Messengers | Brandon Pressnell | God's Plumb Line - Amos

Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's words you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find [email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.

Speaker B: I am excited to get up and continue this series from our series on the minor prophets that we've entitled Messengers. And you know, as we've gone through these, there's a lot of things that have jumped out to me. One is that when you read these prophets and we have not, you know, typically they're minor prophets and we tend to look over them for whatever reason. But there's a lot of great messages in here that we think not only apply to the people of their time, but also have significance to us today. And so just studying those have been really, really fun and exciting. Also very challenging as we kind of dig into them and think about things. I want to caution us as we read these a lot of times, these are prophets that have been sent as a warning to God's people. And so sometimes the messages can come across really hard and negative and those kinds of things. But, you know, if we really just stop and think about what God is trying to do to bring us back to Himself, that makes things so much different. So I've been studying the Book of Amos this past week, and there was one thing that just jumped out to me as I began studying, and it was this idea of a plumb line. Now, you'll see this in the text and we'll get into it in just a few moments. But some of you may or may not know what this is, but this is called a plumb bob. This is a brass heavyweight that has a steel point on the bottom. And the way this works is this is meant to help us see what a vertical line is. And so what you do is you'll hang it down and you'll put it in a fixed location and it'll swing around for a little bit. But ultimately, because of God's gravitational force that he's put on this earth, what happens is this will eventually settle into a perfectly vertical line and it's been used for centuries, as people have done, different kinds of structures and buildings and things along the way. And so while it may shift around for a little bit, ultimately it will settle in to that perfect vertical line. So when we think about plumb lines, they've been used in a lot of different ways. But most of the time it's used for the sake of trying to figure out if a wall has been built vertically and true to its vertical shape, or if it's something a little bit kind of off kilter. And so it's been used through the years for that. But as I think about vertical, the plumb lines, what I want us to imagine is that it's meant to be exact, okay? It's meant to be something completely where the weight is distributed evenly in the building and everything is completely vertical. It's also a measuring tool to see how far we off from that alignment. And so it measures that. But then also finally, it's to prevent those structures from getting off weight, you know, like where. Where the weight distribution gets kind of off and the building can fall because it leans a certain way. So you think about that. And when I think about plumb lines, I want you to kind of put that in the back of your mind. Because as we read the book of Amos, one of the things that the plumb line represents in Amos is the idea that God has a certain standard of righteousness, and it's absolute. And God's word is that standard for our lives, for sure. But God has given us this line, and it's meant to be a measure of morality, righteousness, excellence, God's law. It's those kinds of things. And it's the kind of thing that we're measured against. And so when we think about that in our lives, it's important for us to line up with what God has to say. And when we don't, we don't see that alignment in our life, it's time for us to maybe step back and realize that we're offline and maybe adjust those things to bring us back into alignment. So when you read in the book of Amos and we get to this, you'll kind of capture what I'm saying and how important this is for us to line up with what God has to say. So let's get into Amos a little bit. His name means burden bearer or burdensome. And that may seem odd to you, but if you kind of understand his situation, he was a guy who was from the country of Judah, okay? And he was sent from Judah to go into Israel and to prophesy to them and to share with them the warnings that God has provided him. So he's a sheep breeder. And the word for shepherd in this particular case could mean someone who bred the sheep, not necessarily someone out in the fields with the sheep, but someone who kind of helped help build the flocks. But also he was a person who farmed sycamore figs. And so you think about this guy, he's in a different part, and he's actually asked to go up into the Northern kingdom in order to prophesy against them. And it mentions a couple of. Just a couple of things for, like, us to get a timeline. And that's in as he was prophesying during the reigns of Uzziah and also Jeroboam. And so that kind of gives us a little bit of a fixture about this. And also there was an earthquake that was mentioned in the scriptures. That gives us sort of a time frame from where this might have happened, somewhere in the mid 8th century BC but it was also written at a time where Israel was militarily strong, had conquered a lot of different things, and they had been so blessed by God that their wealth had been kind of accumulating, and they got really strong and powerful in those ways. And that sounds great, except for