I believe one holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins,
and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
I invite you just to remain standing and bow your heads in prayer.
Father, sometimes things in your word frighten us.
And Father, sometimes when things in your word frighten us,
it goes against our flesh, it goes against how the world thinks,
it goes against how our culture thinks, it goes against what we want to do.
And so, Father, it's very easy for us to almost be like the serpent and say,
did you really say this, Father, and to turn away from it?
Father, we thank you that you love us.
We thank you that you sent your Son to die upon the cross.
We thank you, Father, that your Son in his death upon the cross
and in his resurrection that he has done everything that needed to be done
so that we could be reconciled to you,
and that we receive this purely and only and utterly and completely by faith,
that we can add nothing to the finished work of your Son.
Father, grip us with the gospel so that as we read your word,
we will not be afraid,
but that we will be willing to repent,
to learn, to grow,
and to hold fast to your word
as we hold fast to you.
Father, do this work in our lives,
and we ask this in the name of Jesus,
your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
So I don't know how closely you were listening while Amanda read,
but you might be saying,
George, did the Bible just say that God causes famine,
God causes drought,
God causes crops to fail,
God causes disease,
God causes plague,
God causes violent death.
Is that what...
I was only sort of half listening, George.
Is that what Amos 4 says?
Is that what Amanda just read for us?
If that's what it says,
it touches a really, really, really deep fear in most of our hearts.
And we want to turn away from it.
And it's in fact one of the deep fears
that many people in our culture have.
In fact, you know,
I've noticed increasingly in Hollywood and in paper
that when they talk about something being really disastrous,
they say it's going to be of biblical proportions.
It's the only time they refer to the Bible
when something's going to go really,
really, really massively badly wrong.
It's just sort of the way we assume that the Bible is what it says.
Is that what the Bible's saying?
Is that, George, is it...
That's a bit worrisome.
So let's look.
If you have your Bibles,
and if you don't, once again,
there's still some copies up there.
You're welcome to take one.
Turn to the book of Amos, chapter 4.
And if you're a guest here this morning,
one of the things we do at Church of the Messiah
is we preach through books of the Bible.
I try to make sure that every year we have at least one series,
one book in the Bible from the Old Testament at least,
because it's important for us to be able to read
those parts of God's Word as well.
And anyway, so we're going through the book of Amos this summer.
We'll end it on Labor Day Sunday, God's willing,
and then we'll move on to 2 Corinthians.
That will be the next book that we'll be preaching through.
So let's turn to it.
And the book, Amos,
that has this worrisome thing about Amos 4,
whether God's causing famine and plague and pestilence.
Actually, we all know that during the last election,
we all know that the conservatives caused all those things.
Sorry, never mind.
That was a bad joke.
Anyway,
just like whoever wins in the election down there,
it's the people who lost.
It's that party that causes it.
Anyway, never mind.
But the text is saying something really terrible.
But what begins actually with something that's a bit reassuring to us,
which is that God is completely and utterly opposed to robbery
and to oppressing the poor.
So Amos 4, verse 1,
this is how, actually, we'll read 1 to 5.
It begins with something comforting,
but actually then goes on to do something which is deeply countercultural.
And not only deeply countercultural,
but actually quite surprising to many people, I think,
who are outside of the Christian faith,
what they think that Christians would think about things.
Because it pairs two things together
that we don't always recognize that the Bible is against equally.
Actually, Andrew, why don't you put up my first point,
if you could do that?
What we're going to see in this very first thing,
it's a bit surprising,
but that the non-religious,
the irreligious,
the religious,
and the spiritual,
you know, the people who are spiritual, not religious,
each are hardening their hearts to God.
Each are hardening their hearts to God.
It's not as if the Bible is going to tell us
that we have to turn from capitalism
to embrace some type of spirituality,
which is what our culture would say.
Let's look at the text.
Verse 1 of Amos 4.
Hear this word,
you cows of Bashan.
Cows of Bashan were plump.
They were highly prized because they were plump.
They were very well cared for and very well fed,
and they could command a higher price.
Hear this word,
you cows of Bashan,
who are on the mountains of Samaria,
who oppress the poor,
who crush the needy,
who say to your husbands,
bring that we may drink.
The Lord God has sworn by his holiness
that behold,
the days are coming upon you
when they shall take you away with hooks,
even the last of you with fish hooks.
And you shall go out through the breaches,
each one straight ahead,
and you shall be cast out into Harmon,
declares the Lord.
