True Worship vs. Empty Religion | Bible Study of Amos 5:18 - 6:14

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Hey, everybody, Welcome to the Bible Guys. My name is Chris.

Should I wear my hat forward or backward?

You see this shadow on my face?

Yeah?

I don't think peop want to see my pretty I

don't think pretty bloody cares.

But I was like this, I like this is cool.

Jeff Yeah, yeah, Jeff yeah?

Is that? Did you ever wear your hat backwards? Not

very often? Yeah.

I was gonna say I don't ever do it, but

my wife likes when I do it.

She's like, you look cool, cool, look, you look cool.

You are elevates the cool factor. All right, that's how

I don't wear it this way. It says Detroit.

They see, yeah, that's very cool.

And for those of you who don't know, Detroit is

a city Michigan, that's right.

And uh, Detroit is a tough town. That's why you

and I are so tough. That's right, because from Detroit.

That's why I wear my sweatshirt.

That's right in the morning, that's right. That's right. Okay,

I'm cool.

All right.

Well, hey, today we are going to do a segment

that Desiree has. She has plucked from fed from the

people who are right in Yes. So, if you have

a question that you want answered or at least considered

to be answered, she is gonna present us with a

question called stump the pastor yes. So, somebody wrote in

a question and so she has plucked it from the responses.

And here it is. This is by Anonymous. Okay, okay,

hello anonymous, Hello anonymous.

Uh. The question is how do you deal with the

guilt of sin and avoiding falling back into that bad habit?

So these are related, but there are two two different

sort of answers, because guilt of sin is internal and

it's you know, it's it's it's it's you know, dealing

with uh, you know, your attitude and your emotions responding

around that one sin. Apparently I'm assuming that one sin

that trips you up, right, Like in Hebrews, it talks about,

you know, putting aside and getting rid of the one

sin that so easily trips you up or besets you, right,

So I'm assuming that's just what they're talking about, because

it says avoid falling back into that bad habit.

So Hey, how about this.

I'll talk about the guilt of sin part okay, and

you could talk about how do you avoid falling back

into that one temptation that trips you up. So I'll

just say this about guilt. The Bible is really clear

about guilt, that guilt is a good thing when it's

used for God's purposes. So guilt is given to us

in the form of conviction, in the form of repentance. Right,

So if guilt leads us to repentance, and the word

repent means to turn away from it's a fancy church

word that means just to go the other direction. Change

your state of mind, change your thinking, change your direction,

change your choices right, change your heart. And so once

that happens, guilt has of his purpose because God will

use guilt for that. And so guilt will then turn

us to, for instance, like apologies. It will turn us

toward making up for a right relationship, mending a relationship,

turning away from our bad actions, turning back toward God.

These are great things that guilt can propel us to do.

And so gil has a purpose. So God didn't make

a mistake when he give us guilt. However, God is

actually pretty crystal clear that there is no condemnation for

those who are in Christ Jesus. That once we turned

back to God, that we need to understand that our

sins are forgiven because that sin has been repented, that

sin has been confessed and forgiven, that sin has been

forgotten by God. Literally, it actually says God has chosen.

He doesn't have to, but he has chosen to forget

our sin. He has removed our sin as far as

the east is from the west. He has buried our

sin in the deepest ocean, God says, And he says,

I choose to remember your sins.

No more.

He doesn't do that because of us. He does that

because of the sacrifice of Jesus. Christ Jesus is the

sinless sacrifice, that is the only sacrifice worthy enough to

eliminate our.

Sins from us.

And so I would just say God never intends for

us to live in guilt. Once we have used guilt,

or God has used guilt for us to return to repentance,

then you need to realize if God has chosen to

forget your sin, forget your sin, then you should choose

to forget your sin.

And by the way, easier said than done.

So we should we you know, forgive and forget, right,

I mean, it's really hard to forget. But we need

to understand that God doesn't have us live in guilt.

So let me just say one thing and I'll hand

it over to you. And that is.

