WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.639 Today's scripture reading comes from the words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa. 00:00:05.520 --> 00:00:11.480 The vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:18.219 Judah, and Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, was king of Israel. These passages are found in your bulletin 00:00:18.219 --> 00:00:24.760 if you'd like to follow along as we read. This is what the Lord says, 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:32.000 For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not relent. They sell the innocent for silver, 00:00:32.140 --> 00:00:37.620 and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the 00:00:37.620 --> 00:00:45.359 ground, and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl, and so profane my holy 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:53.340 name. There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court, and detest the one who tells the 00:00:53.340 --> 00:01:00.360 truth. You levy a straw tax on the poor, and impose a tax on their grain. Therefore, though you have 00:01:00.360 --> 00:01:06.079 built stone mansions, you will not live in them. Though you have planted lush vineyards, you will 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:13.439 not drink their wine. For I know how many are your offenses, and how great your sins. There are those 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:18.580 who oppress the innocent, and take bribes, and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. 00:01:18.579 --> 00:01:24.900 Therefore, the prudent keeps quiet in such times, for the times are evil. 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:32.859 Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say 00:01:32.859 --> 00:01:41.719 he is. Hate evil, love good, maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have 00:01:41.719 --> 00:01:49.539 mercy on the remnant of Joseph. This is what the sovereign Lord showed me. He was preparing swarms 00:01:49.539 --> 00:01:56.120 of locusts after the king's share had been harvested, and just as the late crops were coming up. When they 00:01:56.120 --> 00:02:04.319 had stripped the land clean, I cried out, Sovereign Lord, forgive. How can Jacob survive? He is so small. 00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:12.139 So the Lord relented. This will not happen, the Lord said. And this is what the sovereign Lord showed 00:02:12.139 --> 00:02:18.719 me. The sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire. It dried up the great deep and devoured the 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:27.419 land. Then I cried out, Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop. How can Jacob survive? He is so small. So the 00:02:27.419 --> 00:02:34.280 Lord relented. This will not happen either, the sovereign Lord said. This is what he showed me. 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:40.560 The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb with a plumb line in his hand. 00:02:41.339 --> 00:02:49.199 And the Lord asked me, What do you see, Amos? A plumb line, I replied. Then the Lord said, Look, I am setting 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:55.919 a plumb line among my people Israel. I will spare them no longer. The high places of Isaac will be destroyed, 00:02:55.919 --> 00:03:02.619 and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined. With my sword, I will rise against the house of Jeroboam. 00:03:03.619 --> 00:03:11.139 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, king of Israel. Amos is raising conspiracy 00:03:11.139 --> 00:03:18.019 against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words, for this is what Amos is saying. 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:24.659 Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile away from their native land. 00:03:24.659 --> 00:03:31.859 Then Amaziah said to Amos, Get out, you seer. Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there, 00:03:31.960 --> 00:03:37.800 and do your prophesying there. Don't prophesy any more at Bethel, because this is the king's sanctuary 00:03:37.800 --> 00:03:46.000 and the temple of the kingdom. Amos answered Amaziah, I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:53.199 but I was a shepherd, but I was a shepherd, and also took care of sycamore fig trees. But the Lord took me 00:03:53.199 --> 00:04:03.120 from tending the flock and said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel. Now then, hear the word of the Lord. 00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:09.860 You say, Do not prophesy against Israel and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac. 00:04:09.860 --> 00:04:15.120 Therefore, this is what the Lord says. Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, 00:04:15.600 --> 00:04:21.439 and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:28.939 and you yourself will die in a pagan country. And Israel will surely go into exile away from their 00:04:28.939 --> 00:04:35.860 native land. This is the word of God. Well, good morning, Watermark. You get me again this morning. 00:04:35.860 --> 00:04:43.180 For those of you who weren't here last week, we began a series on the prophets, which we're going 00:04:43.180 --> 00:04:51.020 to do over the course of the summer. And last week, we began with Jonah. Have any of you heard the phrase, 00:04:51.319 --> 00:04:58.360 the terrible twos? Okay, I can see the parents over there with young children nodding, yes, and maybe 00:04:58.360 --> 00:05:02.100 some of the young people over here, I think, I haven't got a clue what you're talking about. Is that a rock 00:05:02.100 --> 00:05:07.500 band or something like that? And then there's some of you maybe with older children who think, yes, I know exactly 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:13.200 what you're talking about, and I do not want to go back there. Well, I think the phrase, the terrible twos, is 00:05:13.200 --> 00:05:21.460 very misleading. Because you kind of think to yourself, well, when your child turns three, they're no longer 00:05:21.460 --> 00:05:28.240 going to be terrible. And they're going to somehow be angelic, and the tantrums will end, the strong will will end, 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:35.280 and you're going to have this perfect child. And my wife and I found out that that isn't exactly the case. 