Just before reading further,
it's an image of complete judgment,
and they'll be taken to a place of judgment
and losing everything,
completely and utterly losing everything.
And it will be a completely straight, unheeded way.
There's no wall stopping at nothing.
They're just completely and utterly taken
to having all that they have
and all that they trust
and all that they possess,
all of their wealth,
all of their power, positions, privilege,
completely and utterly removed
in a very straightforward manner.
That's the basic message of the text.
As Canadians, we like the first part
about oppressing.
It's wrong to oppress
and to take away things from the needy.
The last part we find troubling.
Let's go on to verse four.
Come to Bethel.
Bethel and Gilgal are two important places,
religious centers or spiritual centers.
And it would have been,
both of them would have been places
where there were both something
that looked very much like traditional Jewish worship,
hence it would look religious.
And there would have been something
that also would have looked
far more like spiritual, not religious.
To put it in like a modern place,
it would be a place
where right beside a cathedral,
there would be a coven.
Right beside a place
where there's a jazz vespers,
there's also going to be a place
where people are dancing
to call down the moon.
And right beside the place
where they would maybe be having
a very, very traditional sounding worship
and stuff that from the outside
looks like a choir or a praise band.
And right beside that,
there would be people
all meditating together,
trying to get in touch
with their more spiritual self.
And it's describing,
well, it's describing Ottawa.
But they use the word Bethel and Gilgal.
Come to Bethel and transgress,
verse four to Gilgal,
and multiply transgression.
Do you notice that?
To come to a place like this
is to come not to something
that the Bible's going to approve of.
It doesn't approve of religion
or spirituality.
It sees it that to be involved
in these things
is actually increasing
your rebellion against God.
The mosque and the cathedral
and the coven
and the temple
and the synagogue.
Come to Bethel and transgress
to Gilgal
and multiply transgression
or rebellion.
Some of your versions
might say rebellion.
Bring your sacrifices
every morning,
your tithes,
every three days.
Offer a sacrifice
of thanksgiving
of that which is leavened
and proclaim free will offerings.
Publish them.
For so you love to do,
O people of Israel,
declares the Lord.
So it's a very, very surprising text.
Because in fact,
as you know,
like Eat, Pray, Love,
you can think of lots of things
in the culture
and in movies and all.
There's this picture
that you get away from capitalism.
You get away from the rat race
and then maybe you go
and you learn how to meditate
and you learn how to eat
really good food
and you travel
and all that type of stuff
as well as if everybody's
really upper middle class
and rich.
But sorry,
that wasn't what I meant to say.
The point is that Hollywood
will portray that the option
to capitalism
is more like Walden Pond.
It's a simple life.
It's a spiritual life.
It's getting in touch with things.
They probably wouldn't say
that you'd go to a Catholic church
for a mass
or a church like ours,
but you get this idea.
But the first thing
is to see that the Bible
rejects that.
That's not the direction
God wants you to go.
And the other thing is just,
and this is a really important thing
for us,
is that when it talks about
the oppression of the poor
in verse 1
and it talks about
the crushing of the needy,
to think that it's referring
to capitalism only
is a grave mistake.
It's talking about bureaucrats
and socialist czars as well.
To think that governments
don't for their own purposes
crush their people
is a way to allow
the elite in our culture
to not recognize
not only what goes on
in our own culture,
but makes it that we don't
actually hear the Bible.
Amos chapter 4, verse 1
is not a socialist rant
against capitalism,
nor is it a capitalist rant
against socialism.
It's saying that,
you know what it's saying?
It's contrasting two people,
two types of people.
It's contrasting the people
who are basically,
you know,
whether you go on Dragon's Den
or some of those other places
and they say,
you know, frankly,
I don't care about
all these things.
You know, basically,
I just want to make some money
and at the end of the day,
after I've made some money,
I just want to be able
to have a drink.
And, you know,
basically, I think that
you want to meditate,
you want to go pray
or sing praise songs.
I think that is
unbelievably boring
and that a glass of Jack
while watching TV,
while watching some sports
is infinitely more relaxing
and they're completely
and utterly irreligious
and the Bible says
they're going to be judged.
And the people who go
to the cathedrals
and jazz vespers
and covens
and mosques
and synagogues,
they're also going
to be judged.
I mean,
this is a surprising thing
in our culture
and we in churches
often talk
purely and utterly
as if it's those
more capitalist
or worldly sins
that the Bible condemns.
But here,
the Bible pairs them
together.
Pairs them together.