Some people believe that wearing guilt as a badge of

honor is a good thing. Like I'm gonna I'm gonna

go ahead and punish myself. I don't deserve to be

treated kindly. I don't deserve you. I'm not worthy of

of all things. You know, I walk into a church

and and I'm a I'm a piece of garbage, that

kind of thing. And and just understand that God will

use those who repent. God used the apostle Paul, God

used David got, God restored Peter. God even blessed Manassa

for crying out loud. God is going to use those

who repent. We just covered the Ninavites, right, so so

so God is going to continue to use you and

bless you if we repent. So so, don't don't wear

guilt as a badge of honor. You may think it's

noble to do that, but it's not noble. It's not

what God intends. It's it's it's it's a bad thing.

That's it.

There's a theological term that is mentioned many times in Bible,

the word justified.

You and I. We just talked about it someday in church.

Right, and so that verse that you mentioned Romans eight one,

there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus. When the Bible talks about us being justified,

we are justified in Christ Jesus. The word justified. The

easiest definition is that God makes us just as if

I had never sinned. So it's not that God looks

at me and remembers, boy, he used to be a sinner,

but he's not anymore. God looks at me, and because

I'm in Jesus, he saw me. He sees me as

if I've never sinned. So right, that's a that's a

mind blowing idea. So when God sees you, if you're

a fouler of Christ, if you've trusted Christ, you know.

First John one nine tells us that if we confess

our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our

sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Every hint

of it, right, And so that's the idea of justification,

that God looks at you just as if you'd never sin.

Yea, And so he is not mad at you right

right right on this. But you know what you've done.

So where God looks at you because you're in Jesus,

if you've trusted Christ as your savior, he looks at

you in Jesus. And because he's seeing Jesus on you

and you in him, there's no sin to see, right,

nothink Jesus is perfect. So then for you, how do

you navigate through this one? Confess your sin first John

one nine. So you confess it, and you know you

don't have to keep doing it over and over and

over again. But you confess your sin. I think remembering

your identity in Christ, the fact that you know the

Bible says that you no longer are your own anymore. Right,

You've become a new person in Christ, the Bible says,

and the old life has gone, a new life has begun.

So then you begin going down this past. So there's

a few things. Here's what I would say as far

as learning how to avoid you sent First of all,

you need to renew your mind daily. Rome's chapter twelve

says one and two. It says, give your body as

a living sacrifice. That can be difficult. It's a choice

every day to do that. God, my body's yours, and

so help me to honor you. That's an by hour,

sometimes minute by minute decision.

Right.

Then renew your mind and renewing your mind to spending

time in God's word. You change your mind to start

thinking like his mind. And the only way you can

do that is He gave you his words. And so

the podcast. Right, we're spending time in God's word every day,

reading the Bible on your own.

That's a big one.

Proverbs chapter four tells us to guard our hearts above

all else.

Yep.

So that means you need to start setting up parameters

of fences around your life a little bit that if

you know you have a weakness with, say alcohol, I

got the idea, don't go with your friends to the

bar and drink a diet coat.

Right.

I have a friend that says, hey, if you go

to the barbershop often enough, you're going to get your haircut. Right,

that's what happens. So you guard your hearts, set up

some fences. Not that God's mad at you, but you

care enough to say, I'm going to avoid that spot

for me. You have to rely on the Holy Spirit,

not just your power. Galatians tells us to walk in

the spirit every day, and you won't fulfill the desires

of your flesh. So that really is going to require

that you're replacing bad habits with good habits. That now,

instead of that thing that you normally would do on

Friday nights, you decide to fill Friday night with something good. Right, so,

and then you run from those evil things and evil people,

and you run two good people. You have to surround

yourself with good people. Hebrews chapter ten says, let us

think of ways to motivate one another to acts of

love and good works the one another's There's so many

times in sixty something times in the New Testament talks

about the importance of one another. We can't go on

this spiritual journey alone. We really need other Christians. I

need you to encourage me to do the right thing,

and you need me to encourage you to do the

right thing. We need one another.

And then he says to run.

From tempta we're tempted to kind of just peek around

and look and see how strong we are today. But

he says, run we just read this yesterday. Isn't to

do what is good and run from evil so that

you may live.

That's right.

