Amos - Hesed That Requires Justice | HESED

Amos, my guess is a minor prophet that was probably

not on your devotional, daily devotional bingo

card. One, a prophet we don't necessarily spend

a whole lot of time with, but a minor prophet

who had a very, very tough job. And I'm going

to set the stage, right? So God himself, probably

in a way we wouldn't recognize. What if he came

in today? or last Sunday or our Easter service

or our candlelight service or whatever, goes

through our worship service, gets up on the stage

and says, Munster Church, I hate all of this.

I don't know how we would take it. I'd probably

just go fetal, right? As the pastor of the church,

I'd fall down, start sucking my thumb and go,

I knew I should have done something else with

my life, right? How would we as a body take that?

Just let that sit. And if you have courage to

answer, I know it's aggressive, but that's the

minor prophets. A lot of times they had to go

in and give a very aggressive message of the

Lord to the people of Israel, to the Munster

churches of that day and today. And that's what

Amos is getting and kind of starting us off with.

What kind of reflection would you have? If after

I gave the benediction, probably before the band

played the last song, God just came up and said,

by the way, I hate all of this. How do you think

you'd react? Why? Okay, so Nick would be the

first one to be probably turned to salt. Okay,

you'd speak up against God. Why? Done. All right.

No, I don't know. Anyone else? Hurt. Ooh, yeah.

You can join me on the ground sucking our thumbs.

Anyone else? Devastated. Okay. Hurt. Multiplied.

Absolutely. Defensive. Okay. Wow. To the Almighty.

All right. Father, we pray for Brad. But understand,

anyone else? Balcony. How would you be feeling?

You guys probably, I mean, I don't know if he'd

be looking up to you or just over here, right?

But some of you probably have already left. But

in the balcony, one or two, I hate all of this.

Disappointed, right? Because Mark's the sound

guy. God's probably looking right at him first,

right? And so understand that what God means

by this, what Amos had to say this to the people

of Israel, it had nothing to do with the music.

Evan, you're safe, right? It had nothing to do

with the building, okay? Building grounds, you're

safe. It had nothing to do with the sermon length.

I'm still fetal, but I'm safe. Okay? The worship

itself, it was us, collectively. This is exactly

what happens in the book of Amos. If Hosea showed

us a God who pursues wanderers, and Joel showed

us a God who restores what is ruined, Amos shows

us a God who refuses to be worshipped without

something specific. And this makes God angry.

The worship that makes God angry is when we worship

without justice in our hearts individually and

collectively. This is the uncomfortable truth

of the Chesed we're going to learn about today.

God's steadfast love does not tolerate a divided

life. And grace that saves also transforms through

that division. And Amos forced to ask the dangerous

question. So we're going to start it today. Right

in the beginning. What if our worship sounds

faithful, but our lives contradict that worship?

I know, it's heavy. I already warned you. But

let's work through it. So first, who is Amos?

Amos, minor prophet, God sends an outsider. Amos

7, 14. Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah,

I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I

was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs.

Just an average guy. That he was an outsider.

He did not get that call of prophet, per se.

He was not from the Levitical line. He really

had no credentials to go in and speak to Israel.

But as we've learned, throughout these sermon

series, God uses the ordinary for the extraordinary.

Yet, Amos prophesies around 760 BC, during the

reign of... reign of King Jeroboam II, and at

this point, the snapshot of Israel economically

booming, politically secure, but spiritually

hollow. When you think of a hollowness, whether

in a tree, what does that mean? If a tree is

hollow, there is what? Nothing inside, right?

Though it may look like a tree, it's hollow inside,

and the fear for hollow trees Is that even a

slight breeze can knock them over. Simple things.

One of my boys running into it can destroy it.

If it's hollow. That's not asking you guys to

try. Spiritually hollow. In this season of Israel.

They had the wealthy elites. The borders were

expanding. Impressive religious festivals. Every

day was like some of our top worship services.

Whatever that means. And God sends Amos, not

a trained prophet, but a shepherd, a fig farmer,

and an outsider from Judah. Why? Because prosperity

has blinded Israel to their sin. Things were

going so well, they forgot about Yahweh. Something

they've done over and over and over again. And

if we're being honest, something we do constantly.