that wealth had kind of brought them to a point where they maybe worshiped that part of it too much. Maybe they thought too highly of their possessions. And in the middle of all this, because things were comfortable, because they were wealthy, they began to turn to other things to worship. And so they embraced idolatry and pagan practices. And they got very ritualistic in what they were doing. But also, in the midst of all that, wealth became the thing that they pursued so much that they really mistreated the poor around them. They did not take care of them. In fact, they stole from them, they bribed them, they did all kinds of terrible things to bring them even lower. So that disparity of wealth was gigantic. I mean, you had the wealthiest of wealthy people, and then you had these poor people, and the poor people were being trampled on by the Israelites. And so this was a time where while they were strong, physically speaking, you know, emotionally, spiritually, they were in a pretty bad situation. And again, there were a lot of social injustices going on. So God sends this guy Amos from Judah to. To go up to Israel. And so you may be thinking to yourself, well, what qualifications does this guy have? Well, let's just look at what Amos has to say. He says I was no prophet. I wasn't a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But notice what he says. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, go prophesy to my people, Israel. So I want us to take a moment to just think about this. This guy was not groomed for this. He wasn't prepared for this moment. He didn't, you know, go to the university and learn what it means to, you know, prophetically utter things or anything like that. This is just a. A sheep herder, a sycamore fig harvester, that kind of guy with no kind of background in this. And yet look at what it says. He. He does. In verse 16, it says, God has called him away from those things to go to Israel. And he says, now therefore hear the word of the Lord. In other words, like, well, I wasn't prepared for this. I wasn't thinking about it. But you know what? God has given me this message. So everybody kind of stand back. Here comes the message of God. And I think it's important for us to be reminded that God doesn't always look for the person with that perfect resume. You know, that person that's well trained and fashioned and ready to do certain things. And it makes me wonder if maybe, you know, for us, that we maybe think there's something that we could do. Maybe there's a work in the kingdom, maybe there's a ministry that we'd like to be involved in. And oftentimes we think about those things and we're kind of moved in that direction, but we sort of, in the middle of it, we get to the point where we go, hey, but I'm not maybe the best person to start this. Maybe that's not my thing. Maybe I'm not the most qualified to start that. And is it possible that in those moments we begin to see our limitations and we begin to disqualify ourselves? When God may be planting a thought in your mind to move and to be effective in ministry, and maybe you find out in the middle of that that you have a deeper passion than you ever imagined. Let's not be the kind of people that allow our awareness of our deficiencies be the thing that slows us down from doing what God may be calling us to do. I think that's important for us to be reminded of because God's not looking for the perfect person. We see this in scripture all the time. In fact, I think it was Paul who said that it was God, whose power was made even more evident through Paul's weaknesses. And he can do so much more. And his power is shown in so many powerful ways if we just trust in him and not lean on our own abilities. So he says this, these are the words of Amos that came from God and he presents those things to Israel. Now, if you're Israel now, we're going to find out that the Israelites were not really happy with the prophets. They didn't want to hear anything from them. They were kind of telling them to be quiet. We'll learn more about that in a moment. But if you're Israel and this guy comes and his name is Amos and he's from Judah and he's coming to prophesy to you, to let you know the message of God that has been given to him, the vision that he has seen, he's going to present that to you. You may be saying, okay, well let's hear it. What do you have to say about Israel? But the unbelievable part of this is right out of the gate, rather than deal with Israel, God prophesies against the enemies of Israel. So if you looked at a map, you're gonna see kind of Israel in the middle of all this, in that green patch. But then you're gonna see all around it some of these other nations like Ammon, and you're gonna see Edom, and you're gonna see Assyria, and you're gonna see the Phoenicians. And all of these groups of people had not just weren't good people and didn't follow God's commandments, but these were people who had created all kinds of suffering for all kinds of nations all around them. And so much so that God is declaring judgment on them. So if you're Israel, you're like, hey, that's okay, you can go ahead and take those guys down for sure. So just not to get into the deep weeds, but to think about them being slave traffickers and think about some of these nations who were so evil intentioned that, that they would go into a place and one of the first things they would do would be grab the women and kill the babies in their womb to create a kind of a population control and to demonstrate their dominance over them. There were