And so I would say that those tools are helpful. Ultimately,

walk in the spirit. You won't fulfill the lust of

the flesh. But it's all those other tools you need

one another. You need to spend time in God's word.

Let God change your mind those things. And then when

you trip, and you may when you trip, confess your sins.

First John one night, and he's faithful, and he's just

to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all

in righteousness. Literally, you are justified, just as if I'd

never sinned. So sleep well tonight knowing that you've been forgiven,

get up tomorrow and get back to work.

Yep.

Just remember, God says you need God and you need others, right,

so you have to have you have to have that

in your life. And hey, listen, being in a position

of being tempted by sin is a difficult position at times.

And you know what else is a difficult position, uh,

When when a prophet gives you a warning of a

coming judgment in.

A difficult You're in a difficult position.

Then when God's saying that I'm going to come down,

you like a lion.

Yeah, yeah, that's right. Hey.

By the way, Uh, my wife and I watched the

comedian John mulaney and he was interviewed by David Letterman

on that new show My Next Guest and uh he

and this was a while back, but he on that

show he said that he had just celebrated three years

of sobriety. So he went into rehab because of an

intervention with all his friends. So all his friends came in.

There's all these famous comedians that uh, you know came

to him and and uh, you know, intervened and uh

and so it was it was both uh you know,

Uh he has faith, right, so it's God and then

it's others and the other's part uh is you know

for him especially, was put into place in a really

really strong way, you know, which was really cool.

It's very very important that we don't go on this

journey alone of recovering from whatever. So you run from it,

get rid of whatever you can get rid of. That

is a temptation. You fill your time. You know, what

used to be time that you spent for the wrong thing,

you you change it right, and you do the right

thing and then guard your herd above everything else while

you're walking with God and letting God change your mind.

So yeah, it's it's an it's a it's a journey

that you're on. Very rarely do I ever see somebody

just miraculously suddenly never do that bad thing again.

Right, it's it's it's a battle.

And what you're doing some heavy lifting, right, and that

heavy lifting is going to make you strong. That's the

only way you can build muscle. So you begin to

build spiritual muscle by doing the heavy lifting every day.

And next thing, you know what used to be too heavy,

you can do easily, right, And that's that's that's.

What God does.

So talking about this coming judgment thing, yep in Amus

chapter five, verse eighteen, we're gonna be a bunch of

verses today. Yeah, one of my favorite verses in the

book of Amos. So we've got a couple, but one

of my favorite.

You know, you remember how you talk about me speaking superlatives?

Huh?

You have like twelve one of my favorite verses in

the last like twenty podcast.

Telling you I love it. I love this verse. It's

one of my favorite ones verses. Y.

Yes, I've read the Book of Amos, so I got

some favorite favorite ones in there.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah you should read It's pretty cool.

Oh you know what that's it? Then, Jeff, just listen,

I'll read it. Okay. I'm so glad I could be

sitting here with you.

It says what sorrow awaits you who say, if only

the day of the Lord we're here. You have no

idea what you're wishing for. That day will bring darkness,

not light, And that day you will be like a

man who runs from a lion only to meet a bear.

Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a

wall in his house, and he's bitten by a snake. Yes,

the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless

without a ray of joy or hope. Good morning, good morning,

good morning, you want to say, good morning?

Yeah, there you go.

I hate all your show and pretense, the hypocrisy of

your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept

your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won't even notice

all your choice peace offerings away with your noisy hymns

of praise. I will not listen to the music of

your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood

of justice and an endless river of righteous living.

That's what I like.

