Father, we ask that you would gently but deeply pour out your Holy Spirit upon us.
Father, we confess before you that we flatter ourselves too much to detect or hate our own sin.
In fact, Father, that so often we flatter ourselves so much we don't even know that we are flattering ourselves.
And we become deaf to your word.
We also confess, Father, how easily the world forms us in its mold.
How the world forms our heart without us even realizing it.
So, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would use your word in a powerful way in our minds and hearts and lives today.
That you would, Father, bring us freedom.
The freedom to repent.
The freedom to turn to you.
The freedom to be gripped by the gospel.
And this we ask in Jesus' name, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
Amen.
So, some of you are going, I don't know how closely you're listening to Nigel read, but some of you are maybe going,
Whoa!
Did the Bible just say that God causes disasters in the city?
Did the Bible just say, did Nigel just read in the book of Amos that if there's disaster, it's caused by God?
But some of you, that might have jumped out at you.
I have to confess, I'm going to talk about this a little bit more.
I'm a fast reader.
And I have to really force myself to slow down and look at things slowly.
By nature, I'm not like a, I don't read poetry unless I absolutely have to.
And I like novels, the type of novels that grip you and you just want to keep turning the page and turning the page and going and going until they're done.
And that's like a really, really good thing when you find a novel that grips you and you just want to keep reading and you don't really pause to notice the prose.
And so, when I was first reading this text to prepare to preach on it, I'm going, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I wonder what on earth I'm going to say, what I'm going to say.
Whoa!
God causes disaster in the city.
And then after that, I could hardly pay attention to the rest of the text.
And so, we're going to look.
Is that what the Bible said?
What exactly does it say?
What does it not say?
Some of you, when you hear that the text, does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it?
Some of us will think, how dare God?
Or some of us will think, I always knew that God was evil and that's why I don't believe he exists.
Others of you might say, I know now why my life sucks because I always knew that God hated me.
There's no hope.
I meet people who say that.
My life sucks.
I think God hates me.
And so, is that what's going on in the text?
Well, let's look.
Be really helpful for me if you open the Bible yourself.
And we spent some time in God's word in Amos 3.
And here's how it begins.
Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt.
Now, we're just going to pause here.
We have to sort of think about this verse.
I don't know how many of you are like me and you by nature are very, very fast readers.
But there's different ways that the Bible can talk about hearing.
And in this particular case, there's a very particular sense that it's using the word like to hear.
Many of us, when we're in conversations, hearing really means we just have an opportunity to catch our breath.
And so that when the other person stops talking, we can continue to talk.
Because what the other person is saying is actually completely and utterly irrelevant.
We don't really want to listen and understand or hear.
We just use the other person speaking as a chance to marshal our thoughts, to catch our breath while we continue to speak.
And some of us, when we listen to people or listen to particular people, we're really only listening to them because we already know that they're stupid.
And we're listening for examples so we can then once again prove to them that they're actually pretty stupid.
We often listen because we want to mock.
We want to listen because we don't respect them, but we just have to endure it.
I mean, there's all sorts of reasons and ways that we hear.
And in this particular context, it could almost be translated hear to obey.
Hear, H-E-A-R, listen with an attitude that you're listening to obey.
So in other words, the model underneath it, the image underneath it, if you were to give it a modern cast, would be you discover that you have something very seriously wrong with you.
You have a very, very serious medical condition.
And you go to the doctor.
And the doctor starts to tell you not only what your condition is, but the next two or three or four things, including the medication you have to take and the steps you have to take.
And unless you're like a complete fool or an idiot, when you're listening to the doctor at that point in time, you're listening to obey.
You're listening very, very, very carefully.
You don't want to go home to your mom or your dad or your husband or your wife or your best friend.
And they said, what did the doctor say?
And you go, I don't know.
I think they said I have something wrong with me.
What are you supposed to do?
Well, I don't know.
Like that might happen.
I mean, many of us go to listen to the doctor.
And afterwards, it's hard to remember what they said.
And we want to bring somebody along with us.
But when the doctor tells us that this is very, very, very serious, it's cancer, it's hard, it's some serious liver problem or kidney problem, some serious disease,
we listen very, very carefully.
And we listen because we want to get better.
We listen with the intention that we will remember it and take the steps that we need to obey.
And that's the way the text opens today.
Now, it's going to eventually talk about some very, very hard and difficult things.
And many of us in our culture, we don't really like listening to God in that type of a sense.
In fact, for many of us, the way we listen to God is we listen like this.
Sort of waiting to see if it matches with what we think and with what we agree with.
In fact, actually, if you read books on preaching, there's even a whole range of books that tell you about how to speak to the Bible that you have to answer the so what and now what question.
That after people listen, they want to say, they're saying internally, so what?
Or now what?
Without ever sort of challenging whether, in fact, that's the wise way to listen to God.
That maybe a wiser way to listen to God is to listen with the question, how shall we then live?