places where they came in and took out some of their dead kings and they obliterated them and pounded them into dust and burned them with fire. There were all kinds of things that they did that were underhanded and awful war tactics that were absolutely brutal. And God caught recognition of those Things not because necessarily they were just enemies of Israel, but because of their evil all around. So you can imagine as Israel is sitting there hearing these things from Amos, that this kind of judgment is being declared on these nations. You might hear them saying, and amen. That's right, take them down. Right. Well, not only does God address those evil nations, but he also attacks Judah a little bit and he says, hey, it's not that these people are evil and this is something for us to be reminded of. We tend to think in terms of evil. But maybe this has given us a little bit of an insight into how God thinks. Judah is included with these guys and listen to what it says about them. They despised the law of the Lord, they didn't keep his commandments, and they embraced the lies of their culture again, the same things that they had done before. And so God is saying, hey, these things are going to be tested by fire. That's an interesting phrase that's used even in the New Testament when talking about our works are all going to be tested by fire. And ultimately that's kind of a way for us to realize that hardship's going to come and difficult is going to come, and what is the most pure in us is going to remain when it's all over with. But notice what it says verse after verse after verse. I will not revoke this punishment. It's the idea that God is saying, I've had enough. And he uses the same terminology with Israel here in just a few moments. But he say, for three offenses and even a fourth, God is not saying there's literally three things that you've done wrong or four things that you've done wrong. He's saying it's like transgression upon transgression, sin upon sin. It's like, I've seen this over and over in my patience has sworn then so he says, I will revoke the punishment. Now, isn't it kind of funny? And isn't it true? I think we probably, if we could all just be honest and admit it. Do we like it when our enemies kind of get what they deserve? I think when the, when the plumb line, so to speak, is held up against our enemies, isn't it cool when they get what it is they are looking for? And even though as we looked in Obadiah, the, you know, God said, let's don't have that kind of vengeful spirit, it's real easy for us to celebrate in someone's demise in some ways and back. In fact, let me just get real about it. Some of you folks yesterday were watching football games and you may have enjoyed someone's demise maybe even more than you enjoyed your team winning. Just say amen and repent. I'm just kidding. We do that, don't we? But it's not just in sports. We long for somebody that we've had a difficult time with to have their moment where it just gets the best of them. And we almost look forward to those moments. And the problem with that is this, that ultimately our obsession with someone else's fall, with their problems, with their issues, can lead to a disclarity and maybe even a total unawareness of our own misalignment with what God wants us to be. I think that's what Jesus is saying when he talks about that plank in our eye. You know, he says, you know, you're looking at your neighbor and you're saying, hey, he's got this speck in his eye and I need to clean that out. But he's like, hey, you got a two by four sticking out of your own eye. Maybe you take a two by four out and if you spend enough time working on taking that two by four out, you may find out that that spec is not really as big a deal as you thought. I think that's the point, right? We don't need to be so consumed by other people and their issues and our hatred for them or our looking forward to their demise that we somehow forget that we're people who have mistakes as well. So in Amos, after these things and after, you know, they may have celebrated the fact that their enemies are going to get what they deserve, then the words turn over to Israel and it says, for three transgressions and for four, I will not revoke the punishment. So he turns toward them and let's just see what they did. And again, not to get into the deep weeds too much here, but just as these passages unfold, you're going to see like different things that they've done. The first one was they were super greedy. We talked about their prosperity and how they loved that. But they really and truly sold out the poor. They took from them, they robbed them, they used their belongings to buy things for themselves. And God saw this and he recognized that, that while they had all this prosperity that he had blessed them with, they were turning it into their own sense of entitlement and their own sense of growth and importance. But also they engaged in sexual immorality. And when I think about this, really what this passage is talking about is God created sex for the husband and wife relationship. And he wanted that to be something that was held sacred. But people over time ruined that for sure. But now they were in a culture where it embraced that kind of ritualistic sexuality. And a mention is made here in this text about how a father and a son went in together into the same prostitute's house. It's the idea that they had gotten so reckless with it and so based on their own pleasure that they forfeited not just God's plan for sexuality within the marriage relationship, but