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:41.560 Even this morning, my little son was walking around, he's just turned three, and he's got my sermon notes, and he 00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:50.740 says, this is rubbish. So the sermon has already been judged. Okay. But the other night, my wife and I, we are sitting 00:05:50.740 --> 00:05:57.259 at home, and I'm at the table working, and she's on the couch, and it's time for bed. And she says to Elijah, 00:05:57.259 --> 00:06:02.399 Irina, my wife, says to Elijah, Elijah, it's time to go to bed. Can you pick up your toys, clean up your 00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:11.039 toys? And he looks at her, and he says, no. And at this point, my ears prick up, and I think, well, 00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:16.939 that must be his mother's jeans coming out. And my wife gives me this look and think, that's your jeans 00:06:16.939 --> 00:06:22.539 coming out, obviously. So she tries again, a little bit firmer, and she says, Elijah, pick up your toys. 00:06:22.540 --> 00:06:29.740 And then he says, you do it. Okay. At this point, I sort of stand up and think, well, what this 00:06:29.740 --> 00:06:38.040 situation really needs is the voice of authority. So I kind of walk over there, and I say, Elijah, 00:06:38.820 --> 00:06:47.460 listen to mommy and pick up your toys. He says, no, mommy can do it. Okay. At this point, we start 00:06:47.459 --> 00:06:53.039 taking on different roles. My wife suddenly becomes good cop, and I obviously take on the role bad cop. 00:06:53.079 --> 00:06:58.739 And she says, Elijah, my boy, daddy and mommy love you. You know, just say sorry, pick up your toys, 00:06:58.779 --> 00:07:05.899 and we can go to bed. And I'm like, I give him an ultimatum. I said, Elijah, pick up your toys, 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:14.000 or you're going to get a smack. And he looks at me, and he goes, no. So at this point, I'm now, 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:20.500 I'm in a battle between my three-year-old, and he's winning. And so now I have to do this. And I 00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:24.899 have to tell you, as a father, I don't enjoy disciplining my children at all. It's not something 00:07:24.899 --> 00:07:28.660 I kind of relish in. I don't want to do it. But now I've kind of told him this, and I have to follow 00:07:28.660 --> 00:07:34.180 through with the consequences. So anyway, I pick him up, and we go through to his bedroom, and my wife 00:07:34.180 --> 00:07:40.000 comes along too. And I sit him down and said, Elijah, say sorry to mommy. Ask her to forgive you. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:47.399 Clean up your toys, or are you going to get a smack? No. So anyway, I smack him not very hard. I'm not 00:07:47.399 --> 00:07:57.379 beating my children, but I smack him gently. And he still doesn't relent or repent. And so I say to 00:07:57.379 --> 00:08:02.660 him again, okay, you have a choice. Either you're going to say sorry to mommy and ask her to forgive 00:08:02.660 --> 00:08:08.600 you, or you're going to get a smack. Which one do you want? He looks at me, and he says, smack me. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:16.759 But hold me tight. I don't know why hold me tight. But anyway, so I do it. And the second time, 00:08:16.819 --> 00:08:22.300 he kind of realizes this isn't going to end so well for him, right? Like whose will is going to 00:08:22.300 --> 00:08:28.120 last the longest? And so eventually, he relents, and he goes to mommy. And mommy's like, Elijah, 00:08:28.180 --> 00:08:32.100 my boy, I love you. And he goes, I love you too, mommy. I'm so sorry. I'll pick up my toys. And off they 00:08:32.100 --> 00:08:40.560 go, they pick up their toys, and it ends all kind of well. But God had the same problem with his children, 00:08:41.159 --> 00:08:50.800 Israel, in about the 8th century BC. And he needed someone to go and tell Israel what their behavior 00:08:50.799 --> 00:09:01.620 was and what the consequences would be. So he sends two prophets, Amos and Hosea, to tell Israel. 00:09:01.719 --> 00:09:07.919 Now, they were two prophets with the same message, but a very different strategy. And they were sent 00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:15.039 at different times. Amos arrived, and he came with warning against Israel. Where Hosea came, 00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:22.899 and he was wooing the people back to himself. Amos comes across as very tough, where Hosea is quite 00:09:22.899 --> 00:09:30.099 tender, appealing to the people. Essentially, Amos is preaching the justice of God to Israel, 00:09:30.379 --> 00:09:38.500 while Hosea is preaching the mercy of God. And both are needed. Honestly, I would much rather preach to 00:09:38.500 --> 00:09:45.019 you this morning from Hosea. It's just a nice comfort, the tenderness, and all that. Instead, I got 00:09:45.019 --> 00:09:52.460 Amos. But this week, I've really spent a lot of time in Amos, and read up about it, and got to know 00:09:52.460 --> 00:09:59.179 it. And I see that even amongst us, there is such a beautiful ray of hope. And I hope we don't miss 00:09:59.179 --> 00:10:05.480 that today. But let me give you a bit of background, okay? Israel had three kings. They wanted a king, 00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:10.439 and they got a king. But they chose him. They chose Saul. He was tall, good-looking, charming, 00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:19.100 the people's choice. But Saul didn't end so well. And then they chose someone else, David. Now, David 00:10:19.100 --> 00:10:25.180 was described as a man after God's own heart. And for a while, Israel was at its peak. It was doing 00:10:25.180 --> 00:10:32.680 very, very, very well. But one lustful look, and the kingdom started going down. David broke five out of 00:10:32.679 --> 00:10:42.139 the Ten Commandments because of it. And then the third king was David's son, Solomon. And Solomon 00:10:42.139 --> 00:10:50.399 actually brought a bit of glory to Israel. But he did so with heavy taxation and forced labor, because 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:56.919 he rebuilt the temple of God. And he also kind of built his own palace, and got a couple of good 00:10:56.919 --> 00:11:04.899 things going for himself. So his legacy was he rebuilt the temple, but it was a divided people. 