How shall I then live?
But it's very common to listen with a type of skeptical cast.
And so this text in the Bible begins with a very, very stark challenge to how we listen.
It says, once again, if you listen to it, hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you or about you.
It can be translated the same way, either against or about, oh, people of Israel.
Against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt.
Now, in this particular case, it's really, really important that you notice the rest of verse one.
It's going to really, not only does it challenge how we listen, but it challenges something else in terms of our whole attitude to the rest of the text.
My wife will tell you accurately that I am a very slow learner in terms of marriage.
Fortunately, we've been married a long time, but I still have a lot to learn about marriage.
And one of the hardest lessons for me to learn about marriage, one of the many hard lessons for me to learn about marriage,
is that when Louise confronts me, she confronts me because she wants to connect with me more deeply.
In fact, in most marriages in North America, when the wife who loves the husband confronts the husband,
the husband often experiences the confrontation as pushing away behavior.
But in fact, the wife is confronting because she desires to connect.
She's trying to grab you by the shirt and say, listen up, I want to connect with you.
I'm not pushing you away.
I'm shaking you so you come closer.
And I'm a really slow learner at that.
And it's really important for us to understand verse one.
Not only is it asking us to listen, is it challenging how we listen?
It's challenging us to understand that all of the rest that's going to happen,
and the way the book of Amos is structured is that the first, it's structured in three sections.
And the first section, chapters one and two, it's a series of oracles.
And amongst other things, it's showing that God is, in fact, a judge, is bigger than the nations.
And he's untamed by the nations.
And he's going to judge the nations.
And he has the right to do it.
And the last three chapters of Amos, chapter seven, eight, and nine, are a series of visions
about Israel and just about life.
They're a series of visions.
And in between, chapter three, four, five, and six, it's sort of a list of,
it's God speaking to his people with what's going on in their lives
and what they need to deal with.
And it's sort of, you know, Old Testament writers, by modern standards, they're loopy.
By that I mean is they sort of talk about something, and then they talk about something,
and then they loop back, and then they loop over here, and then they talk about, you know,
like it can often drive us, you know, A, B, C, D, one, two, three, four types of people
really nuts because it keeps looping back.
It's just the way they talk.
But it's the beginning of this God sitting before Israel, what's really going on in their lives,
what really is the status of their hearts, how they really look from God's perspective
at the level of the heart.
And at the very, very start of it, he wants his people to understand that he's confronting them,
to connect with them.
Actually, if, I've already sort of missed some points.
I'm way out of whack with my thing.
Well, I'm just going to fix this, and we'll go back to the other point.
Look at verse one again.
Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel,
against the whole family that I brought up out of Egypt.
He's saying, he's reminding them that he's talking to his family.
He's reminding them that he's the one who made them his family.
They didn't make him their dad.
He made them his children.
And not only did they not make him dad, that he made them his children, that he adopted them.
And not only did he adopt them, he was the one who rescued them out of bondage and slavery.
And it was him, it was God, who rescued people, slaves, out of bondage, out of slavery.
He rescued them, and he adopts them, and enters into a covenant with them.
And that's the one who's speaking.
Now, I just need to put a couple of things up.
Could you put the first point up?
This is the first thing which I neglected to say, but I need to put it up.
It's very, very important all the way through this that it's clear that you understand that the Bible is claiming that this is God speaking.
As I put it up there, the Bible is God's word written down for every age, including our own.
Amos isn't saying, I spent some time on the mountaintop with God, and I think this is what God means.
And Amos isn't saying, I spent some time up there with God, or I've had a vision, and I know this is what he means, and I'm going to try to say it as best I can.
No, the claim all the way through this text.
It's the claim in verse 1, in verse 7, in verse 8, in verse 10, in verse 11, in verse 12, in verse 15.
And if you go back and look at chapter 1 and 2, basically every oracle begins and ends with the statement,
this is God saying this, and the Bible is making this claim.
You don't have to necessarily accept it.
I accept it.
I believe it.
This is what the Bible teaches.
I believe it for a whole range of reasons.
But this is the claim that the Bible is making.
I have to try to understand it.
But it's not Amos trying to understand something that God has said.
It's God speaking the words that he wants through Amos in this particular case.
And those are the words that we are to hear with the attitude that we desire to obey it,
like listening to a doctor after he's told us something serious.
And if you could go up to the next point, Andrew, and this is the last part of verse 1.
God confronts me to connect with me.
In fact, not only here in Amos, it's the way we're to read all of the Bible.
All of those parts that make us want to scream.
All of those parts that make us angry.
All of those parts that make us afraid.
Whether it's talking about abortion or about, you know, same-sex marriage.
Or whether it's talking about sexual matters.
Or whether it's talking about doctor-assisted suicide.
Whether it's talking about, you know, ways to wage war or not to wage war.
How it talks about tithing.
And how it talks about money.