they had also, in a sense, profaned his name. Because they took something that was sacred and they. They made it something that was for their own pleasure. And so they had disrespected him. But then also I mentioned the corrupt practices. They would steal the wealth. The wealthy would steal the cloaks of the poor. And the way this would work is the poor would come and ask the wealthy for loans, and they would say, well, what do you have in exchange? They say, I have nothing but the clothes on my back. They said, we'll take that. And it was almost like a badge of honor to take those clothes of the poor. And then they would take them and lay them out on a lounge chair. And they would go up into these high places, like in Bethel and Gilgal and some of the other places where they had taken what God intended to be pure worship to him. And it turned it into these paganistic rituals. And they would lay these things out, and then they would sell some of those fabrics and goods to get extra wine. And they would drink as they stood by. It would look something like this. But in the middle of all this, what they had forgotten, what they, you know, turned their backs on, was the reality that God said this. If you ever take your neighbor's cloak and pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down. That's his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body. And what else shall he sleep in? Now, this is the part that is important. And if he cries, that poor person that's been taken advantage of, if he cries out, God is going to have compassion on him. God's going to hear him. That's going to be made known to him. Do you understand how God's awareness of everything going on is really important for us? So that was one of the things that they had failed to do. But then also, and I'm using the word amnesia, it wasn't that they forgot what God had done for them in taking them out of Egyptian bondage. It was that they disregarded the fact that he had taken them out of Egyptian bondage, they've forgotten about that, that blessing of who he was and what he provided for them. And so God is looking down on them and he's frustrated with them because they also did things like, you know, we have people who took the Nazarite vow. And the Nazarite vow was a child who was dedicated to God. They weren't to cut their hair. They weren't to take any kind of wine. In fact, they weren't even supposed to pick up a grape. They weren't supposed to be around dead bodies. A lot of different things. But ultimately they were dedicated to purity. And that was how they dedicated to God in that purity. Well, these vindictive people were taking those guys who had taken those vows and forcing them to drink wine, which was a violation of their vow. But not only that, they grabbed the prophets and they threatened them and they told them, you are no longer to speak about these things that God is telling you, we don't want to hear the prophets anymore. So when you think about all these things, it gets to the point where, hey, that's it. And as you read what God has to say to them, it's frustrating because they have been his family. Look at what it says. You alone have I known of all the families on the earth. It's the idea that God is saying, hey, I've poured out for you. I gave you promises. I promised you innumerable people. I promised you prosperity. I promised you my protection. I was gonna give you this land. I was gonna do all of these things and make life so wonderful for you. All you had to do was honor me and those kinds of things. And yet you've turned your back like you were my people. And because of this, it says, I will punish you for all of your iniquities. And honestly, if we just step back and look at it, you know, in our current time, we look back at what Israel did, I mean, don't we kind of find ourselves going, yeah, it's the right thing for them to get what they deserve, Right? It's like they've been compared to what God wants them to be. They are not. They've rebelled, they've rejected him. Yeah, it kind of makes sense for them to get what's coming to them, right? So here's what God says is going to take place again. Not to get into the weeds, but they're going to be overwhelmed militarily. In fact, the insinuation is that for every 100 men that go out into battle. 90 of them will not return. Only 10% of the people will survive in this. God meant for this to be something that would cost them, to really pay the price for it. So they would come in and they would ravage things and take over the place and those kinds of things. But then also those who were wealthy, who had built up these big homes on the backs of the poor by taking and taking advantage of the poor, God was going to take down those luxury homes. But also those altars where they had turned it into ritualistic pagan practices and idolatry. The golden calves that they had put up in these different places, worship. God was going to completely destroy those things. I remember when Cindy and I were in high school, we were at Austin High School in Decatur, and our arch rival was Decatur High, and we were enemies. We were across town, and whenever we played in basketball, it was one of those things where we needed a bigger place, right? So we could kind of have our bigger crowd. And so it felt like half the city was there. I know it wasn't, but it was a big crowd. And, you know, Decatur would have their side and Austin would have their side. And I remember our girls, our cheerleaders, going out onto the court and all those Decatur High people putting up their