during the holiday season of stuff that Christians should be the biggest givers I think people should be the most just as Christians I think that's the truth and I think that should mark us as God's people like Israel's calling they were called to be a blessing because they were blessed by God and I think that calling goes to us today as God's people as well we are called to be a blessing because God has blessed us with so much we should be known for justice we should be known for care and it's amazing what happens when someone is known for justice and care isn't it we all heard this week that Nelson Mandela passed away most of us saw that on the news most of us had some effect of that in our own lives we thought about him we thought about the life that this man lived and it's an interesting story his story is very very interesting I don't know if you're like me I'm a bit of a nerd and I say that in a really endearing way so I've ever called you a nerd it's like it's like my way of giving you props basically but I'm kind of nerd so when I read about and I'd seen movies on Nelson Mandela I've done all the stuff when I read that he passed away I went to the Internet to do my research read all about his life and it was really interesting to see his life and I I don't have time to go about it but some of the really interesting things most of us know that he was arrested in 1962 and he was jailed for 27 years because of his desire to see justice he fought against the apartheid in South Africa the idea that people were not created equal the people of black skin could not be in government could not be in sales and all of that stuff just atrocities that were happening in South Africa during that time and he fought against this thing and he's super complicated he's a man he's multiple he's married in divorce many times he was known to actually be part of a bombing on a facility I mean there's all kinds of weird things that this man was also known for and he was even said to be a guy that's like I'll use any means necessary to bring justice into our world today and he goes if I don't if I don't live for that then I'm surely gonna die for that as well and he spent so many years in prison because of his own views you know years after he was released after he was in prison there became talks of forming a multiracial democracy in South Africa and three years later Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end apartheid and months after that he was elected as president of South Africa what a beautiful story he was hoping to end poverty and resolve wars and conflicts throughout Africa as a new president in that way he said some interesting things this as I read in his life when his trial happened on the on the 20th of April 1964 he said during my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of African people I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination I have cherished the ideal of a democracy and free society in which all persons live together in harmony with equal opportunities is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to achieve but if this needs be it's an ideal for which I am prepared to die for as well before he died he said what counts in this life is not the mere fact that I have lived it's a difference we have made in the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life that we leave there will be life after Mandela he says this as well on that last day I want to know that those who remind we're behind me will say the man who lives here today has done his duty for his country and his duty for his people now I don't I don't know your take on Nelson Mandela I know he was complicated and we don't know much about his man's even personal religious life or anything like that what I do know is the man displayed that he saw the image of God and every person Hey I don't know why he saw that I don't know what it looked like in his life to see that but I think we can learn something from that as people I think we can look at that and say yeah Nelson saw the value of people around and he treated he wanted to see people treated justly and righteously and I think about this and I think about this message to Amos to us today and I think about how are we living justly how are we living righteously with the people around us who may have needs who are being fought against Jeff justice is one of those things that that means we're simply called to do what is right I think it has a lot less to do with fairness and it has to do with what it's right choosing to do what is right sometimes we get hung up on the idea whether it's fair to help someone who could probably help themselves if they just get you know get their act together or something like that but that's not the right question a lot of times I think sometimes we're just called are we doing the right thing to the other people around us so does that make life simpler for us I don't know it is doesn't mean that you're always giving a couple bucks to someone who's half but asking for help probably not maybe sometimes it does it always means that we're speaking up for the rights of others who can't speak for themselves or someone who's treated unjustly they talk about bullying so much in schools nowadays if you're a school if you're a high school kid in here today what would it be like to treat someone justly in your life by speaking up for someone who's being bullied it's never right to be in a deceitful business practice it's always an injustice to have someone exploited in any way socially economically sexually all of those things are in Justices and the reality is if we are living to do any of those things where we're benefitting from someone else or being unjust and God desires more from us as his people let me wrap this up today injustice permeates our world but we often don't see the suffering of others as that important to be honest with you this is where the message the Book of Amos kind of hit me a little bit this week because a lot of times I just live my life and don't think about the needs of other people but let me just say this the most cool thing in the world about the Bible is that God does not play favorites with anyone God doesn't play favorites with you or me if our life's cleaned up if we look a certain way if we smell a certain way God doesn't play favorites he doesn't see the image of God in you more than he sees in a person who was sleeping on the streets last night trying to get warm he sees the image of God in that person as well and ultimately I think around Christmas this is good for us to think about generosity to think about how can we give to those people who have needs what does that look like I mean there's all kinds of things I think about it I think about how adoption is a just thing and a beautiful thing I think about all kinds of things that are happening here at imprint Church through your lives that are showing God's just character so Amos should simply simplify your life God's calling you into the relationship with him and he's calling you to be in relationship with other people and to treat them fairly and justly and the big reason why let me tell you why is because God treated you justly and fairly as well through Jesus Christ the reality is when we think about our lives that we live most of us think we can self justify ourselves we think we can do anything we can to make us acceptable to God but the Bible tells us that the God sent His Son Jesus to Earth to live a life that we could not live to die an unfair death for us because he was being just to himself God was pouring out his justice on Jesus by doing everything that happened at the cross and saying yeah I want my people to be in relationship with me and so I'm gonna be just to my son Jesus and pour all my punishment on him and I'm not gonna be fair to us to me and you has his people years later for God the right thing was to do to punish the sins and the fair thing was to punish us but the just thing was to punish Jesus for the sins that were out there and the reality is that we can receive him as people today if you want justice in your life the first start I think is really to bend your knee and say yes I want you to be king of my I floored and I want to live Jess Li so will you do one thing in the name of Christ for me this season if you've done that I want you to do one practical application today sometimes I don't do this but I think this is a good thing my family this we we do advent calendars and stuff which is been really fun my wife thought of all this stuff so don't think I'm a good person it's my wife all right my wife done all has done all this stuff but on Tuesday my wife decided to go to old concerns website and we purchased two farms to send to people who needed them in a developing country now again this is my wife's idea I don't think I'm cool this is all my wife she's the one who did this kind of stuff but it was a just thing for us to do so when you think of one thing you can do for justice in the name of Christ this holiday season well you think of one thing you can do to say I'm gonna do this maybe as a family maybe this is the time for you to pray about if you have a family you can take your time with your kids and say what should we do for justice this year if we believe that Amos is also speaking us today what do we say is just for us will you do that for me do something for justice let's pray about these things together God thank you for your word to us thank you for what you're speaking to us in your word to our lives God I would pray now as we turn to you in response that you would give us the ideas of things to do would you help us understand what you want for us as your people would you help us to understand what it's like to live justly to live righteously on behalf of the other people that can't live and can't do things for themselves even god I pray that you would give us the wisdom on how to do that well God is we turn to you this holiday season may you grant us the wisdom and doing that God I'm thankful Lord today that you are good that you are king over all you want to see people treated fairly and we can turn to you today as our King and that we can turn to you and say we want to live that way as well so god I pray for that for each one of us now in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Imprint Church

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Id: SrHNHaI3hCw

Length: 39min 48sec (2388 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 09 2013