And how it talks about telling the truth.
And how it talks about heaven.
And how it talks about hell.
And how it talks about divine power.
And human responsibility.
And whatever it is that can sometimes for us in our culture.
In terms of we're just thinking how harsh it sounds.
We can think about how we would hate our friends to hear this.
Because they would think I'm seriously crazy to actually listen to this stuff.
It can terrify us.
We might want to explain it away.
We have to understand in every case that God speaks it with the idea and the hope.
We won't say so what and now what.
But that we'll listen very carefully.
And he speaks even his hardest words to connect with us.
That's his heart.
And for Christians, after the cross, we know that even more deeply.
Now, the very next part, you sort of have to understand.
You see, the problem we often have with reading the Bible is the way we carry certain images towards the Bible.
And we sort of invent a context which isn't the Bible's context.
A few years ago, a friend of mine who's a pastor, he had his daughter, his young daughter.
She got very, very sick.
It ended up being quite serious.
She went to Emerge.
And after Emerge, she went into the department where they were going to deal with her.
And Emerge, they brought the doctor.
Anyway, it was very, very serious.
It was actually very, very serious.
But they started to get it under control after, you know, whatever, 12 hours, 24 hours.
So after he'd been there about 36 hours, he'd slept there.
He went down to the cafeteria to get a coffee and get something to eat.
And while he was in the coffee getting something to eat, he bumped into somebody from his church.
He's a pastor.
He bumped into somebody from his church.
And this person from his church was the head doctor of one of the departments in the hospital.
Big cheese.
Whole floor of the hospital that dealt with certain types of things.
He was the head.
And he bumps into my friend in the cafeteria.
And the doctor says, you know, I'll just call him Bob.
Bob, what are you doing here?
And Bob says, well, it's been really touch and go.
My daughter came in like 36 hours ago.
It was like emergency.
He came in by ambulance.
It was really hard.
And he talks.
And, you know, the doctor was very listening.
And he said, well, listen, I'll come up and I'll visit her with you.
It's not a joke.
I'm smiling, but it's not a joke.
So they get in the elevator.
And as they get in the elevator, just before the elevator closes, another woman comes in with a younger man.
And the woman says hi to the doctor.
And she said, where are you going?
And he doesn't get off at his floor.
He keeps going higher.
She said, oh, where are you going?
He said, well, I'm going up to your floor.
She's the head of the department.
Where my friend's daughter is.
She's the head doctor.
And he said, well, my buddy here, who's my pastor, his daughter is in your department.
You know, she had this problem.
And I'm going up to visit her.
So now the head of the department, who hasn't, I mean, there's no reason for, you know, the fellow's daughter had only seen interns and stuff.
But he had no complaints about his care or anything like that.
But now the head of the department looks and looks.
Oh, he's not just some schlub.
He's important.
A guy who's really high up in the hospital is coming up on my floor to check on one of my patients with his pastor, his friend.
So after my friend's friend leaves, the head of the department comes in to examine his daughter, concerned, of course, that she's getting the best care.
And in the course of the conversation, she says to him, listen, here's my private mobile number.
If you have any concern at any time about your care, give me a call.
I'll deal with it.
So here's the, this whole context, right?
This is what we see in the world all of the time.
That if you know the right people, things go, you know, go better.
I had a knee pain a couple of, you know, a week, a couple of weeks ago.
And, you know, I, you know, I just self-diagnosed myself and all that.
But you know how it is.
Like if I was a senator's player or if I was in the NFL and I was an important player and I had knee pain, I would see a doctor right away.
And if I needed surgery, it would happen the next day, right?
I mean, in Canada, there is two-tier medicine.
Like we never think about it.
But the star player on an NHL team does not have to wait three months to see a specialist.
Why?
Because he's the star player on the Maple Leafs.
He's the star player in the Canucks.
He's the star player on the, on the Ottawa Senators.
The whole season depends upon him.
He doesn't have to wait an extra three months after he finally sees the specialist to finally get an ultrasound.
And then after that, wait two months to see the specialist again.
And after that, wait four months to see a doctor.
Right?
It's funny.
We don't even think about the fact that, okay, my, my aunt has to wait a year for surgery.
But the star player of the Maple Leafs is operated on the next day.
And that's partially because in our culture and just in our human flesh, we understand that if you're important and you matter, the rules are different.
Isn't that what we think?
So in that context, listen to verses one and two again.
And when you, within this context, you're going to understand the shock of verse two.
And many of us are shocked with verse two, the second part of verse two for a different reason, but it's because we haven't grasped something about our heart and about how we think the world works.
Listen to verse one and two again.
So hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt.
You only have I known of all the families of the earth.
Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.
But that's not how the world works.
I mean, for us, it's a bit of a shock because we maybe wonder if it's a sadomasochistic type of thing or what's going on.