00:11:04.899 --> 00:11:11.719 Because what was happening, all this tax money was coming from the north, and it was all going into 00:11:11.719 --> 00:11:16.559 Jerusalem, into the south. And you can imagine the people in the north were not impressed by this. 00:11:16.579 --> 00:11:20.479 And they said, no ways. We're not having enough. We're not giving you our money just to do this kind 00:11:20.479 --> 00:11:26.719 of thing. And they broke away. So the ten tribes in the north called themselves Israel. And the two 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:32.440 tribes in the south, Judah and Benjamin took on the name of the bigger tribe, Judah. And they were at 00:11:32.440 --> 00:11:42.740 civil war with each other. They were not doing so well. And into this situation comes Amos. Now why was 00:11:42.740 --> 00:11:48.879 Israel in trouble? Why were they being such a stubborn child? What were the social conditions 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:59.500 in the 8th century BC? You see, God had intended that Israel was to be a model to the rest of the world, 00:11:59.559 --> 00:12:07.240 what a relationship with God would look like. But instead, it was something entirely different. 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:15.460 You see, God made a covenant with them. And He said to them, and they agreed to this, they accepted it. 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:22.200 He said, if you obey, you will be more blessed than any other peoples on the earth. But if you disobey, 00:12:22.299 --> 00:12:27.460 you will be more cursed than any other peoples on the earth. And if you look at the history of the 00:12:27.460 --> 00:12:37.680 Jewish people, that's been very, very true. So at this time, last week we learned Jonah went to the 00:12:37.680 --> 00:12:42.200 Syrians, right? And he told the Syrians off. And they actually listened, which was quite incredible. 00:12:42.580 --> 00:12:46.840 And they stopped their warmongering. They were no longer a threat to Israel. And it was a great time. 00:12:47.139 --> 00:12:53.660 Israel experienced this time of peace. And with this peace came this prosperity. 00:12:53.659 --> 00:13:02.939 prosperity. But with prosperity came a class and a difference between the haves and the have-nots. 00:13:07.199 --> 00:13:13.339 People became obsessed with luxury goods rather than the necessities of life. It was a fashion 00:13:13.339 --> 00:13:20.620 to have a second home, a second summer house that you would go to. And property, real estate agents were 00:13:20.620 --> 00:13:26.279 just jumping up, left, right, and center. These were the quick, rich, get rich quick boys. 00:13:27.179 --> 00:13:32.240 They just wanted to make money. And they were jumping up on the, they were speculating on the 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:39.340 property price. And essentially what it led to was the rich were getting richer and the poor were 00:13:39.340 --> 00:13:46.440 getting poorer. Now I want to remind you that we are talking about the 8th century BC. 00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:53.720 But the parallels to modern day society is actually very frightening. So what were the moral effects 00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:58.660 of all this? You know, how were they doing amongst this prosperity? Well, as you can imagine, 00:13:59.300 --> 00:14:06.060 there were financial scandals. There was bribery and corruption. There was no longer justice available 00:14:06.060 --> 00:14:13.640 in the courts, especially the poor. The poor suffered the most out of everyone. And because trading was 00:14:13.639 --> 00:14:18.360 booming, people were getting rich and they wanted more and more of it, they moved closer to a seven-day 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:29.600 trading week. And they forgot about God's Sabbath. They became sexually lax, a very permissive society. 00:14:29.819 --> 00:14:36.559 And alcohol consumption increased greatly. And Israel experienced their first problems with 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:45.419 alcoholism. Again, I want to remind you, we're talking about the 8th century BC. Isn't God's word 00:14:45.419 --> 00:14:53.000 amazing and relevant to us? What about their religious life? How were they doing spiritually? 00:14:53.639 --> 00:14:59.579 Well, I want to tell you, in amongst all this prosperity and things, religion was booming. 