I that's my favorite verse right there, right, I want

to see a mighty flood of justice and an endless

river of righteous living. Quit going to church, Quit doing

all the religious stuff, acting like you're a good person,

and then living wickedly. That's what he's saying, right, just

be just and righteous. Was it to me you were

bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the

wilderness Israel. No, you served your pagan gods, Saco, Secou,

Secouth your King God, and Kaiwan, your star God, the

images you made for yourself. So I will send you

into exile, to a land east of Damascus, says the Lord,

whose name is the God of Heaven's armies. What sorrow

awaits you, who lounge and luxury in Jerusalem and you

feel secure in Samaria. You are famous and popular in Israel,

and people go to you for help. But go over

to Kalna and see what happened there. Then go to

the great city a Haymath, and down to the Philistine

city a gath. You are no better than they were,

and look how they were destroyed. You push away every

thought of coming disaster, but your actions only bring the

day of judgment closer. How terrible for you, who sprawl

on ivory beds and lounge on your couches, eating the

meats of tender lambs from the flock and of choice

calves fattened in the stall. You sing trivial songs to

the sound of the harp, and fancy yourselves to be

great musicians like David. You drink wine by the bowl full,

and perfume yourselves with fragrant lotions, and you care nothing

about the ruin of your nation. Therefore you will be

the first to be led away as captives. Suddenly all

your parties will end. The sovereign Lord has sworn by

his own name, and this is what he, the Lord,

God of Heaven's.

Army, says.

I despise the arrogance of Israel, and I hate their fortresses.

I will give this city and everything in it to

their enemies. If there are ten men left in one house,

they will all die. And when a relative who is

responsible to dispose of the dead, goes into the house

to carry out the bodies, he will ask the last survivor,

is anyone else with you? When the person begins to

swear no by he will interrupt and say stop.

Don't even mention the name of the Lord.

When the Lord gives the command, homes both great and

small will be smashed to pieces. Can horses gallop over boulders?

Can oxen be used to plow them? But that's how

foolish you are when you turn justice into poison and

the sweet fruit of righteousness into bitterness, and you brag

about your conquest a lodabar. You boast, didn't we take

Canaeum by our own strength? Oh people of Israel, I'm

about to bring an enemy nation against you, says the

Lord God at Heaven's army. They will oppress you throughout

your land, from Lebelheymoth in the north to the Araba

Valley in the south.

It's at the end of it. I think that's the

end of it. We got it right there.

Yeah, so I'm not joking around. Yeah, there's definitely a

lot of specifics here. In fact, I think that it

is so not strange, I guess, but like, because you know,

God's gonna if he says this, it's.

Gonna happen, right, but that whole.

That whole like verse nine ten eleven, uh where he

gets where he says, okay, all right, there's ten men

in the house. He says, they'll all die, and when

a relative was responsible to dispose of that, goes in

the house and carries out the body.

He's the last, the last survivor. Is anyone else with you?

But then when the person begins to swear no bycomma

dot dot dot end quote, he will interrupt and say stop,

don't even mention the name.

Of the lord in parentheses. Right, So guy was gonna

say no by the Lord.

Right right, right, right right.

But it's so so specific.

Right, So it seems it's seemingly so random.

But yet you know, God is really getting very specific

about how it's going to be.

It's gonna be rough. It's going to be rough, he says.

In that day, it'll be like a man who runs

from a lion only to meet a bear when he's

leaning against the wall. The rest he said, you're not

getting away from me, That's what he's saying. Yeah, you

will not get away from my judgment. Now, this is

thirty something years in the future.

Yep.

But he says, if you don't repent, because remember in

the previous chapter he says, do what's evil and run,

or do what's good and run from evil so that

you may live. God saying come back to me, then

maybe maybe.

I'll hold off on this stuff.

Yeah, but then he goes back, He goes back and

say it's gonna be rough if you don't.

You know.

The part that sticks out to me is he says,

away with your noisy hymns of praise, right, I will

not listen to your music of your harps. Instead, I

want to see a mighty flooded justice, which is what

you pointed out right, Like that concept. I love it,

and it's it's the idea of like who was it

in the Old Testament? Was it David right? When he says,

you don't desire sacrifice, you don't want my burnt offerings.

Instead, God, you want to.

Contrite heart broken, contract broken and contrite heart right?

Psalm was it fifty one right.

Or something like that. It's in the Psalm somewhere. But yeah,

it's that same thing that like you desire you know,

my heart more than my sacrifices. And back then the sacrifice.

If you think about with sacrifice the thing that we

need to you know, when you apply that to us today,

sacrifice is religious duty, right, right, we think of sacrifice,

you know, like, oh, what can I sacrifice for lent

or something?

Right?

But he's referring to the word sacrifice is religious duty.