But the biggest shock is, the biggest shock is that's not how the, you know, oh, you're a really important person I've now discovered because you know the head of another department.
Therefore, I am not going to help you.
No, no, that's not how it works.
Therefore, I mean, my friend never even, you know, this wouldn't have been the way it worked.
But imagine that he had gone in if he was another type of person and he had to take his daughter into an emergency.
And it turns out that her problem was exactly, his daughter was going to go to the floor where the guy from his church was.
And aren't there many of us who would want to say as we're in emergency, they say, just so you know, your boss, your boss is boss's boss's boss is my best friend.
And I think I've been waiting too long.
Did I just tell you again?
Like, you want, I have his personal mobile number.
I don't have to go through a secretary.
And that's your boss's boss's boss.
We want special treatment.
And so what's going to be going on, one of the big charges and one of the ways to understand the rest of chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, and even the visions is a particular human sin.
And it's a sin of presumption.
If you could put it up, Andrew, that would be very helpful.
Presumption is the perennial counterfeit to saving faith.
Presumption is the perennial substitute to saving faith.
And we presume that we will be treated differently.
We have a sense of entitlement, a sense of self-satisfaction.
We are self-congratulatory.
We are self-righteous, self-justifying.
We feel entitled.
We feel special.
We believe that the rules do not apply to us in the same way that they apply to other people in certain regards.
And it is very, very powerful in society and culture.
Like, I'll just, here's something which, I don't know, maybe some of you who have been in economics, you know this.
Did you know that if we were to go back 100 years ago and you had a choice of living in Canada or Argentina,
you know where most rational people would have chosen?
Argentina.
In the first three decades of the 20th century, Argentina was considerably wealthier, more prosperous, more stable than Canada.
Maybe not more stable, but richer.
In fact, in the early part, the first three decades of the 20th century, Argentina, by per capita, was the 10th richest nation on the planet.
10th richest.
If you were looking in terms of economic opportunities in 1916, you would choose Argentina over Canada and over Australia or over New Zealand.
That over most nations.
It was one of the most prosperous nations on the planet.
Now, in terms of prosperity, it's in the bottom half.
Why is it that we in Canada don't think that that could happen to us?
Why is it that we think that we can make any type of political decision or economic decision or economic policy,
and that what happened to Argentina can't happen to us?
Why is it that we think that in our culture?
Is there some divine right that means that just because we're Canadians,
that we will always be prosperous and safe and free?
Well, that's BS.
You don't have to zip that out, right?
I just used the letters, right?
But it's presumptuous.
And how presumptuous is it to listen to God's word and go,
so what?
Okay, now what?
I'm...
I just woke up one morning with a sore knee.
I don't know what it was, a virus?
Like, you just wake up with it one day.
And all of us, either ourselves or have family members,
is that one day all of a sudden there's something really bad going on physically.
We can be felled by this tiniest little microbe.
And yet we presume as if we are the judges of God and the judges of nations and the judges of people in the center of the universe.
And it can mask in religious and social and spiritual forms.
It doesn't matter how I live, I speak in tongues.
I'm spiritually sophisticated and more advanced than other people because I speak in tongues.
I'm more advanced than people because I use the Book of Common Prayer.
I'm more advanced than people because I know how to say Hail Mary, full of grace.
I'm more advanced than other people because I'm Reformed.
I'm more advanced and better than other people because I...
I don't know.
You just start to fill in the blanks because I'm Methodist, because I'm Wesleyan, because I'm Anic, because I'm whatever.
That it's not faith.
It's not a relationship.
We're not connected to God.
We're presuming upon God.
We're acting and thinking as if we are somehow entitled.
And we give ourselves a pass on thing after thing after thing after thing.
So to understand the text, we've only gotten into verse 2.
Just so you know at this rate, there's 15 verses.
This is going to be a three and a half hour long sermon.
We're going to go through a bit quicker.
But it's a really important beginning to the text, right?
It's this perennial danger about presumption.
And I'm going to put up two other texts.
Actually, where am I in my notes?
Always dangerous.
Actually, Andrew, could you put up the...
No, no.
We're going to go to verses 3 to 8.
Sorry.
So here's the thing then.
I told you I'm a really fast reader and I sometimes skip over things.
And I have to confess that when I read the text for the first time, I didn't notice...
One of the things that happens is when you read the text really, really, really quickly.
And you have to often read the Old Testament in particular very slowly and notice a very
subtle change that it makes in the text.
And that's probably one of the reasons why I often, in my own personal devotions, because
I read fairly quickly even in my personal devotions.
I probably don't get as much out of it as I should.
I should probably be a slower reader.
Those of you who are slow readers, you probably get more out of the Bible than I do many times.
But the Bible does something very, very subtle.
It's challenging us about what God's Word is.
It challenges us about the danger of presumption.
And then it's going to do something else that it talks about disaster.
It sounds very, very judgmental, but it's actually very, very, very open-ended in terms
of how it starts to go into the problem that the Israelites are facing.