00:14:59.580 --> 00:15:06.720 Unfortunately, it wasn't the orthodox faith of their fathers. It was the people of Israel started to 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:12.100 mix and add in all the fertility cults, all the things that they liked from the pagan people and 00:15:12.100 --> 00:15:20.200 introduced them. And they started worshiping all these fertility cults and mother nature worship came in 00:15:20.200 --> 00:15:27.420 to the temple. And they even resurrected, they built a sculpture of a bull, which God said, 00:15:27.419 --> 00:15:32.779 do not do any graven images. They built it outside the temple. Now the bull was a very fertile animal, 00:15:32.899 --> 00:15:38.199 very sexual animal. It was there. And then they went a step further and they had male and female 00:15:38.199 --> 00:15:45.740 prostitutes at the temple. So, you know, guys would go in and they would pick a girl to have sex with. And 00:15:45.740 --> 00:15:51.299 the girls would go in and they'd pick a guy to have sex with. Now you wouldn't believe me, 00:15:51.299 --> 00:15:57.579 but attendance was very high. Okay. And the whole reason they were doing this was they thought this 00:15:57.579 --> 00:16:04.000 would persuade God to bless their crops. If we are fertile and we kind of do it in a weird way, 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:12.459 then you will bless our crops. And it wasn't so much that Israel believed nothing. It was that they 00:16:12.460 --> 00:16:22.019 started believing anything and everything. But above all, they just showed no concern for the poor. 00:16:22.580 --> 00:16:28.420 And even within the temple, worship became all about singing. There was all the songs. And in Amos, 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:33.900 it actually says, it's just like, I'm tired of your singing. Your songs make me sick. And slowly, 00:16:34.019 --> 00:16:40.800 the preaching of God's word began to disappear and replaced with these meaningless songs. 00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:48.899 So essentially what happened is these people, they were called to be a holy people, a royal priesthood. 00:16:50.199 --> 00:16:56.919 They'd become just like everyone else, just like everyone else around them. 00:16:59.079 --> 00:17:04.399 Now you would kind of, wouldn't blame God if he just washed his hands of such a people, 00:17:05.159 --> 00:17:10.279 how they had fallen so far. But Israel was God's children. 00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:15.460 And instead of giving up on them, he decided he needs to discipline them. 00:17:16.539 --> 00:17:20.119 And there's this constant refrain throughout Amos. It says, 00:17:20.579 --> 00:17:26.980 for three sins of Gaza, even for four, I will not relent. For three sins of Israel, even for four, 00:17:27.220 --> 00:17:34.379 I will not relent. So the first thing he did was create a food shortage. And it was kind of like 00:17:34.380 --> 00:17:39.840 God was demonstrating to them. You think your fertility cults are what makes your crops grow? 00:17:39.840 --> 00:17:47.660 Well, I want to show to you that I am your provider. I am your minister of agriculture. I am the one who provides. 00:17:48.420 --> 00:17:51.640 So there's food shortage. And then there's this phrase, 00:17:51.640 --> 00:18:00.960 So God brings a water shortage. Now, if you know anything about Israel, they are dependent 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:11.600 on their water. And again, yet you did not return to me. So he sent disease and he ravaged their crops. 00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:19.199 And there was mildew and there was locusts. Yet you did not return to me. And it was obvious for everyone 00:18:19.199 --> 00:18:27.099 looking that something was wrong. But in all this, they just didn't ask the right questions. And they 00:18:27.099 --> 00:18:32.059 didn't ask the right person. They never went to God and said, what is wrong with us? Why is this happening? 00:18:32.059 --> 00:18:40.460 And they carried on. So God sends plagues and raids. There were plagues. First time Israel was 00:18:40.460 --> 00:18:45.419 experienced massive disease in the place. And there were these bandits that would come into the land of 00:18:45.419 --> 00:18:51.379 Israel and steal their livestock. And it was as if God was saying to them, I'm trying desperately to get 00:18:51.379 --> 00:18:58.019 your attention. I'm trying everything to get your attention. What else could he possibly do? 00:18:58.019 --> 00:19:06.519 And he did do two more things. The first one was an earthquake. Now, if we read in Amos 1.1, 00:19:06.779 --> 00:19:12.680 it actually refers to the earthquake. And 250 years later, they're still talking about it as 00:19:12.680 --> 00:19:20.879 the earthquake. Now, if we know anything about natural disasters, when they happen, 00:19:21.420 --> 00:19:27.920 it's always a reminder to us about how fragile human life is. The fact that none of us can 00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:32.759 guarantee that we will be sitting here next week. The fact that life can be taken from us 00:19:32.759 --> 00:19:39.940 just like that, in a moment. And often when people have been through a natural disaster and they 00:19:39.940 --> 00:19:44.400 interviewed, they suddenly get a new perspective on life. And the things that they thought were so 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:51.160 important to them are not as important anymore. But it didn't work with Israel. Yet, 00:19:51.160 --> 00:19:58.060 you did not return to me. So God is left with one final, final act. And that is exile. 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:07.600 In 721 BC, the Assyrians rose up again. And they came in and they took the people off into exile. 00:20:09.600 --> 00:20:16.120 And now, we might think that's a heavy price to pay for disobedience. But God, in his mercy, 00:20:16.119 --> 00:20:22.679 had warned them again and again and again what he was going to do. In Amos 3.7, it says, 00:20:23.379 --> 00:20:28.779 surely the sovereign Lord does nothing without first revealing his plans to his servants, 00:20:29.359 --> 00:20:34.359 the prophets. He had told them again and again, this is what you're doing. This is what the 00:20:34.359 --> 00:20:38.899 consequences would be. And they just didn't believe them. It's kind of like my little boy, right? 