Aligning Our Words With Our Lives

Amos 5: 21-24 "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, an endless river of righteous living. (NLT)

God provides us with His entire counsel throughout the Bible. From the opening pages in Genesis to the prophetic revelation given to John; God gives us His wisdom and an insight into His thinking who He is. Consider the task He had in coordinating this volume. Sixty-six books, forty authors, spanning thousands of years. Yet it all supports itself, confirms itself, and has zero substantive disagreement. It transcends all time and remains relevant throughout all generations. Even snippets from a minor prophet such as Amos reveal to us so many dangers we can face today individually and as the church.

Amos was a prophet who lived during the reign of Jeroboam II, approximately 750 years before Jesus walked the earth. Like the prosperity we see throughout America today, Israel and Judah were at their pinnacle of success and riches. Like we feel today that God blesses America, I am sure that Israel and Judah felt the same for their countries at the time of Amos. Unfortunately, the more they prospered the further away from God they drifted; sound familiar? Jesus warned us about this in His teachings:

"No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matthew 6: 24 (NLT)

It is not just money. You could put the word fame there and the concept is the same. Popularity, position, success anything that starts to make you think more of yourself and less of God. Corrie Ten Boom once said that you will only realize that Jesus is all you need when Jesus is all you have. This is not to say that God is saying poverty is desired. It is whether you serve your money/success/prosperity or whether it serves you.

Jesus warned us about this not just because as God He was aware of it, but because He knew what had happened in the history of Israel. He knew what had happened in the days of Amos. The Book of Amos is a stark reminder of how off track we can get as a people, a nation, or as a church. As we go through the key verses today, let us reflect as to where our church is in this country in comparison. Are we focused on salvation, regeneration and discipling? Or are we focused on our next mega church, self-help book, or leadership summit. Consider the Apostle Paul. Evangelized the known world, was personally drafted by Jesus Himself, and was shown the third heavens! After any one of his missionary journeys he could have become enamored with his success. He could have begun to think more of what he had done than who he had done it through. But Paul always remembered where God found him. He only focused on one thing:

For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. 1Corinthians 2: 2 (NLT)

As the church today drifts away from the core message Paul expresses here, we also see Israel had drifted during the time of Amos. Breaking down the key verses we see God warning us of what He wants from us and what He will not tolerate. He starts by saying that He hates the show and pretense. God hates when we approach Him in a manner that is not 100% honest. The people in Amos' day had plenty of religion beloved. They knew how to dress up the part and play the role. They knew how to shout hallelujah and when to rend their garments and cover their head with ashes. But it was for show. It was a pretense. The dictionary defines pretense as a "false show of something." The something in question was their sincerity. The Israelites in the days of Amos were simply not sincere in their worshipping of God. The show and pretense God hated were what He saw in their religious festivals and solemn assemblies. The false show was in their ceremonies before God! So it was then and so it continued in the days Jesus preached and taught:

As he taught, Jesus said, "Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely." Mark 12: 38-40 (NIV)

Look closely at verse 40 and the contradiction that God hates so much. They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. This is the same contradiction Amos found in the people of Israel when he lived. The more they prospered, the more corrupt they became. They did not walk away from pretending to know God; to be religious. They instead walked away from what God was all about; they stopped being relational. This is the point God was making then through Amos and through Jesus over 700 years later. Your words better match up with your life.

"'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules. Matthew 15: 8-9 (NIV)

They worship me in vain! That should be a frightening verse for us all. The Pharisees of Jesus' day were equally hypocritical. They had plenty of religion but they were very short on relationship with God. They understood the rules but missed out on the spirit of those rules. When they criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus exposed their hypocrisy:

But the Lord replied, "You hypocrites! Each of you works on the Sabbath day! Don't you untie your ox or your donkey from its stall on the Sabbath and lead it out for water? This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years. Isn't it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?" Luke 13: 15-16 (NLT)

Your words better match up with your life. They did not for Israel in the days of Amos, nor in the days of Jesus. Certainly today we can draw comparisons to the American church model, where we see too much corruption. Too much show and pretense. Festivals and assemblies that are high on religiosity but short on relationship with God.

Notice in the key verses what God warns next. Offerings unto God in this state are meaningless to Him! He will not accept grain or burnt offerings and won't even notice peace offerings. God hates this so much that He will not even accept praise offerings! No hymns please. No musicians. Notice what they become to God when offered in an unholy state? NOISE. When our heart is not aligned properly to the heart of God our sacrifices to Him become noise. Our praise and worship becomes noise. We cannot approach God in a manner that is not reverent. Jesus taught:

"So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God. Matthew 5: 23-24 (NLT)

The manner in which we approach God is more important to Him than any sacrifice we might make. Hosea was another minor prophet of God who delivered a similar message to God's people:

I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6 (NLT)

He wants to know you beloved. God desires a relationship with you, not a religion. He has left His Word with us so that we can learn from the mistakes made by the people of God during the days of Amos, Hosea, and Jesus. The church is now also the chosen people of God. We need to be careful today that our words match up with our lives. That we are not more about solemn assemblies than taking care of the widows and orphans. That as what was wrong in the days of Amos and the days of Jesus. The most religious people were also the ones who were taking advantage of the neediest in society. They devoured widows' homes in one breath and offered long flowing prayers out of the other side of their mouths. The poor were taken advantage of not taken care of. Woe to us if that pattern occurs today!

But God didn't leave these points without reinforcing what He does desire from us. The key verses close with God reminding His people that what He does want to see is a mighty flood of justice and an endless river of righteous living. Justice and righteousness beloved. Not just part time justice and righteousness either! A mighty flood and an endless river! Our justice towards others should be overwhelming and our striving for righteousness in our lives should never end! Once Jesus was being tested by an expert of law who asked Him what the greatest commandment was. Here is Jesus reinforcing the importance of a flood of justice and a never ending river of righteousness:

Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22: 37-40 (NIV)

All of the law and prophets hang on these two directives. Without them, the law becomes religion instead of relationship. If you love the Lord with all of your heart, mind and strength, then you will be seeking that endless river of righteous living! The more you strain towards Him in sincere love, the less you will want the things of this world which only serve to corrupt you. Likewise, if you truly love your neighbor as yourself, then you become that mighty flood of justice God so desires. You will not want to deprive the widow and orphan but rather to help them. With these two things corrected, you can approach God with your sacrifices and praise. Micah, another minor prophet summed it all up from God Himself to our hearts today:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6: 8 (NIV)

What does the Lord require of you? Jesus summarized by saying love God and love your neighbor. God through Micah sums it up by saying our actions with others should be bathed in justice and mercy while our actions with God should be bathed in humility.

These warnings have been placed in the Bible for a reason. They should serve as a stern warning from God regarding what He hates and what He desires. The modern American church has strayed in certain elements. We have embraced prosperity on this earth as something to aspire to instead of justice and righteousness. We have "the show" down. We have the pretense covered too well sometimes. We fool only ourselves though. God knows a solemn assembly from hypocrisy. God knows a flood of justice from a ripple of insincerity.

This is the Word from God for us today beloved. Are we more about religion or relationship? Are we striving for justice for the widow and orphan and righteousness in our walk or are we like the people of God from the past honoring Him with our lips only while our hearts are far from Him? While we have been talking about the church it always starts within each one of us. We make up the church. We can take the stand for demanding a mighty flood of justice and a never ending river of righteousness. We can always demand of ourselves that we do not approach God haphazardly. That we do not approach God with our words when we have yet to fully turn over our lives to Him as well.

Reverend Anthony Wade March 8, 2011