Now, look, read with me with verses 3 to 8.
And then you probably won't notice it.
I'll go back and show you what it means.
Do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet?
Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from his den if he has taken nothing?
Does a bird fall on a snare on the earth when there is no trap for it?
Does a snare spring up from the ground when it has taken nothing?
Is a trumpet blowing in a city and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it?
That's a really scary verse we're going to look at in a moment.
For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants, the prophets.
The lion is roared.
Who will not fear?
The Lord has spoken.
Who can but prophesy?
Now, here's the very, very subtle thing in the text, but it's really, really very important.
And we're going to spend just a minute or two on it to try to help you see it.
But, you know, it's this sort of little thing that leads you to the shocking conclusion.
Can two walk?
You know, about the traps, about the roaring, about the disaster.
Whoa, God's causing disaster in the city.
I wasn't expecting that.
But if you'll notice, look at verses 4, 5, and 6.
There's always a pair in every case.
Verse 4, there's a pair around lions roaring.
In verse 5, there's a pair around traps.
In verse 6, there's a pair around fighting and about disaster to a city.
But in verse 3, it says,
It says, do two walk together unless they've agreed to meet?
But there's no second bit.
And that's because, as Amos is going to get into the rest of the book,
the challenge is for the listener to complete the couplet.
If you don't listen to God in words of obedience,
if you don't capture the fact,
if the fact that God's going to punish you only angers you,
it doesn't make you think that you're self-entitled,
that you're presumptuous, that you're self-righteous,
that you're self-satisfied, that you're self-congratulatory.
It doesn't make you think of any of those things.
All it does is make you mad.
Then there will be one second part to the couplet.
And the couplet will begin,
Do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet?
Can two people live together after they have divorced?
Or can two people walk together when one punches the other in the face?
Or can two walk together when one spends all of his time abusing the other person?
Or can two walk together when one person wants to walk away and run away?
Is that how it's going to finish?
Or is it going to finish?
Do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet?
Cannot two walk together when there has been repentance?
Like, Amos intentionally didn't complete the couplet
because he says,
How you listen to the rest of the book
will determine what the second part should be.
Now here we go, just before we go on.
Andrew, could you put up a scripture text?
This is a really good verse to memorize in life, folks.
It's from the book of Ezekiel.
And you'll notice there's a funny thing at the end
because there's three verses almost identical in wording.
And I had to look at, I ended up picking this wording,
but if you want to look it up,
all three of them are very, very similar wording.
Same idea.
For those of you who are old Anglicans,
it's actually a really important part of Anglican spirituality
because it's a key part of morning and evening prayer
to say a version of this verse
every time you do the daily offices.
God takes no delight in death of a sinner,
but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live.
It's actually part of the basic structure
of Anglican Bible reading
as it was formulated by the English reformers.
But could you say this text with me?
Say to them,
As I live, declares the Lord God,
I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but that the wicked would turn from his way and live.
Just think of this.
When Jesus died on the cross,
he died between two thieves.
And if you look at all the accounts of his death upon the cross,
the day begins with both thieves abusing Jesus.
But sometime during the day,
one of the thieves is convicted
and stops abusing Jesus.
And he eventually turns and says to Jesus,
Jesus,
remember me when you come into your kingdom.
And Jesus says to him,
today you will be with me in paradise.
And Jesus died between two thieves
with very different destinies.
The thief
who is the penitent
who we will see in heaven
if we have given our lives to Jesus.
That thief reminds us
that we should never despair.
That no person is so far from God
that repentance is not an option.
The penitent thief reminds us
that no human being should despair,
nor should we despair
in sharing the gospel with any human being.
And the thief that began the day
and ended the day abusing Jesus
reminds us that nobody should presume.
No one should presume.
Andrew, if you could put up A.
Here's just sort of two things to pause
before we just bring the servant to a close.
We have a bit to go still.
But dear Lord,
please deliver me from all traces
of presumption,
entitlement,
and self-satisfaction.
Instead, by your grace,
make me a disciple of Jesus
gripped by the gospel,
living for your glory.
Like for many of us,
this is the challenge.
That entitlement and presumption
slip into our lives
without realizing it.
And we're redeemed,
we're saved by grace,
but our walk with Jesus
is deeply burdened
and broken and compromised
because we aren't growing in holiness,
we're growing in presumption.
Self-satisfaction and entitlement.
And here's the second thing.
Andrew, if you could put up
the second prayer,
many of us read the Bible
with a so what, now what attitude.
And this text is challenging us
to consider praying a prayer like this.
If you don't have time to write it down,
it'll be on the webpage.
We'll maybe a little bit,
have to wait a little bit
because Shirley's on holidays,
but it will go on the webpage.
Or you can email me.
Dear Lord,
please deliver me from all vain,
false,
and self-congratulatory
listening to your word.