00:20:38.900 --> 00:20:46.280 But when I said to him, what you're doing is wrong, these are the consequences. And he didn't believe 00:20:46.280 --> 00:20:53.820 me. And it was the exact same with Israel. So Amos comes into this situation. This is the message 00:20:53.820 --> 00:21:02.920 he brings. Now, Amos arrived. He was a southerner. He was from Judah. And he gets sent to the north. And he 00:21:02.920 --> 00:21:11.560 arrives at the temple in 750 BC. And he was a sheep farmer from the south. And it says he was also a 00:21:11.560 --> 00:21:20.620 dresser of sycamore trees. Now, sycamore trees, they had a fruit on them known as the poor man's figs. 00:21:21.640 --> 00:21:25.880 And if you were very poor, this is the fruits that you ate. They didn't taste very good. 00:21:26.259 --> 00:21:31.360 They weren't very good. But if you were very poor, this is what you ate. And here's Amos. 00:21:31.359 --> 00:21:39.559 This is what he does, right? He tends sycamore trees. So he's by no means a hot shot in society. 00:21:40.379 --> 00:21:45.240 And he even says, you know, I've got no religious training. I haven't been to the school of the 00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:57.779 prophets. I haven't been to seminary. And anyway, so he's not qualified. He's not the obvious choice. 00:21:57.779 --> 00:22:05.940 But under God's hand, he's the perfect man for the job. Because God was using the lowly things of this 00:22:05.940 --> 00:22:14.660 world to shame the wise. He used a poor sheep farmer and a sycamore tree dresser to go to the 00:22:14.660 --> 00:22:20.420 wealthy and the prosperous and tell them what was wrong with it. Last week, we learned in Jonah that 00:22:20.420 --> 00:22:28.360 God used a vine and a worm to expose Jonah's hypocrisy. God uses the simple things in this world 00:22:28.360 --> 00:22:38.940 to expose our hypocrisy as well. So here's Jonah. And he comes to them and he tells them, 00:22:38.940 --> 00:22:49.980 you're doing a few things wrong. And to me, chapter 7 is a beautiful picture into Amos' personal life, 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:56.000 what he went through when he encountered this situation. And from chapter 7, we can learn two 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:04.860 amazing things. Number one, Amos' praying affected God. And number two, his preaching angered men. 00:23:04.859 --> 00:23:15.339 First, his praying. Amos sees three pictures. And the first two pictures he sees are of locusts and fire. 00:23:17.159 --> 00:23:24.939 And Amos pleads with God. He says, these pictures show Amos what God intends to do. And Amos pleads 00:23:24.939 --> 00:23:30.879 with God. He says, please, God, no, don't do that. Don't do that. He says, sovereign Lord, 00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:40.760 forgive. Forgive. How can Jacob survive? He is so small. And these were the very people 00:23:40.760 --> 00:23:52.260 that he damned with his preaching, but he pleaded with God in prayer. Now, it's either very hard or 00:23:52.260 --> 00:23:58.240 very difficult. I mean, sorry, it's either very hard or very easy, depending on what type of person you 00:23:58.240 --> 00:24:07.839 are, to point out to others when they go wrong. But I wonder how many times when we do that, are we 00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:15.319 praying for those people? Are we pleading on their behalf? Or do we just enjoy pointing out their faults? 00:24:15.880 --> 00:24:24.420 When I was a young and very foolish man, I went to Nepal. I went hiking in the Himalayas. 00:24:24.420 --> 00:24:30.820 And I was on my own, and I kind of met up with another group of hikers. And within that group 00:24:30.820 --> 00:24:38.039 of hikers, there was this Israeli girl who was very beautiful. And we got on very well. This was a 00:24:38.039 --> 00:24:45.080 kind of, she had been to the army. She knew how to fire a gun. And we just got talking. And anyway, 00:24:45.400 --> 00:24:50.460 you know, after the hike, we kept in contact. And then I came back to South Africa, and we started 00:24:50.460 --> 00:24:56.900 emailing. And before long, this romantic relationship had developed. And I knew it was 00:24:56.900 --> 00:25:02.539 wrong. I knew that as a believer, I shouldn't be romantically involved with an unbeliever. But I 00:25:02.539 --> 00:25:10.660 justified it to myself, as we often do, right? I've got this one under control. And it took my best 00:25:10.660 --> 00:25:16.579 friend, and it took one phone call one day where he called me up, and he said some very honest, 00:25:16.579 --> 00:25:23.619 honest, but very harsh words to me about this relationship and what I was saying. And I knew 00:25:23.619 --> 00:25:31.679 he was right. I knew it was the truth. And because of that conversation, I called off, I broke off the 00:25:31.679 --> 00:25:38.099 relationship, what seemed very painful at the time, and full of self-pity, and all that kind of thing. 00:25:38.099 --> 00:25:45.279 But I am so grateful today for the fact that I had a person like that in my life who was prepared 00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:52.379 to speak the harsh words. Because of it, a few years later, I met the most amazing woman. 00:25:53.639 --> 00:26:01.039 And somehow she fell in love with me too. It took a lot of effort, but she did. And she became my wife. 00:26:01.059 --> 00:26:06.259 And she's the mother of my two children. We have a great marriage. She's got a few problems with the 00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:13.559 way I washed dishes. But other than that, it's okay. And I would have missed out on all that. 00:26:15.039 --> 00:26:20.779 Maybe if I didn't have a friend like that in my life who was prepared to speak those harsh and honest 00:26:20.779 --> 00:26:27.799 words to me. But what I found out later, and we're still friends, by the way, is that he was praying 00:26:27.799 --> 00:26:35.259 for me. He was pleading with God for me to have mercy on me. I wonder if we're doing the same. And 00:26:35.259 --> 00:26:43.539 that's what we see with Amos, right? And what else we find out in prayer is that prayer can affect God's 00:26:43.539 --> 00:26:51.259 plans. It says God relented. He actually changed his mind. Because Amos prayed, God changed his mind. 00:26:51.579 --> 00:26:59.640 Now to me, that's just amazing. God considers what we say to him in prayer. This isn't an immovable God, 00:26:59.640 --> 00:27:05.740 and we just kind of pray so we kind of accept and go along with it. This is a God who actually listens 00:27:05.740 --> 00:27:13.520 to our prayer and considers this tiny little speck called Graham Smith and what he says. Now we will 00:27:13.520 --> 00:27:23.340 never change God's character, but we can change his plans. We see it with Moses, and we see it with Jesus. 