The non-religious,
the irreligious,
the religious,
and the spiritual,
each are hardening,
their hearts
to God.
In fact,
this text,
you know,
one of the things
that we say
sort of in our culture
is that there's
many,
many different paths
to God.
And actually,
I think the Bible
would say
that that's
completely wrong.
The Bible would say
that there's
many different paths
to hardening
your heart
to God.
There's not
many paths
to God,
just many paths
to hardening
your heart
to God.
For some,
it's making money
and drinking jack
and for others,
it's being
deeply spiritual.
Now,
some of you
might be saying,
George,
that is
one of the most
hard-hearted,
judgmental rants
I've heard
in a long time.
No wonder people
don't want to
come to church.
Don't you think
that's hard-hearted
and judgmental?
And,
don't you think that?
And,
I mean,
I'd have to say
that it's very,
I don't think
I was being hard-hearted
and saying,
I was just trying
to bring out
the Bible,
but I do want
to acknowledge
that it's very,
very easy for us
to read texts
like this in a way
that are very hard-hearted
and judgmental.
It's easy for me
to do it.
It's one of the reasons
why the rest of this text
is very,
very important
and that we need
to call out
to the Father
to never have
our hearts hardened
even as we read
the Bible.
You see,
one of the things
which is condemned
in verses 4 and 5
about religion
and spirituality
is that it's religion
and spirituality
that we declare
for ourselves.
We make up
for ourselves.
We set the rules.
We do it
for our own purposes
and for our own
advancement.
for our own exalting.
And it's easy
for us to slip
into doing this
even when we're
reading the Bible,
even when we're
doing things
we think in a way
that's obedient to God.
But it's very easy
for us to slip
into having everything
be around ourselves.
One of the things
I struggled with
last week
was I actually
thought my sermon
last Sunday
was one of the
worst sermons
I've done
in a long time.
I know some of you
are shocked.
You were here
last Sunday
and you thought,
George,
that wasn't even
in your top ten
of your worst sermons
in the last year.
Boy,
you've really
been missing the boat.
But I,
you know,
I really struggled
for several days
throughout the week
because I thought
I had done
such a poor job.
and then the Holy Spirit
slowly but persistently
had to do a work
in my life
because why is it
about me?
Like,
I didn't see anything
unorthodox
and I tried to explain
the Bible
and I don't think
I did a good job
and then I felt
really bad
and the reason
I felt really bad
is I thought
it was about
my performance
that I thought
it rested
on my shoulders
that I had to do
things in a different
way so that
by my efforts
things would go better
and you know what?
All of a sudden
I've moved into
an area of
self-declared,
self-centered,
self-organized,
self-structured
understanding of religion.
So I don't want you
to hear this text
and I definitely,
especially God,
really worked
in my life.
Sorry if you had to
sit through a bad sermon
last week
but God
really worked
in my life
in preparation
for Amos 4
to help me
realize
just how easy
it is
for us to take
even good things
that are really
literally coming
from God
and turn it
in a subtle
twisted fallen way
into something
which is hardening
my heart to God.
But the rest
of the text,
in fact,
the text that
really worries us
is in fact
the way
into a deeper
comfort and
confidence
with God.
So
the hard
drinking,
money-making
or bureaucratic
control
person,
that's the first
thing and then
the religious
and the spiritual
and then we get
into this very
hard part
in verse 6.
I gave you
cleanness of teeth
in all your cities.
By the way,
in the Hebrew
the I
is emphatic.
So if we were
to almost be
re-editing this
we'd bold it.
We'd bold it
and maybe even
underline it.
I gave
you cleanness
of teeth.
It's an image
of famine.
Cleanness of teeth
in all your cities
and lack of bread
in all your places
yet you did not
return to me
declares the Lord.
And we're just
going to pause
there for a second.
And some of you
maybe are going
to think to yourself
is this
now, George,
where you tell us
that in the original
language it's not
as bad as it sounds.
Well, I looked
at two academic,
three academic
commentaries this week
and I can tell you
it's translated
the Hebrew
very accurately.
It's translated
the Hebrew
very accurately.
In fact,
the Hebrew
as I just mentioned
actually makes it
more,
for us Canadians
it makes it
actually harder
because all the way
through
every one of the
eyes
of the five
sections
is emphatic
in Hebrew.
Actually,
maybe
and so
when it says
about God
causing famine
that's actually
what it says
and I'm not
going to actually
try to explain it
away.
