Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Prepare to Meet Your God

Dave Gushee delivered an outstanding message from Amos this past Sunday. It is still resonating within me today. So powerful. So convicting.

Northbrook is doing a series on the Prophets, "Prophetic Persuasion", and Amos was the topic of study last week. Katie and I read it, and listened to it, and shared the same basic idea from the book...Israel, you are bad and therefore you will suffer God's justice, aka His wrath.

Dave unpacked it and brought forth some astounding truths and the Holy Spirit pricked the hearts of many in the congregation that day and prompted much conviction.

The main text of the message was from Amos 5 which can be read here.

While Israel is celebrating jubilees and wonderful festivals, offering sacrifices unto the Lord in worship, the prophets get to be the lucky ones to deliver messages that rain on the parade of those happy and complacent people. Yes, the prophet, in this case Amos, gets to tell them all "hey, God is NOT pleased with you!" As you can imagine, prophets are very lonely people.

Dave shared three main points in his message about Amos' message to Israel: When the end comes you are not gonna like it, your worship of God means nothing to Him, and you are in a bad way when you place your trust in things other than God.

What was so wonderful about the message was when Dave correlated what Amos was telling Israel, and the misguided attitudes of the people, to what we can learn from them and apply it to our Christian walk today.

I. When the end is not good news

18 Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD ? That day will be darkness, not light.
19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him.
20 Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

As Christians when we think about the return of Christ, the second coming, or Jesus coming back for us, we imagine this as a good thing. We await it with eagerness! But, just as Amos told Israel, we may think we will see light, but we may see darkness instead. A man running from a lion, finally thinks he has escaped and is relieved, turns the corner only to be met by a bear. A man comes home from a hard days work, props himself up with his hand on the wall and is bitten by a snake. In my case it would be coming home from a trying day of work with the retail public, I would sit down at my computer, and it would blow up. It would not be pretty. What we think will happen, may not happen.

From this we learn that while the people of Amos' day were celebrating and partying, and "worshiping" God, Amos realized he was attending a funeral. Amos understood because he was called to warn Israel of the impending doom. The people believed that the "day of the Lord" they were being told about would be the day God would destroy their ungodly enemies, yet it really meant that God was declaring their own destruction.

From this we learn the danger of religious arrogance and spiritual self-deception. This is a problem for every single Christian who believes that just because they are saved that God is always happy with them.

II. When our worship means nothing to God

21 "I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.
22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. 23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Isreal knows how to worship! Worship was a festival complete with burnt offerings, grain offering and fellowship offerings. It was their way of sharing a meal with God and "bonding". There was music and lots of celebration! It was a "holy-hallelujah rockin' good time"!

They believed God delighted in their activities. But, explore the verbs and adverbs of the above verses: "I hate", "I despise your religious feasts", "I can not stand your assemblies", "I will not accept", "I will have no regard", "I will not listen!", "I will send you into exile".

God declares that he hates religious hypocrisy!

We learn in Amos that God most wants us to live out our commitment to Him. Worship is unacceptable if the way we live our life is unacceptable. Worship must be done with the right heart attitude. It is the only thing we can give to God that He can't give to us...it must be pure!

III. When confidence is misplaced

25 "Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?
26 You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god which you made for yourselves.
27 Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus," says the LORD, whose name is God Almighty.
They thought their sacrifices won God's favor. They were wrong. They weren't heeding the message Amos brought them. They were too busy being "religious" that they didn't have time to repent! God demand obedience and Amos was reminding them of that, but they were too caught up offering "sacrifices" to notice.

God was declaring that He was sending them into exile and we learn from this that God is not to be trifled with!

So, while the Israelites were offering up their sacrifices to the Lord and having feast after feast after celebratory feast, God said "Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!"

It is rather chilling is it not? Consider yourself...is your life acceptable to God? Are you ready for the Day of the Lord? Are you prepared to meet your God?

Worship should be an expression of our love, commitment, and obedience to God. Does He accept your worship? Will He send you into exile?

This message was very convicting to me. It is so easy to treat my faith as an "insurance policy". I think many Christians do, and to all different levels. As Christians, we are saved from eternal damnation, and too often treat that as a free ticket to lead unrighteous lives.

Saying we are Christians means nothing to God. God doesn't even recognize the term "Christian".

Holy and reverent fear is a good thing.

No comments:

Post a Comment