When our life stinks, the bank account's in negative,

we cry out to God. When everything's good, We

tend to forget them. And God's hesed refuses

to let injustice hide behind religion. Behind

the way that people are talking the talk, walking

the walk. There's a hollowness there. And God

comes in hot. He comes in like a roaring lion.

Because God will not, has not, will not, and

will never ignore injustice. Hear that. God will

not ignore injustice. Right? So this is our second

point. The roaring lion. Amos 1, chapter 2. Sorry.

Chapter 1, verse 2. And he said, the Lord roars

from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem.

The pastors of the shepherds mourn and the top

of Carmel withers. Right? Mount Carmel. It withers.

This is a picture of God's. Anger. Things are

not going well behind the scenes. Friends, we

all have PhDs in this. When things are not going

well, we know how to make it look that way, whether

in person or online. We know how to do it. The

book opens not with comfort, but with a warning.

Like I've said, minor prophets, get in, do the

job, get out. He comes in hot. Amos begins by

announcing judgment on Israel's enemies. Damascus,

Gaza, Tyre, Edom. Israel cheers. They think,

another great day in the Lord. Yahweh's got our

backs. When we remember him, Yahweh's got our

backs. But Amos isn't done. Amos, yes, calls

out judgment for all the outsiders, so to speak.

Then turns right at Israel. I liken this. Maybe

when you're growing up, you're in a group of

friends that maybe got in trouble about doing

something. I remember me and the guys from the

neighborhood. We all went to camp together. We

all got in trouble about something, and everyone

was brought in. All the moms and dads were brought

in. I look back on it and, like, all the dads

huddled up to see who was going to get, like,

the first licks in. And they just, they hit us

with, we're disappointed, never do this again,

all this kind of stuff. And then you knew it

wasn't done. Because, yes, everyone was together.

But, Kyle, what do you think it was like when

we all got to our own homes? Terrifying, right?

This is coming from a boy house. He's been through

this, I'm sure. It was very different when mom

and dad got us alone. We didn't see Jeff after

that. Just kidding. No, that didn't happen. But

understand that all of a sudden, Israel turns

to his own. This is different than mom and dad

going, I don't care what your friends do. I'm

not their parents, right? Absolutely. All of

a sudden, Israel gets brought home. And Amos

opens up. The cheering stops. Because Israel's

sins are now completely splayed before them.

And they're repeated throughout Amos. Israel's

sins. Exploiting the poor. Manipulating the courts.

Hoarding wealth. Crushing the needy. Living in

luxury while others suffer. Leave that up. This

is not accidental sin. This is all lifestyle.

Israel forgot their center. They lost who was

the one that created them and called them to

a people who gave them a book of rules that spoke

against doing all of this. But much like us,

we are Israelites of 2026. We fall into what

I'm going to call systemic. or systemic injustice.

This is Micah, right? Do justly, love mercy,

walk humbly. Sorry, Micah, that's weird. I have

Micah as one running squeeze, but there is a

prophet Micah, right? Do justly, love mercy,

walk humbly with our God. You come to me, Pastor,

what's the best way for me to live my life? I'm

going to start there. First, I'm going to start

with love the Lord your God with all your heart,

soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as

yourself. The greatest of these, right? Jesus

says that. Everything hangs on that. Well, how

do I walk that out? Do justly, love mercy, walk

humbly with your God. Well, how do I do that

practically? Don't do this. Friends, read this

over. Burn this into your mind. Again, not accidental

sin. Systemic injustice. This is the sins of

the heart and the sins of the body. Are you starting

to see why God might hate the worship? Because

people have the audacity to come for 90 minutes

maybe, one day a week, and lift up praises, sing

the songs, pretend to listen, all or whatever,

yet go out and live like this. I know we joke,

and we haven't made them in a while, but you

have the Munster Church bumper sticker. And I've

always said, if you drive like a jerk, please

don't put one of these on your car. Okay? That's

not a good witness. Right? And if for some reason

you find yourself, you know, giving everybody

the pinky as you drive, we should probably have

a conversation, okay? Because that's not a good

thing regardless of what stickers you have on,

you know, all of those kind of things. But please

don't do that. Amos makes this painfully clear.