Maybe before I read
any further,
Andrew,
could you put up
the next point
or Rebecca,
could you put up
the next point?
In the hope
that people
will return
to him,
God does
at times
bring disaster.
That's what
the text says.
I'm not going
to spend time
about all of
the different
ways that God
interreacts
to his created
order and
know that those
of you who sat
through my
Revelation series
and when we
went through
Romans,
you know that
there's sometimes
God just allows
things and
etc.
There's a range
of different
options here
and you can
read big
complicated books
on it but
the fact of
the matter is
that this text
does tell you
just how I think
I've summarized it
in the hope
that people
will return to
him.
God does
at times
bring disaster
but the refrain
is important.
Let's read
verses 6 to 11
and I'll read
verse 6 again.
I gave you,
this is God
speaking,
cleanness of teeth
in all your cities
and lack of bread
in all your places
yet you did not
return to me
declares the Lord.
I also withheld
the rain from you
when there were
yet three months
to the harvest.
I would send
rain on one city
and send no rain
on 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
to drink water
and would not
be satisfied.
Yet you did not
return to me
declares the Lord.
I struck you
with blight
and mildew
with your many
gardens
and your vineyards
your fig trees
and your olive trees
the locusts devoured.
Yet you did not
return to me
declares the Lord.
I sent among you
a pestilence
after the manner
of Egypt.
I killed your young
men with the sword
and carried away
your horses
and I made the stench
of your camp
go up into your nostrils.
Yet you did not
return to me
declares the Lord.
I overthrew
some of you
as when God
overthrew Sodom
and Gomorrah
and you were
as a brand
a piece of wood
plucked out
of the burning.
Yet you did not
return to me
declares the Lord.
You know this
isn't completely
you know
I'm not
I mean for some of us
this is not even
remotely abstract.
Some of you
are dealing
with maybe
really serious
illnesses
or serious
financial disasters.
I know that
there's a
people in this
congregation
who have survived
attempts at genocide.
People who are
going to murder them.
I mean it's a very
very small thing
but my daughter
Victoria
her husband
was in a
multiple car accident
this week
on the Queensway
and suffered a
concussion
amongst other things
as car was totaled.
And that
just happened
this week.
In fact I didn't
know about it
I was going to go
I'd been working
in a West End
coffee shop
and I went to get
on the Queensway
and it was backed
up forever
and it must have
been just a few
minutes after the
accident
and I got off
the Queensway
and went around
it and found
out later on
that Sean
had been in
the accident.
So it's not
abstract
is it for us?
So I just want
to say a couple
of things about it.
The first thing
that I want to
say about it
is that this
fact that God
does things
sometimes that
are disasters
to bring people
back to himself
it's the flip
side the exact
same doctrine
that we in
other contexts
we place so
much hope in.
Like later on
in the service
we're going to
pray for sick
people.
Why do we
pray for sick
people?
Because we
believe that God
can sometimes
heal people
slowly by
apparently natural
means.
Sometimes he
will heal people
through drugs
and medication.
Sometimes he'll
heal people
instantly through
prayer.
There are many
people here in
this congregation
who could probably
tell you stories
either in their
own lives or in
lives of people
that are close
to them of God
acting in quite
remarkable and
miraculous ways to
bring healing.
people.
And you know
one of the most
precious doctrines
for the Christian
is the doctrine
of eternal
security.
The doctrine
that when you
put your faith
and trust in
Jesus, when you
reach your hand
up to Jesus
and realize that
he is God's
provision, that
God sent his
son to die upon
the cross and
rise from the
dead to be the
means by which
human beings
could be
reconciled to
him and that
when we reached
out to Jesus
in a sense we
can't reach Jesus
but that it is
his heart to
reach down to
us and to
take our hand
in his and
that when he
takes our hand
in his because
we have put
our, we want
to, we're
trusting him to
do what only
God can do
which is to
reconcile us to
him and that
when Jesus takes
us by that hand
he will never
let us go.
He will never
let us go.
And what is
part of the
ground of that
security is that
God is sovereign.
That God knows
all of the
events in the
future.
That there's
not going to
be an event
in the future
that will mean
oh dang it I
let go of
George as he
falls.
That that just
won't happen
because God is
sovereign and
he'll never let
you go.
Jesus will never
let you go.
You know the
basis of
prophecy that we
believe that Jesus
will return.
We can believe
that Jesus will
return because he
defeated death and
he rose from the
dead and he
ascended into
heaven and he's
going to come
back and we can
trust that he's
going to do that.