Please make me a disciple
of Jesus gripped by the gospel
who is learning to listen
to your word
humbly,
deeply,
obediently,
and well
so that I will live
for your glory.
Now, some of you are saying,
George,
you can't finish the sermon now
without dealing with disaster
in the city.
George, you just can't.
You can't,
you can't,
you can't.
You can't sort of just say,
okay, well, my time is up.
Let's just stop
and go, whoa,
you go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
George,
does disaster come to a city
unless the Lord has done it?
Does disaster come to a city
unless the Lord has done it?
Now, we're going to,
here's,
here's the thing.
I'm going to say one very important thing
about this text
and we're going to talk about it
more next week
because there's the same type of idea
only it,
it actually,
about half of chapter four
has the similar idea
so I'm going to talk about it
more next week
but I'm going to just give you
one analogy
to help you understand
the problem we have
when we hear it.
So the big problem we have
when we hear it
is we think of,
we think of a different context,
we think of a context
of an innocent person
that has something bad
happen to them.
I know some people
that if they hear this text
all by itself,
they say,
well, my life has been
one disaster after another
and I've always known
that God hates me.
Now I really know
that he really does hate me
and that's not the way
to understand it.
I want you to think
of the Kameshi affair,
I don't know if I pronounced
his name right,
the Kameshi affair
in CBC.
It was a disaster
for the CBC
and it was a disaster
for Kameshi.
But what type
of disaster was it?
And I have to be careful.
You know, it's funny,
sometimes people tell me
why do you always use
examples from other countries
and don't use
Canadian examples
and one of the reasons
is whenever I use
Canadian examples
I get so much pushback
from some people.
But anyway,
I'm going to do it
and here's the thing,
if the press
is to be believed
and I,
so I have to,
just a bit of a caveat
and I've been in the press
and I know that the press
doesn't always get things right.
There's a trail
and everything like that
but it appears as if
this man sexually harassed
quite a few women
over quite a long period
of time
and the system
and the CBC failed
and he was able
to get away with it
and eventually
somebody had the courage
to go to the press.
A lot of this came out
and it was,
what was it for him?
A disaster.
Isn't that a good word for it?
What was it for the CBC?
It was a disaster.
Now,
is it a disaster
for you and me?
Well,
I'm not going to talk
about the outcome
of the case
and all of that
and I know there's going
to be civil suits
and all of that
but you see,
here's the thing.
Here's the thing
about this text.
Here's the context
for the text.
Remember,
we've already begun
to get to the context
about this,
the problem of presumption,
the problem of people
listening to God
with a so-what attitude
and all of that
type of thing.
How did the people
in authority
listen to the woman
who had complaints?
Did they listen well?
They had authority
to stop it.
Did they stop it?
No,
they didn't.
Did Kameshi,
he didn't.
And it's not a disaster
on one hand.
It's a disaster
for an
unpenitent
wrongdoer
who's getting away
with terrible things
when all of a sudden
the day of reckoning
comes
and he can't
get away
from prospering,
from doing terrible things.
But if you have
an unpenitent heart
and you've been living
off the fruit
of doing evil
and you are presumptuous
and finally
the day of reckoning
comes,
it is a disaster.
disaster.
But it's not a disaster,
is it?
Something approaching
justice begins to happen.
In this text,
Amos has used
chapter 1 and chapter 2
to say,
listen,
nations think that God
is completely
and utterly irrelevant
and that at best
he's a kindly
doddering
old grandfather
who's asleep
in his chair
not noticing
what's going on.
Okay,
nations might think
that God is tame
but Amos has spent
chapter 1 and 2
establishing that God
is bigger than the nations,
that God will judge
the nations,
that the nations might say
what is right and wrong
but at the end of the day
there is a real right
and there is a real wrong
and they will be judged
and not only will individuals
be judged
but social structures
will be judged.
And for people
who write till the end
continue to maintain
that God is tame
and that they really are God
and they have gotten
his job,
when judgment comes
it is a disaster.
But Amos
is trying to us
understand
that God is bigger
than the nations,
he is bigger
than social structures,
that he is bigger
than Canada,
he is bigger
than the CBC,
he is bigger
than Hollywood,
he is bigger
than the education elites,
he is bigger
than the United Nations,
he is bigger
than NATO,
he is bigger
than the United States,
he is bigger.
And that
if in many cases
we have to wait
until death
before there is
judgment
and justice,
it will come.
God's lack
of action
is mercy
in the hope
of repentance,
not agreement
that he is
daughtering,
incompetent,
disinterested,
or tamed.
He is none
of those things.
He is the
roaring lion.
Let's just,
I want to read
the rest of the text
and I see the time
but I just want to say
a couple of other things
about the rest
of the text.
Let's read
verse 7.
For the Lord God
does nothing
without revealing
his secret
to his servants,
the prophets,
the lion is roared
who will not fear.