Religious activity will never cancel out moral

failure. So it makes us different than the Catholics.

It makes us different than the understanding

of church history that if I do in the church,

it will magically erase what I do in the world.

Jesus comes to say no, and guess what? It was

even before Jesus. It was all throughout the

Old Testament. Because God makes it very clear

in Amos 5, I hate your feasts. Now that might

not slap as much as it should in 2026, right?

Because they're like, I hate your feasts. I don't

feast. You hate my Thanksgiving, God? Great.

Right? No, this is not what he means. Jump into

Amos 5. When worship is empty, Amos 5, 21 to

23. I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take

no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though

you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them. And the peace offerings

of your fattened animals, I will not look upon

them. Take away from me the noise of your songs

to the melody of your harps. I will not listen.

Micah, leave that up. It's pretty direct. But

let's kind of do a little bit of a 2026 kind

of commentary on some of this. I hate, I despise.

You can get that. You understand what that is.

That's the same in the Hebrew as it is in the

English, right? I hate. The funny thing is, is

the Hebrew kind of foundation for I hate and

I despise. The way Hebrew is written, it's more

in kind of the visual and the auditory in that

sense, right? It's hard to really find thesaurus

and dictionaries for the Hebrew per se. It's

more of kind of the experiencing the words, especially

learning it. It's an experience, right? And now

Evan goes fetal. But understand, I hate, I despise.

You should really look at this as God, as he's

saying it, he's turning his back on it. I'm not

even going to engage it. Those of you that are

married, you're in maybe an argument, heated

or not, with your spouse and you just went through

this laundry list of things and your spouse just

turns around and walks away. Don't look at your

spouse right now and make it weird. How are you

feeling when that happens? Maybe you've prepped

this. You've talked to yourself about this in

the car. You've talked to maybe some friends.

You've maybe emailed me about it and I pretended

to write you back. All of the things. And you

give this monologue and you know you have it.

And that person just, bloop, and walks away.

How are you feeling? Careful now, you're in the

church. How are you feeling? Frustrated. Okay,

let's start there, because that's really down

here, I feel like. Good answer. You got the ball

rolling, Doug. Again, you practiced this. You

knew you got them. This is gotcha marriage stuff,

right? Like, oh, man, after I just light them

up, they're going to want to sleep on the couch

for a year. Am I overdoing it? Maybe. I don't

know. How else are you feeling? Angry? Frustrated?

Come on, open it up, friends. Those have been

married for decades. How are you feeling? Rejected.

Yeah. Powerless. Interesting. Disrespected. Ooh,

said. Said with the voice of Randy DeVries. That

put chills in me. Wow. Okay. Whew. All the things.

You're also feeling injustice, aren't you? That's

exactly how God's feeling. By all the stuff.

I hate, I despise your feasts, meaning your gatherings.

This isn't couples club, okay? That's a great

thing. This isn't what he's talking about. All

the things you're doing for me, your feasts,

your solemn assemblies, your burnt offerings,

your grain offerings, your peace offerings, even

the noise of your songs. Even the harp. I hate

and despise them because of your heart. He's

cutting right there. One of the most shocking

passages in all of scripture. God rejects the

sacrifices, the songs, the assemblies. Why? Because

worship had become disconnected to following

his word. I liken this to verbal disrespect to

Carrie and I, yet their rooms are immaculate.

At that point, I don't even care if you're going

to be disrespectful. I don't care about your

room. I don't care about what you think you can

show me because I know your heart. This is exactly

what God is mad about. God is not anti -worship.

And God is not anti -worship. He's anti -hypocrisy.

What he's calling out is their heart. They are

hypocrites. We are hypocrites. And he's calling

out the church. Why? Because it's become disconnected.

Worship does not shape how we treat people. A

worship that does not shape how we treat people

isn't worship. It's a show. It's fake. And God

is doubling down. Unfortunately, this is a hard

look at Chesed. This is Chesed turned inside

out. Covenant love for God must produce covenant

faithfulness towards others. God covenants with

you. You understand what that means? That love

is there, not as a contract, but as a covenant.