Why?
Because God is
sovereign and
all powerful and
we can trust him.
But the same God
who can act in
such a way that I
will never be let
go.
The same God who
can act in such a
way that we can
pray for rain or
that we can pray
for healing.
That is a God who
can heal who can
do those things.
And it also means
that he is a God
who for his own
sovereign purposes
who only desires
that his fallen
creation and
creatures would
return to him
might sometimes
also do things
like cause famine
in the hope that
people will return
to him.
For me to deny
this text would
be to deny that
we can pray.
It would be to
deny that we can
have eternal
security.
It would be to
deny that we can
have any hope.
You can't have
one without the
other.
You can't have
one without the
other.
But there's
something else as
well.
And by the way,
this is one of the
things here.
This, you know,
if you read, for
those of you who
come to faith in
Jesus and you
start to read the
Bible, every
Christian at
different times in
their life, they're
going to have to
make a decision.
will I trust the
Bible and want
to have my mind
conformed to the
Bible?
Or will I do
this?
For many of us,
this is one of
those times.
But I want to say
something else about
this text.
If you could put up
the next point,
Rebecca, please.
It is only because
God is sovereign
and all-powerful that
human beings have
freedom and hope.
It is only because
God is sovereign,
that means he rules
and has authority,
and he's all-powerful
that human beings have
freedom and hope.
Just this, a few
months ago, our
church, people from
our church joined up
with a few other
people as well,
and the Dig and
Delve Apologetics
organization to
sponsor a conversation,
a dialogue between
Aus Guinness.
We worked with the
main atheist
organization in
Ottawa, and they
picked a person to
speak, and we got
Aus Guinness.
It actually happened
to be right here.
They sat down.
Some of you were
here for it and had
a conversation.
He is a philosophy
professor from the
University of Toronto,
and Aus Guinness is a
D. Phil from Oxford,
well-published speaker,
and if you go dig and
delve and you Google
it, Aus Guinness, in
this debate here in
Ottawa, you'll see
something very, very,
very remarkable.
The debate, the
conversation was over
whether you can have
meaning in life without
God.
And I think for many,
many people who were
there, the shocking
thing for us was how
weak the atheist case
was.
And one of the many
shocking things is that
he actually wasn't able
to say whether we have
any freedom from an
atheist perspective.
If you don't believe me,
go looking for it.
Dig and delve.
If you can't find it
easily, email the office
or email me this week.
No, I'm going on
holidays soon.
Anyway, just, we'll
let you, we'll find it
for you somehow.
Somebody will check it,
we'll send it about,
but you Google it.
So here's the thing
about all of this.
This is a very, very
shocking truth.
It's a very hard truth.
But one of the things
is many people, when they
think about this truth,
they just think about
this idea that God can
cause these terrible
things, and they don't
like it.
They don't like the idea
of God being sovereign.
They don't like the idea
that human freedom,
here's the thing, every
system of, there's no
neutral place.
Every system of thought
has to come to term
with the fact that on
one hand we seem to
have human freedom, and
on the other hand there
seems to be causality.
Every system of thought.
And so it isn't as if
somebody might say,
this is terrible, I'm
going to reject this,
this is completely and
utterly a horrible thing.
Well, one moment, how
do Muslims deal with
it?
How do Buddhists deal
with it?
How do Hindus deal
with it?
How do atheists deal
with it?
And I want to tell you
this, I want to challenge
you and say, if you're
there horrified at this,
that if you end up
looking at Muslim
thought, and you look
at Hindu and Buddhist
thought, and you look
at atheist thought and
secular thought on this,
you will end up
thinking, you know
what?
The Bible makes the
most sense.
because, you know,
you think about it
from a fundamental
secular point of view
that everything is just
a result of causality.
Then really, if you're
on a mountain and an
avalanche starts to come
towards you, you have a
perfect image of human
life.
And if an avalanche is
coming towards you, you
have no freedom and you
have no hope.
But if it's God who is
using a hard time in
your life, you can call
out to him for mercy.
Or you can call out to
him and know that he will
be with you in the midst
of that really hard time.
You see, it goes beyond
this sermon.
Sometimes when very hard
times come, maybe it
is something that God
is specifically doing
and we have to call
out to him.
Maybe he is trying to
get our attention because
we have to repent or we
have to return to him.
Maybe it's something
that is just something
that we're going to have
to endure because our
enduring will endure in a
way that brings him
glory.