The Lord has spoken
who can but prophesy.
This is that last part.
I'm not going to talk
about this much
other than to say
this is terrifying
because this is a word
to us.
If we hear God's word
there is an obligation
for us
to have the courage
to speak a word
of God's word
when it disagrees
with our culture.
And he goes on
to say verse 9,
proclaim to the strongholds
in Ashdod
and to the strongholds
in the land of Egypt
and say assemble
yourselves
on the mountains
of Samaria
and see the great
tumults within her
and the oppressed
in her midst.
They do not know
how to do right
declares the Lord
those who store up
violence and robbery
in their strongholds.
Therefore thus says
the Lord God
an adversary
shall surround the land
and bring down
your defenses from you
and your stronghold
shall be plundered.
Remember Israel
was destroyed
in 722 BC.
Thus says the Lord
as the shepherd
rescues from the mouth
of the lion
and two legs
or a piece of an ear
so shall the people
of Israel
who dwell in Samaria
be rescued
with the corner
of a couch
and a part of a bed.
Hear and testify
against the house
of Jacob
declares the Lord God
the God of hosts
that on the day
I punish Israel
for his transgressions
I will punish
the altars of Bethel
and the horns
of the altar
shall be cut off
and fall to the ground
and I will strike
the winter house
along with the summer house
and the houses
of ivory shall perish
and the great houses
shall come to an end
declares the Lord.
Andrew if you could
put up the first
the next point please
just very in brief
we read this now
listening to it
knowing that the
you know in the old
westerns in the 50s
you could tell who
the good guys
and the bad guys were
if they were a white hat
or a black hat
if you watch
the original Star Trek
you know that people
with a certain color shirt
are going to die
and people with a certain
color shirt
are going to live
and so we sometimes
read the Old Testament
this way
but the first thing
just very briefly
is if you put up
the point Andrew
social structures
customs and institutions
can be powerful forces
leading me away
from saving faith
in Jesus
and that's
that's the point here
and the hard part
about the point is
because we're looking
at it like they're
wearing the right
the wrong color shirt
or they're wearing
the wrong color hat
but you have to
think about it
for a second
these guys are Canadians
they're spiritual
not religious
they have many altars
they're not hung up
on just one way
to God
they're not hung up
with just one way
or just one word
from God
they're not hung up
with these things
they're spiritual
and they're not religious
and they practice
their religion
in a way that it
doesn't sort of bother
other type of people
and there can be
as many altars
as you want
and when it talks
about winter house
and summer house
you know
isn't it usually
that in the citizen
or the national post
or the globe and mail
don't they usually
have the rich
and the famous
and the powerful
at little benefit
types of things
and don't they have
homes that they
sort of go
and they take you
through
and don't all
the magazines
talk to you
about the most
spectacular houses
and all of that
type of thing
and don't they
always do it
in such a way
that it's a fawning
type of thing
about the rich
and the powerful
and don't they have
things that are
made out of ivory
isn't that just
a sense that you
isn't that just
telling you
that you're not
just a you know
you're not just
some poor schlub
who thinks
that going to
McDonald's
and having a Big Mac
is the height
of a haute cuisine
but you know
the right types
of restaurants
you know
the right types
of things to eat
you know
the right way
to dress
you know
that when you
can wear brown
shoes
and you know
when you can
wear the type
of chandals
you should have
you understand
that if you see
somebody walking
down the street
you can tell
whether that's
a good purse
or a bad purse
or whether the
watch matters
and that's why
you have the
fancy magazines
with all of those
types of things
and if just
whoa whoa whoa
don't read it
with
read it
it's talking
about Canada
strongholds
is another word
for elites
fawning
descriptions
of the new
heads of universities
fawning descriptions
of the new
chief of staff
for the prime minister
fawning descriptions
of the coolest
restaurants
the sign
that you have
just exquisite
taste
not part
of the
hoi polloi
it's written
in the citizen
in the national
post
in the globe
and mail
and put on
television
and twitter
and facebook
so that those
of us
in the
hoi polloi
know what
matters
and these
social structures
the strongholds
have led to
presumption
and people
being away
from God
and
and one
other thing
actually
Andrew
if you could
put up
the point
five
I don't
really have
time to
describe this
but it's
I'm just
going to
put it
up there
the sacrificial
death of
Jesus upon
the cross
is God's
subversive
fulfillment
of idolatry
the sacrificial
death of
Jesus upon
the cross
is God's
subversive
fulfillment
of idolatry
why is it
subversive
fulfillment
it's subversive
because this
whole text is
just saying
listen you
trust in
your possessions