00:27:23.339 --> 00:27:28.819 And I just wonder for me and for us as a church, if we really understood that about prayer, 00:27:29.459 --> 00:27:36.899 maybe it would change the way we pray. Maybe it would change what we pray. And I think above all, 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:41.379 it would change the amount of time we spend in prayer. 00:27:41.380 --> 00:27:52.080 there's just one thing I want to point out here. It says there, Sovereign Lord, forgive. Jacob is so 00:27:52.080 --> 00:28:00.000 small. Now why was he calling Israel Jacob? You see, Jacob was a man who was, he was called Jacob 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:07.180 before he wrestled with God. And after he wrestled with God, God broke him and changed his name to 00:28:07.180 --> 00:28:13.779 Israel. Now Jacob was a, he was a deceiver. He was a little bit corrupt. This guy deceived his own 00:28:13.779 --> 00:28:21.680 father to get a blessing. Now there's one verse about Jacob in the Bible, which I think is the 00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:27.860 funniest verse. And whenever I read it, I laugh out loud and it probably shows something of my sense of 00:28:27.860 --> 00:28:35.920 humor, but it's the story of Jacob, right? So he's working for Laban and Laban's got two daughters, 00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:42.680 Rachel and Leah, and Jacob just falls for Rachel. She's beautiful and he's totally smitten. And he says, 00:28:43.039 --> 00:28:48.160 Laban, I want to marry your daughter. And he says, absolutely fine, but you've got to work for me seven 00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:55.400 years. And Jacob's so in love, he says, I'll do it. Seven years later, the day arrives. It's the wedding day. 00:28:55.620 --> 00:29:02.460 They throw in this big wedding banquet. The bride arrives. She's got this veil on. And anyway, all the 00:29:02.460 --> 00:29:09.160 festivities happen and it goes late into the night, but then the time comes and there's the marriage 00:29:09.160 --> 00:29:17.799 tent and Jacob and his bride go into the marriage tent. And you know what they do, right? They're in 00:29:17.799 --> 00:29:25.380 the marriage tent, right? Anyway, in the morning, Jacob wakes up and he wakes up and he looks over 00:29:25.380 --> 00:29:33.640 and he's got the ugly sister. Now, if that happened to your best friend, that would be so funny, right? 00:29:34.060 --> 00:29:40.660 But if it happened to you, it might not be so funny. But the moral of the story there is that 00:29:41.660 --> 00:29:48.640 here was a man who was deceiving. He deceived his own father. He was constantly deceiving people. 00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:57.580 Now, he was deceived. It's kind of like the biter is bit. And it's like God saying to Israel, 00:29:57.860 --> 00:30:07.759 you have taken on the character of Jacob again. You have become just like Jacob. And then God shows 00:30:07.759 --> 00:30:17.259 Amos another picture and he shows Amos a picture of a plumb line. Okay, that's a plumb line. It should be a 00:30:17.259 --> 00:30:22.460 piece of lead at the end of a string. It's a rock I picked up this morning. Okay, let's just hope it 00:30:22.460 --> 00:30:28.539 stays in there. But a plumb line is straight. It's what they used to measure buildings with in the old 00:30:28.539 --> 00:30:34.819 times. And it's kind of like God saying, I'm looking for a straight people. No longer are you going to 00:30:34.819 --> 00:30:40.900 measure yourselves against your own standards. You're going to measure them against my standards. 00:30:40.900 --> 00:30:46.900 You know, and we tend to do the same thing, right? We deceive ourselves sometimes where 00:30:46.900 --> 00:30:56.300 we kind of compare ourselves to people who are a little bit more bent than we are, right? Maybe a 00:30:56.300 --> 00:31:02.220 little bit more selfish, a little bit more unkind, a little bit more evil, a little bit more greedy. 00:31:02.340 --> 00:31:08.740 Well, I'm not quite as bad as they are. And I'm sure we've heard people who say when talking about 00:31:08.740 --> 00:31:15.000 Christians, they will say, well, you know, I'm better than a lot of those Christians. And you know, 00:31:15.099 --> 00:31:20.779 most of the times it's true. They are better than a lot of Christians in the way they live. But it's 00:31:20.779 --> 00:31:27.980 the wrong comparison. The comparison is how do you stand up to the plumb line? And for us, the plumb 00:31:27.980 --> 00:31:35.960 line is Jesus Christ. How do you match up to Jesus Christ and His righteousness? Are you straight? 00:31:35.960 --> 00:31:45.340 Are you righteous all the time? And that's what He's saying to Israel. In fact, fast forward 800 years 00:31:45.340 --> 00:31:52.039 later, and we get Jesus saying the same thing. He says to them, when I was hungry, you didn't feed me. When I was 00:31:52.039 --> 00:31:58.319 thirsty, you didn't give me anything to drink. When I was in prison, you didn't visit me. And they said, Lord, what are you 00:31:58.319 --> 00:32:03.839 talking about? When did we see you hungry? When did we see you thirsty? When did we see you in prison? 00:32:04.259 --> 00:32:11.240 And He says to them, whatever you didn't do for the least of these, you didn't do for me. And God is 00:32:11.240 --> 00:32:17.700 helping them make this connection that their relationship with Him is so connected to how they 00:32:17.700 --> 00:32:25.980 see and they treat the broken and the poor around them. And they failed to see it. But let's have a look 00:32:25.980 --> 00:32:32.960 at Jesus, right? People who were completely bent, completely crooked, and they knew they were far 00:32:32.960 --> 00:32:37.819 off the plumb line. Jesus came to them and He didn't leave them down there. He didn't kick them while they 00:32:37.819 --> 00:32:45.519 were down. He said, I'll bring you up. You can take on my righteousness. You can be straight. 