I mean, I just think,
again, I've mentioned
her many, many, many
times that in my early
ministry, one of the
most horrible things,
one of the hardest
things I had to do was
to visit a woman.
I think she had a
Lou Gehrig's disease in
the very, very final,
final year of her life
and she could, by the
end of it, all she could
do, she couldn't move
anything.
She could hardly even
blink.
She'd move her eyes and
look at me.
She had these haunting
eyes.
They'd follow you around
the room.
She had a little tube
right here by her mouth
and all she could do is
just, she'd speak into it,
try to amplify her voice
and half the time I
could only understand,
most of the time I
could only understand
half what she said.
And she loved Jesus.
I didn't bring her any
comfort at all, I think,
when I went to visit her
because I was so deeply
addicted to wanting to
be able to pray for
healing or do something
to fix it.
And there was nothing to
fix, only to endure.
And let me tell you,
wouldn't you rather
endure that knowing that
you can talk to God and
that he loves you?
That after a short time
in comparison to
eternity, that we will
have resurrection bodies
and that we will be with
him for all eternity?
Wouldn't you rather
endure that knowing that
you have a Savior who
died on the cross because
he loved you?
Than to endure it like
being on the slope of a
mountain, seeing the
avalanche coming at you?
And you are powerless
and hopeless.
And I don't want you to
choose it because one of
them is a fanciful tale,
an imaginary tale that
gives you hope.
Our hope ultimately is on
the fact that God sent
his son.
That God worked a miracle
in the womb of Mary and
he sent his son and that
his son walked amongst us
and that eventually his
son died upon the cross.
And that which seemed like
the defeat of evil and the
defeat of empire and the
and that which seemed like
a victory of empire and a
victory of armed might and a
victory of religion and a
victory of spirituality over
God's own son ended up
being in fact the means that
God used to reconcile
fallen human beings to
himself.
Why don't you return to me?
And we have a sure and
certain hope because on the
third day the grave was
empty.
The grave was empty because
he was no longer there.
He was risen.
And he will come again.
And there's other things you
can say in terms of the
wisdom of the philosophy and
the power of the narrative.
But we Christians have a
sure and certain hope.
Some of us our response is
still going to be
I don't like having to
decide George.
I would I even hate thinking
about the fact that God
would do something like
this.
It just makes me angry.
I mean I know that there's
people in this room that
they know people who've left
the Christian faith because
of something that happened
to a person that was really
good.
And it makes them angry at
God.
It makes them hate God.
And they don't like this
language of return.
It's just the whole thing.
George it might very well
be the case that if I
studied Islam and if I
studied natural sciences
and if I studied atheism
and if I studied Buddhism
and Hinduism I still might
come to the conclusion
George that the Christian
answer is a better way to
understand how human
beings work.
That it's only the Bible
that ultimately can really
account that causality is
really causality yet human
beings really have freedom
and if we have freedom and
if there is a God that does
exist and he sent his son to
die upon the cross that we
can have some hope but it
still makes me angry.
I'm going to turn my back
away and I'll have to deal
with it.
Just before we read the last
two verses here's the thing
that this whole text is
trying to communicate to us.
If you could put it up for me
please.
God is untamed and untamable.
He is only good and wholly
just.
He is present and he is
all powerful.
He is truly real and he is
inescapable.
He is inescapable.
So heed him when he speaks.
Receive the gospel.
And live each day knowing
you will meet him.
Every one of us meets God
every day.
But we meet God every day in a
way that we don't recognize it.
We don't thank him for air
conditioning.
We don't thank him for the
breeze that cools us.
We don't thank him for our
breath or for our thoughts.
We don't thank him for even the
tiniest bit of health that we
have or the fact that we have
money.
We don't recognize his design and
order and that he's all around
us and that he's present to us
that he's closer to our breath.
But the time will come when the
inescapable God will be
inescapably recognized.
Verses 12 and 13.
And note in the Hebrew how he
repeats himself twice.
It's for emphasis.
Therefore thus I will do to you
O Israel because I will do this
to you O Israel.
Prepare to meet your God O Israel.
Many of you have heard that
phrase prepare to meet your God.
This is where it is in the Bible.
Amos 4.
Prepare to meet your God O Israel.
For behold he who forms the
mountains.
Who creates the wind.
Who declares to man what is his
thought.
Who makes the dawn darkness and
treads on the heights of the
earth.
The Lord.
The God of hosts.
Is his name.
You know it's very very
interesting thing.
This is a text of mercy.