papers, their newspapers, like they weren't interested, you know, in what going on. And then when our girls would walk out on the court, they would be like, you know, like they were cattle being brought out onto the court. You know, that's funny. It's cute. It's hilarious. But it's not. When God says this about you, listen to what it says. You know, he called the wealthy women of Samaria. These were people that had taken their wealth to a level of, you know, just anger and mischief and mistreating the people who were below them. He calls them the fat cows of Bashan. I mean, it's the idea that they had really kind of built themselves up and given themselves whatever they want. This is God saying, I'm going to take those people down, and they're going to experience humiliating exile. So this is all bad. Jim Brody over the weekend said, hey, which one of the prophets are you doing? I want to read up on it. He said, I got through chapter five. Man, that was tough. That's tough to hear all this stuff, right? And it is, when you think about it, the condemnation, the judgment, the justice that's coming on them. But it's not like God had not tried in the past. He goes on to say, amos says this, God has tried to get your attention over and over. And he sent some things your way to wake you up, to bring you down to a low spot where you will finally look up and realize what you've got to do to be right. And you've experienced hardships like famine and droughts, and you've lost people, and you know you've had crop destruction. Like, God has taken away all of these different things. There's been plagues, and there's one part that it says, like, the bodies were stacking up to create a stench in the area. Like, God was doing all of these things out of punishment for their rebellion, to try to wake them up and bring them back. And yet each one of these verses ends with yet you did not return to me. You see how God is trying to remind us that life is better in Him. It's kind of like what Jesus said. Remember, Jesus came to give life and that we might experience it abundantly. The better life, the happiness, the joy of life does not come in the stuff that we pursue that we go after. It's the very realization that God is with us, that he's walking alongside us, and that he is blessing our lives because of the things that we're doing in front of him. Makes me ask this question. Are we guilty of enjoying the moment, the time that we're in right now, without considering the warnings that we're hearing from time to time? I know when I was in college, we had some guys who enjoyed being silly, but they began taking their silliness a little too far. I came into their room, a bunch of guys, and the language was just awful. These are Christian guys, and they were just like, it's profanity laced. And I was, like, cringing almost as I went into their room. And they were like, we know that we're not supposed to say this out and about with other people, but here's the thing is, when we do it together, like, we have just chosen not to be offended by it and to not judge each other by it. And we believe because we're not hurting anybody and it's just us, that that's okay to do, you know? And I was saying, okay, but doesn't God say, let no filthy communication come from your mouth, but the kind of communication that is seasoned with salt and grace and helps people who are hearing it, this is not good, right? But I also hear people from time to go, time to time say stuff like, well, I just really believe that God wants me to be happy, and so this makes me happy. And so whatever state I'm in. Even though I know it's not exactly what God says, I know he wants me to be happy. So therefore, this is what it is, and I'm gonna keep doing that. Or maybe we say, you know, I know this is probably not the best priority, and I don't do things exactly like they should line up, and maybe my priority's a little bit off. But we're just gonna do this for a season of time, and for that timeframe, we're just gonna continue this. We won't do this forever. This is just a window that we need to experience, and we're just gonna do these things. I mean, I hear those things from time to time, and I find myself going, that doesn't seem like the right kind of alignment, does it? Where what I want out of life is what I pursue. But I don't even stop and think about what God thinks is best for me. Because ultimately, in the middle of all this, God is warning these people, he's trying to bring them back, he's being patient with them, but they just won't listen. So then God says this. I'm gonna do all these things to you, Israel. And this probably is the most terrifying thing you could ever hear. Not when you're in a great relationship with him, but if you're in opposition of God for Israel to hear, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. Wow, that's kind of a terrifying thing, because God is kindness and mercy and all of those things. But he is also just and has a standard of living. And if we're not comparing ourselves to that standard and measuring ourselves up to it and trying to get our closest to that, then we're missing out on the blessing of his, of the life that we can have in Christ. That's what he's calling us to. And yet he's saying, hey, prepare to meet your God. Do they know who God is? They should have. But it seems that they have dismissed him long enough that God is saying, maybe there's a reintroduction that needs to take place. So I want to remind us of this. God's judgment is meant to bring about righteousness. You know, God is not willing