00:32:47.319 --> 00:32:53.839 But it was the people who were maybe a little closer to the plumb line. Maybe on the outside, 00:32:53.839 --> 00:32:58.740 they looked pretty good. And the closer they got, the more self-righteous they got. And the more they 00:32:58.740 --> 00:33:04.579 looked down on everyone else below them. These are the type of people who didn't like Amos' preaching. 00:33:04.720 --> 00:33:13.720 And Amos' preaching angered them. But Amos comes very cleverly to Israel. And he starts off and he says 00:33:13.720 --> 00:33:23.299 to them, you know, for three sins of Gaza. And he starts talking about Israel's neighbors. And when 00:33:23.299 --> 00:33:28.339 Israel hears this, they think, yeah, that's good. Finally, God is going to judge those neighbors because 00:33:28.339 --> 00:33:33.079 they're wicked. And then Amos brings it a little bit closer and he talks about Israel's cousins, 00:33:33.240 --> 00:33:38.299 Edom. And he says, for three sins of Edom, I will not relent. And they say, oh, that's great. Good God. 00:33:38.299 --> 00:33:44.579 You're going to judge them too. That's fantastic. And then he talks about Judah. And I remember 00:33:44.579 --> 00:33:51.099 Israel and Judah, they're not in speaking terms. And when they hear that, they think, great. This 00:33:51.099 --> 00:33:57.879 is fantastic. God is going to judge Judah. And then Amos turns it around on them. And he says, for Israel, 00:33:58.879 --> 00:34:07.659 I will not relent. And when he says that, totally offends, especially the religious leaders. And there 00:34:07.660 --> 00:34:13.760 was a priest called Amaziah who was particularly offended by this because he too was enjoying 00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:19.159 the prosperity and all the good things that were happening. And he probably also had a second 00:34:19.159 --> 00:34:27.940 summer house. And he says, farmer boy, go back to the south. Go and do your prophesying and your 00:34:27.940 --> 00:34:33.099 preaching over there. We don't want you. And then he goes and he runs to King and he says, King Jeroboam, 00:34:33.559 --> 00:34:37.639 Amos is here and he's just causing problems. You know, he's saying all the stuff that we're 00:34:37.659 --> 00:34:43.259 going to go into exile and all these things. He said, get rid of him. Get rid of him. He's 00:34:43.259 --> 00:34:49.819 no good, right? It's amazing what we do when we're faced with the truth sometimes, right? 00:34:52.139 --> 00:34:59.059 They had seen all the things God was doing. They had seen the water shortage. They'd seen 00:34:59.059 --> 00:35:03.379 the food shortage. They'd seen the plagues. And when he said exile, no ways. God will not 00:35:03.380 --> 00:35:12.360 do that. And Amos comes against this priest and he says, you know what? You think it's not going 00:35:12.360 --> 00:35:17.099 to happen, but it's going to happen much worse than you think. Your wife is going to become a 00:35:17.099 --> 00:35:22.579 prostitute. The wife of a priest, a prostitute. Your own children are going to die in this land. 00:35:22.579 --> 00:35:27.860 Now they're enjoying everything. They've built these vineyards. They've built these nice storehouses. 00:35:27.940 --> 00:35:31.780 They're not going to enjoy them. In fact, they're going to die in this land by the sword. 00:35:31.780 --> 00:35:37.700 And you yourself, who so boldly stand here and think you know what you're talking about and 00:35:37.700 --> 00:35:46.300 think you know God, you yourself are going to die in a pagan country and you will be exiled. 00:35:49.080 --> 00:35:55.920 And it's kind of like God saying to them, it's like Israel, right? I chose you out of all the 00:35:55.920 --> 00:36:03.920 nations of this world. I chose you as my own people and that's why I need to punish you more severely 00:36:03.920 --> 00:36:13.940 than the rest. You know, we sometimes think that God will never discipline us. We kind of think, 00:36:13.940 --> 00:36:21.840 well, because we're his children, that he will never discipline us. And sometimes he's a little bit 00:36:21.840 --> 00:36:28.320 more severe with his own children because he loves us, because he cares, because he's intimate 00:36:28.320 --> 00:36:34.680 in our lives. But he says to Israel, you know, you've gotten so used to sin, you don't even know 00:36:34.680 --> 00:36:43.380 how to blush anymore. You know, your conscience no longer pricks you and you just carry on as before. 00:36:43.460 --> 00:36:48.660 And essentially what he's saying is you've got all this ritual. You still think you're the people of 00:36:48.659 --> 00:36:52.539 Israel. You still think you're God's people and you've got the ritual and you've got the temple, 00:36:52.779 --> 00:36:59.960 but you've missed the most important thing. And that's a relationship with me. You know, we can do 00:36:59.960 --> 00:37:06.339 all the external things. We can have the ritual and we can do all the right things, but we miss it if we 00:37:06.339 --> 00:37:11.480 don't have a relationship with him. And Amos says it, and I think it's the most beautiful verse in the 00:37:11.480 --> 00:37:21.760 whole of Amos. It says, seek me and live. Seek me and live. And Jesus said the same thing. He said, 00:37:22.139 --> 00:37:33.840 seek first my kingdom and my righteousness and all else will be given to you. Seek me and live. 00:37:34.360 --> 00:37:40.559 The final picture, God shows Amos. He says, Amos, what do you see? And Amos says, 00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:48.659 a bowl of fruit that's so ripe, it's just about to go bad. And God says, that's right. My people, 00:37:48.860 --> 00:37:58.739 Israel, are ripe for judgment. And both Amos and Hosea describe God as a roaring lion, ready to pounce 00:37:58.739 --> 00:38:05.360 on Israel. Now I'm very excited today because I'm from Africa and I can tell a lion story. Okay. So 00:38:05.360 --> 00:38:12.460 you see from Texas, they can tell you stories about stakes, but I'm going to tell you a story about a lion. 00:38:12.519 --> 00:38:19.920 And when a lion actually stalks its prey, it's incredibly quiet. You don't know that it's coming up 00:38:19.920 --> 00:38:27.860 close to you until it's right upon you. And just before it pounces on its praise, the lion will roar. 00:38:27.860 --> 00:38:33.700 And the reason it does that is it stuns the prey. You get such a shock that you freeze. 