You know all the way through it
says yet you did not return to me.
Yet you did not return to me.
Why does it say that?
Many of us are familiar with this
famous line for Augustine.
You have made us for yourself.
And our hearts are restless.
Until they rest in you.
It's funny.
It's a sign of how deeply
addicted we are to being God.
That we are bothered by being
told that we are a creature.
A creature created by a creator.
And when our creator created you
and me.
He made us in our in his image.
And we were always meant to be in
relationship with him.
And when we turned away from him
and decided to become God
ourselves there was a rending of
that relationship.
But every human being has a God
shaped space in their life.
And we might try to fill it with
robbing and drinking and having
lots of money.
We might try to fill it with
meditation.
We might try to fill it with
religious rituals of our own
choosing.
But at the end of the day it can
only be filled.
By our creator.
And that's why it says return.
That's why it says return.
Return.
And then it's very very surprising
because still God shows grace.
Because we don't return.
We don't return.
And then it doesn't say prepare to
meet your doom.
No.
There's still time.
It says prepare to meet your God.
And the phrase your God is only
found two times in the book of
Amos.
And the time the second time it is
found in the book of Amos is the
very end of the book of Amos where
God talks about how he will restore.
He will redeem.
He will ransom.
He will reconcile.
And he will provide a means by which
his people are in relationship with
him.
So there's a choice.
We can say.
Lord at first when I heard about the
fact that you caused all of these
things.
I always knew.
I think I said this last week.
I always believed that you hated me.
I've had so many bad things that
happened to me.
I just believed you hated me.
But now I hear that you don't hate me.
That you want me to return to you.
And that even now I can prepare to
meet you.
If we don't prepare.
We still will meet God.
And then it will be our doom.
We'll be crying just like that.
Only a lot worse.
But this is does not have to be your
fate because it says prepare to meet
me.
I will be your God.
God.
You can be my child.
By adoption and grace.
Prepare for it.
And then it just reminds us to make
sure that we don't understand that we
are to meet God in our own image.
And in verse 13 in five these little
descriptions six descriptions it gives
us in just like you know how some
people can take a drawing and just I can
hardly draw a stick figure but they can
just like oh this they go like this and
they can go like this and they can go
like and with just five or six lines you
can say that's a person I recognize
that and that's what that's what he
does here in poetic imagery.
Who is God?
He is the one who forms the mountains.
If you go to Vancouver and you see the
Rockies just think those look really
big they're really majestic it rains all
the time in Vancouver but people always
tell me but it's always worth it because
every once in a while the rain goes
away the clouds go away the sun comes
out and there are the Rockies and they
are awesome.
God is bigger.
God formed them with his hand.
He formed them so they would be just so.
God is bigger than the mountains.
He formed them.
He creates the wind.
In the Hebrew there's different words
for the word creation and the word
that's used here in the Hebrew is only
used of God creating.
In fact ultimately the Bible would say
that human beings don't create.
We're not creators in the same way that
God is.
We are sub creators because in a sense
only God creates but God creates the
wind.
If you go out and there's a beautiful
breeze God creates that wind.
He creates the invisible that still has
such an impact and an influence in your
life.
And that God is not just something who is
big and makes mountains and and sort of
invisible and can cause the wind that we
cannot see yet it feels us.
God is closer than our thoughts.
He knows every thought you have.
He's there right in the he's closer than
our breath.
He declares to man what is his thoughts.
He's present so close.
He's as close as my thinking as close as
my words as close as the imagination as
close as all of the things that go on in
my head.
He's closer than that.
He sees it all.
And then there's this wonderful line and
in Hebrew there's the in English they try
to smooth it out.
It's actually the way Yoda would speak.
It really is a need to have a Yoda version
of the Bible.
The maker of maker of dawn comma darkness.
That's what actually says literally in
Hebrew maker of dawn comma darkness.
Darkness.
Light and dark.
The beginning and the end.
The presence and the absence.
And he treads on the heights of the earth.
But he is not an impersonal God.
He is not a force.
Merely a force.
You cannot call God it.
We can tame it eventually.
You cannot tame God.
He is the Lord.
That is the name of the covenant God.
The God who desires to be in a covenant
relationship with people.
He is the God of hosts.
The God of the angel armies.
And it's his name.
He is a he.
A person.
So given such a God.
How on earth can we prepare to meet him?
In Amos' time.
750 years before the birth of Jesus.
The first thing that he could do is realize that the God who was a person speaks.
So maybe I should listen.