How dare we love a world with a contract love

then? We are learning nothing from God's love.

Because justice, let it roll down, Amos said.

This is the heart of Amos, Amos 5 .24. But let

justice roll down like the waters, and righteousness

like an ever -flowing stream. Our righteousness,

our justice, talking the talk, walking the walk,

having the heart walk that out and talk that

out too is exactly what we're talking about.

Justice is not optional charity. Justice isn't,

oh, I gave that homeless person a dollar. This

is living a life of justice. This is covenant

faithfulness lived out publicly. How you live

your life. In scripture, we see justice and righteousness.

We're going to break it down this morning, okay?

Justice, righteousness. Let's go to the next

one. Justice is giving people what God says they

are due. Righteousness is living in right relationship

with God and neighbor. Together, they are the

visible fruit of chesed. This is how the world

tries to understand chesed through us. Ooh, that

church, they have decent, good worship, 90 minutes,

a sermon, okay? He won't put you to sleep, like,

whatever. But then they go out and live life

terribly towards people. They're all about themselves.

They want their pound of flesh. They don't forgive.

They forget the needy. They look down on the

widow and the orphan, all the things that the

Scriptures tell us to do opposite. That's why

grace... must produce justice. That's where we're

going next. Grace must produce justice. The meaning

behind this is you have been shown grace. How

dare you not show others grace? Well, pastor,

they really hurt me. Okay? And guess what? If

you are perfect in the situation, then you can

cast all the judgment in the world. Trick question.

None of us are. If we've been shown grace, we

must show grace. Because grace produces justice.

This is where the canons of Dort are going to

tie these two truths together. Grace 101. We

are saved by grace alone. Right? Head 3 and 4,

line 3. Humanity is incapable of good apart from

regeneration. You don't know what good living

is. I don't know what good living is without

the Holy Spirit at work in my life, without Jesus

as my Lord. One, seven, salvation rests entirely

on God's sovereign grace. We're going to unpack

that with high school today, that we are saved

by grace alone. Salvation rests entirely on God's

sovereign grace. You've been shown grace. We

must show grace to people. Israel's problem was

not in worship forms, but in the unregenerated

hearts hiding behind religion. I've been shown

grace. I'm going to worship the grace giver.

But I'm going to demand my pound of flesh every

other day of the week. Then you don't get it.

Grace 201. Grace always produces fruit. 3, 4,

11 through 12. God renews the will, making people

willing and able to live in obedience. Your best

understanding of grace in your life is showing

grace to others and obeying God's word. Okay,

pastor, we get it. We're terrible people, right?

How do we walk this out? The nice thing is I'm

a terrible person too, and we all have received

grace. So we must live. with grace -colored glasses.

Now that doesn't mean you don't hold people accountable.

That doesn't mean you don't ask for forgiveness

when you fall and when you sin. But especially

in the church, no matter how badly we've been

hurt, you've heard me say before, I'll say it

again, if you're in Christ, I'm in Christ, and

we have conflict, we can't come to resolution,

restoration, reconciliation. We can come to that

if we're in Christ. Yeah, we may not be BFFs

afterwards. We may not be on each other's Christmas

card list, and that's okay. But there is grace

found in faith. Let's pause here for one second.

What happens when they really hurt you? What

happens when you really fell, when I really fell,

when we are in the pit of it? It's hard to accept

because we don't think we're worthy of it. Friends,

Christ didn't go to the cross for no reason.

He went to the cross not because we've done so

many great things, but because the sin was so

great and we couldn't save ourselves. He went

to the cross. While we were still sinners, Christ

died for us. For the wages of sin is death. And

that was... A covenant none of us could walk

out ourselves. You have received grace and forgiveness.

I have received grace and forgiveness. And as

we declared in worship today, he remembers your

sin no more when that grace, when that forgiveness,

when that confession really happens. God goes,

you've been forgiven. Walk as one forgiven. There's

a lot of depth to the canons of Dort. And the

canons reject two things that our society loves

and even the church does subscribe to in a false

teaching kind of way. Moralism, the understanding

of earning salvation by works. The canons of

Dort helps us understand that that's bad theology.