00:38:34.940 --> 00:38:38.940 It's kind of like your three-year-old running up and shouting in your ear sometimes. You just 00:38:38.940 --> 00:38:44.880 freeze. And that was this picture. And God saying, the lion is right here. He's roaring. He's just 00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:52.300 about to pounce. And he said, only a little bit is going to escape. You're only going to get away 00:38:52.300 --> 00:38:57.460 from a sheep, maybe a leg or an ear. Now as farmers, they would have understood that picture. 00:38:57.820 --> 00:39:02.200 They would have known that in Israel at the time when lions were coming, they would have known that 00:39:02.200 --> 00:39:08.080 sometimes when a lion attacked their sheep, all they would get is a leg or an ear back. 00:39:09.220 --> 00:39:19.100 But in that is hope. God's saying, I'm not going to destroy all of Israel, only the sinners, 00:39:19.099 --> 00:39:25.980 only the sinners. There will be a remnant. There will be a leg and an ear that survives. 00:39:28.400 --> 00:39:34.079 And then God starts pouring out. In the gloom and the darkness of all this discipline and judgment, 00:39:34.639 --> 00:39:39.599 this beautiful ray of sunshine opens up. And it's kind of like the sun breaking through the clouds. 00:39:40.059 --> 00:39:45.339 And God starts pouring out these promises. He says, you know what? I'm going to bring you back to your 00:39:45.340 --> 00:39:51.880 land a second time and never again to be uprooted. You know what's more? I'm going to rebuild the 00:39:51.880 --> 00:39:58.920 tent and the tabernacle of David. And you know what's more? I'm going to bring the Gentiles in to the faith. 00:40:00.840 --> 00:40:07.079 Okay, kind of at that point, I hope some of you get excited because that's us, right? Bringing us into the faith. 00:40:07.079 --> 00:40:17.880 In Acts 15, the church is having this huge debate about whether Gentiles need to become Jews in order to 00:40:17.880 --> 00:40:24.699 come into the faith. And James stands up and he actually uses Amos to say, here's the promise. 00:40:24.980 --> 00:40:31.500 Here's the promise. God promised to bring us into the faith. And it's true of the land of Israel. 00:40:31.500 --> 00:40:39.119 Israel is back in their land. They're back in unbelief, but they are back in the land. 00:40:40.579 --> 00:40:48.719 So what is our response this morning? Or as Tobin likes to say, how are we doing? Okay. 00:40:52.239 --> 00:40:57.300 Discipline, it's the horrible D word that we don't like talking about. And Hebrews says, 00:40:57.300 --> 00:41:05.340 discipline is painful at the time, but it produces this harvest of righteousness. And we shouldn't 00:41:05.340 --> 00:41:12.720 make light of the Lord's discipline and we shouldn't lose heart when he rebukes us. Because the reason 00:41:12.720 --> 00:41:21.600 he's doing it is because he's a good father. In fact, he's a holy and just an amazing father. And he's 00:41:21.599 --> 00:41:30.779 doing it because he loves us. The choice we have is how do we respond to God? It's always the choice 00:41:30.779 --> 00:41:38.199 we have. How do we respond? Do we set up our own plumb line and we try and justify ourselves by the way 00:41:38.199 --> 00:41:45.940 we do things and what we do? Or are we the kind of people that God has to keep on saying again and 00:41:45.940 --> 00:41:54.980 again and again, yet you did not return to me? Or are, and this is really what I hope we are, 00:41:55.059 --> 00:42:00.700 are we the kind of people that seek him and live? 00:42:03.880 --> 00:42:08.599 Watermark, I want to tell you this morning, and this is the desire of my heart and the desire for us 00:42:08.599 --> 00:42:17.380 as a church. I pray that we see God, that he is faithful to his promise, that he will do what he said. 00:42:18.400 --> 00:42:23.400 I will bring Israel back. I've brought Israel back. I will bring Gentiles into the faith. I have 00:42:23.400 --> 00:42:32.639 brought Gentiles into the faith. I promise that I will be with you. I promise that I will love you. 00:42:32.639 --> 00:42:40.379 And I promise that as children, when you go wrong, sometimes I will come beside you and I will 00:42:40.379 --> 00:42:43.839 discipline you because I love you. 00:42:49.839 --> 00:42:56.319 What is our response? I don't know where we all are in our walk today, and we're all in different 00:42:56.320 --> 00:43:03.880 different stages of our walk with God. But on every stage of the walk, it's this voice that says, 00:43:04.580 --> 00:43:10.140 seek me and live. Because I've promised to give you life. I've promised to give you freedom. 00:43:11.500 --> 00:43:17.700 Seek me and live. Can I pray with us? Do you mind standing? 00:43:17.699 --> 00:43:29.719 Father, we come before you. Almighty God, the King of kings and the Lord of God, Lord, a God of justice 00:43:29.719 --> 00:43:39.980 and a God of mercy, a God who brings us harsh words sometimes to soften us and tender words to comfort us. 00:43:39.980 --> 00:43:49.980 Lord, we thank you that you are good. We thank you that you are for us and not against us. And I pray for us as a people 00:43:49.980 --> 00:43:58.500 that we will be a people that seek you, Lord. Lord, we will not follow rituals and things of this world, 00:43:58.500 --> 00:44:06.300 but we will follow you. We will seek you, Lord, because only in you we have life. And Lord, I pray for 00:44:06.300 --> 00:44:13.460 my response and for the response of us as a people that we respond to you and come running into the 00:44:13.460 --> 00:44:19.940 Father's arms and hold the Father's hand as you promise to walk through this life with us. 00:44:21.620 --> 00:44:25.440 We love you. In Jesus' name. Amen.