to just completely annihilate us, and that's something for us to be reminded of. God longs to bless us. The Bible says God is not willing that any should perish talking about the patience of God, but that all should come to repentance. He wants all of us to line back up with him. And that's why he is patient. He's longsuffering to us. For it's the idea that he is enduring and enduring and enduring. But there does come a time where God's justice is going to happen and that justice happens in order to bring about his righteousness and to bring us back to him in restoration. So justice is coming, but God is calling us to repentance. Listen to what it says in Amos 5. He says, Seek me and live. He says that a couple of times. And then he says, seek good and not evil that you may live. And so the Lord God of hosts will be with you. As you have said, hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. What's he saying? Look, this punishment's coming. It's a certain thing. It's not going to be revoked. But I'm giving you a chance to come back to me. I'm giving you every opportunity to respond back and come back in a way that brings us together. And you may have some people that say something like, well, you know, we do come to worship. You know, we do, you know, come to Bible class and, you know, every week I, you know, try to hang out with folks and those kinds of things. And it may be that in the midst of all this, while they were doing their ritualistic stuff, that maybe they felt, you know, desire to sort of do both, like do that thing, but then also try to worship God. But listen to what God says about that kind of behavior. He says, I hate, I despise your feast, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Those don't bring God any joy. Why? Because they're not given with the fullness of heart. They're not given with authenticity. They're not us crying out to God. They're not us pouring out our life before God in our worship. And so he says, I'm not going to 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. Now, there could be people in the audience. This is really offensive to. But do we forget who it is we come to honor on this first day of the week? Yeah, we're supposed to enjoy this fellowship together. But, man, the whole purpose of us coming together is to lift up God to be in his presence as his family and to worship him with everything that we've got and not to come in here and sing all the notes that's beautiful for us. But are the notes of your Heart lifting up, praise to him in a way that glorifies him and puts him in his perfect place. God is saying to these people, you can do all these other things and you can go through these rituals, you can go through the routines, you can do that every week, but if it's not giving me your fullness, those things come across empty. And so he goes away and says, let justice roll down like waters, righteousness like an ever flowing stream. What's he saying? Justice is going to happen. But man, may it lead us to a determination to live righteously before him. So Israel had made a habit of the ritual. They had not given themselves to true worship. And that hurts. So then you get to this part of Amos in chapter seven, and this is where that plumb line illustration comes in. God gives him a series of visions, and one of them is this. He says, hey, Amos, what do you see? And he said, I see a plumb line. Then the Lord said, behold, I am setting that plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I'll never again pass by them. The high places of Isaac shall be made desolate. The sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. What's he saying? I've laid this down. I've put this line down, and I can't overlook these things anymore. I can't just keep letting this kind of rebellion and turning away from me continue on. And so the plumb line was dropped against Israel, and they were found to be out of line. And so that judgment is coming for them. But again, I want to bring us back to this. God's punishment. And these examples are meant to lead us to restoration. It's meant to bring us back to him and closer to Him. So as we're wrapping up this lesson, I want to just throw out some questions for you to consider. These are all internal things for each one of us to ask ourselves and for us to ask collectively of ourselves. What if God set His plumb line against your life, your priorities, your actions, your attitudes, your treatment of other people? How would we measure up? Would we be in alignment with the way we live our lives? The way we spend our money? The way we, you know, reach out to him in prayer and listen to his word? We take those things and we let them shape our lives. Do we fall in alignment? Or we would be a little bit tipped one way or the other, maybe toward culture or the world as we see it today. What's got our heart? What about this one. Have we preached a powerful gospel but refused to help the poor? Now, in their case, they didn't just refuse to help the poor, they actually mistreated them and were terrible. But before we start looking at them and saying, hey, yeah, you deserve that plumb line of God, you deserve that judgment. Are we doing what we can to be helpful to people who are struggling something for all of us? Have we offered up worship that was routine but uninspired? And look, I'm guilty of this, too. I've been in assemblies before where it was two or three songs in before I even captured what it was I was singing. I know, I know it can happen, that we can be occupied in our mind. But I'm saying, when we