It's a bad way to live life. Because what's going

to stop you from earning your way to God? Friends,

though we may want it, none of us want that job.

You don't want to be the creator and sustainer

of the universe. I don't like going to Aldi by

myself and making those decisions. Why in the

world would I want to have to do that for everybody

in the world? So it's not a moralism thing. Antinomialism.

You're welcome. Right? What is that? That is

claiming grace without transformation. That's

being a Christian fraud. I'm not even going to

put, that's just being a fraud of faith. To say,

I have been given, I have been forgiven, I've

been given grace. Christ died for me. His blood

shed. I'm whiter than snow. But there's no life

change. Everything has stayed the same. Then

friend, you've been washed by nothing. Amos stamps

firmly in Reformed theology. I love it. And maybe

you'll take some time and read Amos this week.

Grace that does not reshape how you live. is

not biblical grace. It's not the grace of Christ.

Because the grace of Christ changes everything.

Even in those deep, dark pits of despair. Even

when that relationship, that marriage, that whatever

is pretty much over. There is grace that can

restore. It may not be restored to what it once

was, but it's going to be restored to what it

is in the Lord. How do we walk this out? This

is a tough one, isn't it? Because it's convicting

every part of our being. How do we walk this

out? What does this hesed in action look like?

What is Amos calling out for us today? First,

examine the gap. I use that word specifically.

Examine the gap between your worship and your

life. I'm going to double down. And your life

online. Because unfortunately, those two rarely

are the same. Examine the gap. Is it that much

or is it a Grand Canyon's worth? Either way,

it's bad. Does your songs match your systems

in your life? Do your prayers match your practices

day in and day out? Two, justice begins with

seeing people. Really seeing people. Not how

you want to see them. Not pretending you see

them, but actually seeing them. Chesed requires

noticing the vulnerable, listening to the unheard,

and refusing to benefit from systems that harm

others. It's exactly what Israel turned into.

We're going to benefit from all the good things,

but we're going to forget the nobodies. We're

going to forget the widows and the orphans. We're

not going to live out justice -filled lives.

This ties to that third one, and then I'm going

to hit it pretty hard right now in 2026. The

church must be a place where justice flows. That

second point and that third point is not political

ideology. If right away what I just said about

the vulnerable makes you uncomfortable politically,

stop worshiping at the political altar. This

is not what we're talking about. Yet we're seeing

it in our world today. And we need to respond

the way God wants us to respond. This is not

social posturing. We've got to look like we're

the best church on Ridge Road. No, we don't.

Who cares? This is gospel -shaped justice rooted

in God's love. Because at the end of the day,

you know who you are. And you know you did not

save yourself. I did not save myself. I didn't

climb myself out of the pit. God reached down

in his grace, pulled me out, and gave me a form

and a future, and he gave me a father that disciplines

me when I disrespect, when I disobey, and when

I dishonor, and loves me through those times.

Fourth. Ultimately, Jesus is the fulfillment

Amos is pointing towards. When Israel failed,

guess what? Jesus lived the perfect justice.

Jesus embodied the hesed. Jesus bore all of the

injustices, all of the jokes that we tend to

live out. Jesus bore those on the cross. Grace

does not excuse injustice. Grace redeems. injustice,

so we can live differently. Let's bring it home.

Let's land this plane. When love takes shape,

Hosea taught us that God's hesed pursues us.

Joel taught us that God's hesed restores us.

Take this with you today. Amos teaches us why

God's hesed is so great that our lives can reflect

that love and be forever different. Chesed is

not the abstract. It's not out there in the cosmos

for us not to understand. Chesed has weight.

Chesed has shape. Chesed has consequences. We

need to live this out the best, most biblical

way we can. So let the justice roll in your life.

But remember, it starts here. It doesn't start

by pointing everywhere else. It starts inside.

Let justice roll. Not because it saves us, but

because we've already been saved. And that makes

a difference. Let's pray.