you trust
in all of
these types
of things
they're all
going to
fail
they're all
going to
fail
and
but at the
same time
you know
when we
we have
we have a
sense that
there is a
better
we have a
sense that
there is
that you know
it might get
confused by
just taste
and looking
down our
noses at
people who
eat Big
Macs
and you know
or just go to
Tim Hortons
and don't
can't tell
what you know
they don't
know the
right type
of coffee
or you know
even worse
they go somewhere
even worse
than Tim Horton
like you know
we have this
sense that
there is
something better
we have this
something that
there is
something above
us
we have this
sense that
there is some
type of
of
there's some
type of
a quest
that we
should be
on
and on
one hand
the Bible
is going to
completely
and utterly
keep knocking
everything out
it's going to
keep saying
this is the
wrong path
this is the
wrong path
this isn't
something you
can stand on
it's going to
subvert it
it's going to
critique it
it's going to
knock it
down
but at the
same time
it's trying to
knock all these
downs
it's trying to
confront us
and knock
these things
down
because
there is in
fact a
fulfillment
that comes
from God
that if we
lose
our self
congratulation
and our
self
justification
and our
self
righteousness
that we
can actually
look to a
power that
comes from
God
where God
justifies
and God
makes
righteous
and God
makes
right
and he
does it
purely and
utterly
as gift
and as
grace
I had a
friend
come up to
me this
week just
on Friday
and he
described himself
as spiritual
not religious
he described
himself as a
nun
and he
said so
what are you
going to talk
about this
Sunday
are you
going to
do
you
sort of
misunderstand
me
I almost
said his
name
I'll call
him Bob
you know
the Christian
faith is
one beggar
telling another
beggar where
to find
bread
I'm a beggar
I'm going to
tell people
where to
find bread
that's my
hope
and he
said
well that's
a clever
line
although I
prefer to
say it's
the blind
leading the
blind
and I
say
well that's
a pretty
good line
too
and I
acknowledge
that I'm
blind
I'm a
blind man
telling other
blind people
about the
one who
can make
them see
and it's
not me
I said
you know
I happen
to know
that this
guy both
claims to
be spiritual
not religious
he was also
a huge
fan of
Christopher
Hitchens
I said
you know
Bob
Christopher
Hitchens
and Christians
agree on
many many
many things
I said
you know
one thing
I know
you've
puzzled
about
is the
fact that
Christopher
Hitchens
mocked
people like
yourself
who are
spiritual
not
religious
and I
and Christians
agree
that we're
blind
that the
finite
cannot
possibly
know
the
infinite
but what
if the
infinite
speaks to
the finite
in words
that the
finite
can understand
and what
if the
infinite
comes and
acts
for the
finite
so the
finite
can belong
to God
I make
no claim
that I
can see
all I
can do
is say
there is
one who
can make
you see
there is
a beggar
there is
a food
that God
will freely
give
to beggars
and do the
final
the first
of the
final two
prayers
many of
us have
to leave
here
praying
dear
Lord
please
make
me
a
disciple
of
Jesus
gripped
by the
gospel
who
has
a
heart
for the
world
not a
heart
formed
by the
world
so that
I will
daily
live
for your
glory
and the
final one
and with
this
could you
all
stand
please
the
challenge
of the
text
for many
people
is this
prayer
I mean
the other
three
prayers
are all
really
important
challenges
to us
but this
is a
conversion
prayer
for many
of you
if you
wonder
how to
give
your
life
to
Jesus
and maybe
you feel
under
conviction
this is
how you
give your
life
to
Jesus
you know
my words
aren't magic
or special
I just
try to
take this
text
and form
it in
terms
of a
way
that if
you
believe
that it's
time
for you
because
you
haven't
been
actually
walking
with
God
or
connected
with
God
you've
just
been
presumptuous
and the
time is
to come
to leave
presumption
and to
enter into
saving
faith
I've
just
tried
to put
it into
words
and I'm
going to
ask us
all to
close by
saying this
prayer
together
for those
of us
who are
Christians
it's like
saying the
pledge of
allegiance
in the
states
you're
already
an
American
but it
can
sometimes
just be
so good
Canada
doesn't
have
anything
like it
it
must
be
just
sometimes
so
good
just
to
remember
once
again
the
start
of the
Christian
life
prayer
and what
you're
standing
on
what you're
not
standing
on
and how
you're
gripped
and for
some of
us here
in the
room
maybe this
will be
the
prayer
that
begins
your
Christian
life
and if
you haven't
begun the
Christian
life
I urge
you to
pray this
prayer
out loud
saying to
God
this is
me
this is
this
I want
this to
be me
let's
pray it
together
dear
Lord
I turn
from the
hopes of
this
world
from
all
idolatry
and from
all
presumption
I turn
to you
I turn
to Jesus
Christ
crucified
your
son
and my
savior
I open
myself
unreservedly
to the
Holy Spirit
please make
me a
disciple
of Jesus
gripped by
the gospel
living for
your glory
thank you
amen
father pour
out your
Holy Spirit
upon us
make us
disciples of
Jesus
gripped by
the gospel
living for
your glory
and this
we ask
in Jesus
name
amen
to
God
s
fors
ing