So you know, back then when David, you know, that

was a verse that was quoted because David had done

this great sin before the entire nation. You know, he

had taken a wife from his neighbor, He had his

neighbor killed, his wife became this lady became pregnant. I mean,

all that was just scandalous. It was awful. Everybody in

the kingdom knew it. He was exercising his right as

a king, he was abusing his power.

He was in sin all these different things.

And then and what does he say is he's saying, hey, God,

it is some fifty one.

It's on fifty one because he says, he says.

The easiest thing to do, the easiest thing for David

to have done in that moment was to order a

sacrifice of a thousand rams, right or a thousand bulls. Right.

He could just said, God, I want to show my

repentance by my religious duty on the outside, I'm going

to do all these great things. What David realizes, it's like, Nah,

that's not really what God is after. What he's really

after is my heart. Right unless my heart breaks, unless

I have a broken and contrite heart, unless I repent,

unless I turn back to God, then nothing else is

going to matter. And that's really sort of what he's

saying here. God is saying, I don't want your religious

duty right on the outside. You think you really think

going to church and singing is going to make up

for the condition of your heart and all these really

bad things that are an overflow from it.

That's what he's saying.

Well, the note here for Amos five twenty one says

God hates worship by people who grow through their motions

only for show. If you're living sinful lives and using

religious rituals and traditions to make ourselves look good, God

will despise our worship and not accept what we offer

He wants, sincere hearts not praise from hypocrites. Right right

when you worship at church, are you more concerned about

your image or your attitude toward God? So that's a

big one, and then right after that he kind of

challenges them on you know, and I think this is

a temptation for Christians and for some people who aren't

totally aware of what the Bible says. But these Israelites

are blending their religious ceremonies, the sacrifices and the songs

of praise and all that stuff with astrology. And so

he's really mad at them about fooling around with all

your star gods. Yeah, and I think Christians sometimes they

like the tarot card thing, they like the fortune readers,

and you know, they want to go and look at

what their astrology sign is and you know all that,

and God's like, don't mess around with that stuff, right,

the only guidance you need is from me and my word.

But when you're doing these other things, he says, so

I'll send you into exile. He says, right, these are

images you've made for yourself. These are not things that

are actual gods. And then he goes on he says,

what sorrow you're going to await you? Right, these are

difficult things, so stay away from those things. He's really

pushing back against that worshiping the stars and the planets

are preferring the phrase is preferring nature over Nature's God.

Right, Yeah, that's really cool. That's a huge one.

So I would just encourage Christians stay away from that stuff.

That's all part of pagan religion, even if you just

think it's cute and fun.

Yeah, the reality.

Is it's been rooted in pagan religion for thousands of years.

Well, I believe there's evil forces in it, yes, because

I have been personally completely connected to my mom. So well,

I bet you in the last fifteen years she probably

had and done it. But I would say before fifteen

years ago, when she was still like in her seventies

and late sixties, she would go to fortune tellers all

the time and and and believe me, like you know,

I mean, after it happens over three dozen times the

thing she comes back and says, and then what you

see is like, oh, that's.

Evil and creepy.

Like it's like it's not like all just shenanigans, like

there are things that you cannot explain.

And so the only and the only reason why you.

Know, I believe that it is even has power is

because if it's not from God, then it's from a force.

A supernatural force. That is not God.

And the only other force that we know that is

not of God is of our enemy, right, which means

that there's evil forces in it. I believe that there

is wicked power in some.

Of those things, not all of them.

In fact, I would say most of them don't have

power at all. Right, As you said, could you say cute?

And most people think it's cute, right right, right?

Yeah, but yeah, sometimes it could be.

Really it's like Dorothy going to the to the gypsy

and wanting to look in the in the crystal ball. Right,

that's what most people think, Professor, this is kind of

a cute thing, you know, but it's dark forces is

what you're playing around with. And he says, don't mess

with it. So yeah, so yeah, across the board. But

the one that speaks to me more is I hate

all your show and pretense and quit singing your noisy

him a praising If you're not going to be true to.

Me, that's right, that's good.

Well, that's our time and that's a great place to end.

So hopefully we will see you next time.

Mom. The Bible guys h