See that's the problem.
That's the problem with the rich and the bureaucrats.
Who don't listen to the voice of conscience or revealed religion.
That it's wrong to oppress the poor and to oppress the needy.
And it's a problem.
It's very interesting.
They talk about leaven.
In other words, it's even when the worship seems to be very, very traditional and religious.
They still completely and utterly stop listening to God.
The Bible says not to put leaven in the worship.
In your sacrifices.
And they go ahead and put leaven in the thing.
Even when it's most apparently traditional.
Even if it's a very, very fancy cathedral.
And they're all walking around very, very solemn.
It doesn't, you know, if they're all walking around very, very solemn.
And it's to an organ music.
But they're singing to God as she.
And they're going to celebrate a same-sex marriage.
I've just been very controversial.
The Bible says that all you're doing is refusing to listen to me.
And hardening your heart.
See, it's why we need to pray that our church is reformed by the Bible.
And is always reformed by the Bible.
Because it's so easy for us to go astray.
So first we can listen.
But for people in Amos' time, they would realize that there is no way they can prepare to meet a God
who's so close that he's closer than their thoughts and can shape, can create the wind and can shape mountains.
And how can you ever prepare for that?
And so before the cross, all they could do is say, Lord, have mercy.
There is a riddle here in what you've asked.
And I don't understand how you're going to solve the riddle.
All I can do is call out to you for mercy, trusting that you will solve the riddle of how I listen and prepare to meet my God.
I have to throw myself on your mercy.
If you could put up the next point.
Three scripture texts.
Amos, prepare to meet your God.
Second one, found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
This is my beloved son.
Listen to him.
And the third quote from John, Jesus himself.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his son, his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
On the cross, Jesus bore our doom.
And on the cross, when we put our faith and trust in Jesus, we are not only exchanging places with Jesus so that he has borne our doom, but he offers to us his perfect standing for the Father.
His righteousness can stand for mine.
So this is not, this then means that it's not that we have to all of a sudden deny the world or anything like that.
It's a matter of being gripped with the gospel and then living in the world as God's creatures.
Living, reconciled to our creator.
Saying no to being the center of the universe in God.
Knowing we're going to keep messing up and being gripped by the gospel.
If you could put up the final prayer.
You see, this text is calling us to hear it because we're so blessed that we're reading in this text after the cross.
That we have to be gripped by the gospel.
It's not just calling us to religious busyness.
And we're being called to be a disciple of Jesus, to know him.
The Bible isn't another type of religion.
It's not calling us to religion.
It's calling us to a relationship with God.
In response to good news from God.
About what he's done for us in the person of his son.
It's inviting us to live a relationship with God.
Always mindful that the only basis we have is not because we are better than other people.
But purely and utterly because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross.
And that when we receive that, we are responding to the cry of God.
Why won't you return to me?
Every single person you see today on the street.
God is saying to them.
Why won't you return to me?
If we say some small thing pointing them to Jesus.
All we are doing is acting in accordance with the direction of the heart of God.
Who says to each human being.
Why won't you return to me?
Because that is his heart.
And this text is inviting us to be gripped by the gospel.
Now living for his glory not our own.
Calling us to obey his word.
And to live every day in a growing knowledge.
That God is all powerful.
That he's real.
That he's good.
That he's untamed.
He's inescapable.
To live.
To begin to learn to live every day knowing that God is inescapable.
For a Christian, a non-Christian, this prayer is the beginning of your Christian walk.
For a Christian, it's an entering into deeper discipleship.
God is inescapable.
Please stand.
And I invite you to pray this prayer with me.
As I said, for some of you, if you have never given your life to Jesus, then, you know, there's nothing special about these words.
And I know some purists would say it's missing this little aspect or this little.
You know, if it's your words to be connected to God for the first time as his child, then pray it out.
And for those of us who God is touching, it's a call for us to live each day knowing that he is inescapable.
That he's bigger than every promise, every problem we face.
And that we can live not as religious people or as spiritual people, but as people gripped by the gospel.
I invite you to pray it with me.
Dear Lord, please make me a disciple of Jesus, gripped by the gospel, who is living for your glory, by daily obeying your word, and growing in the knowledge that you are all-powerful, really real, only good, untamed, and inescapable.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Father, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us.
Make us such a people.
Father, make me such a man.
Make me such a pastor.
This I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Please be seated as we go into a time of intercession.
As we enter this time of prayer, please feel free to take whatever position helps you to communicate with us.