come together, is it for this purpose? Man, what a blessing it is to be here to give our best to God. What about our morals? Do they match up against God's standards? Here's maybe another one that's more personal. Have you ignored the warnings? Maybe you've heard messages? Maybe things have been said to you that were kind of convicting, but you just kind of brushed them off? But the guilt hasn't gone anywhere. Maybe you're still, like swimming in the guilt and the frustration of it and the disappointment even in yourself, but you don't know how to get out of that. It's possible that we, like Israel, have neglected to realize consequences are coming for our behavior. Like our decisions are not made without some kind of effect on other people. And even in our own hearts and our own lives, have we. Have we done that? Have we neglected to pay attention to those things? And have we ignored the guilt that we may feel? Well, the book ends up, and I hope we can just focus on this right now. This text ends on a very positive note, because after all of this judgment, all of this justice that's going to be laid out, all of these punishments that are going to be dealt out, there's a message of hope, and it's the fact that there's going to be a line of David restored. In fact, the Bible calls it the tent or the booth of David. And it's interesting because there's a connection here in the New Testament in Acts, chapter 15. And you may say, well, how does that kind of connect with Amos? Well, let me see if I can kind of just explain it. Ultimately, what God says through Amos is that somewhere down the line, God is going to restore Israel. And I'm using Israel in the sense of the way they would have understood it. But we now understand this is More of a spiritual thing that God was going to do something amazing. This is like 800 years, 750 years before the time of Christ. And the church gets started in Acts, chapter two. And if you remember, all of these different nations gather around and they're there on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes down. Peter preaches, and everybody, you know, hears the message. They're convicted by it. Several of them said, what do we do? You know, they were told to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins, and they would receive the gift of the holy. It says that the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. It was kind of a phenomenal situation. But as time went on and as the church began to expand into the Gentile world, because Peter and Paul and others were sent out to teach that message to other people, there was a real question about whether these Gentiles needed to be circumcised, if they needed to do, you know, become Jews first before they could be converted to Christianity. And it was kind of a weird thing, but they were talking about this, and Peter spoke up and said, hey, I've been sent to the Gentiles. And Paul and Barnabas were talking about the great things that God had done through their work with Gentiles and how if God has made them blessed, then why is it that we are creating this hardship? And so what happens is James speaks up and he says, brothers, listen to me. Simon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written. And this is a quotation from Amos, chapter nine. After this, I will return and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen. I will rebuild its ruins, I will restore it. And the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from old. What James was saying is already heard about this in Amos. He prophesied about this. And ultimately what God was trying to say is there's coming a day back in those times when Jesus would come, that perfect line, okay, that line of David would be restored, and all of mankind would be united under one thing. And one of the words that we used in Obadiah, we talked about mankind being the same word as Edom. You remember, in Edom, where the descendants of Esau and Adam is the word for mankind. And so there's. There's confusion about how the markings or whatever give us an idea of which vowel is being used or whatever. But in this case, it's like Edom is mentioned, mankind is mentioned. And what he's saying is that those people who were once cast off from God's people were now being brought in under the umbrella of Jesus Christ. And so what I want to suggest to you is that. That we could even think of it as Jesus is that perfect plumb line. He is the representation of God's will in the flesh. He came in and he embodied grace and truth, accountability, love, mercy, and all of those things. And he set a standard to show us how to live, to be right in the sight of God. And all this was working back in Amos to build us up to this beautiful and this beautiful reality that Jesus came to die for us. So the question for us is, as we wrap this up this morning, is are there things in our life that we've looked past, looking at other people saying, hey, they got things wrong, and are there things maybe in my own heart that I need to investigate and make right? You know, God's word is that plumb line. It's that standard. Jesus was the embodiment of it. But God's word gives us everything that we need for life and godliness. And when we marry up with what it says, God blesses our lives and he gives us the hope of eternal life that'll last forever. Jesus came to die for us. Don't you want to align yourself with the way he loved you and the way he lived for other people? This morning, if you have a need in any way, please come. While we stand saying.

Acts 15 · chapter mention