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February 28, 2012

Just As You Say He Is -- Lessons From The Prophet Amos

By Anthony Wade

Just As You Say He Is -- Lessons From The Prophet Amos

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Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. - Amos 5:14 (NIV)

The words nearly jumped off the pages of the Bible to me - "just as you say he is." The Prophet Amos drawing a stark line between what is said by those in religious circles and what the reality is from God. In the modern church we have a lot of talk and not a lot of walk sometimes. When we stop selling and marketing salvation the Lord God Almighty will be with us -- just as we say He is. When we stop turning worship into a human centered event the Lord God Almighty will be with us -- just as we say He is. When we stop playing church and start being the church the Lord God Almighty will be with us -- just like we say He is. In this age of seeker-friendly, purpose driven distortions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Prophet Amos reminds us that saying God is with us is vastly different than He actually being with us. Jesus Himself warned us similarly:

"Not everyone who calls out to me, "Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, "Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.' But I will reply, "I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God's laws.' -- Matthew 7: 21-23 (NLT)

How frightening the thought that come the day when we all will face judgment for our works on earth that some who think they have spent their life in service to the Lord will discover that He never even knew them! That people who even saw great successes in the Lord's name, such as casting demons out, will discover that just because they said His name did not mean that they had a relationship with Him!

So who was this man Amos? The Bible tells us he was a sheep herder and sycamore fig farmer before God called him to deliver warnings to His people. Even though he was from Judah, the messages God gave him were primarily directed at the 10 northern tribes of Israel. Since Solomon's death, when the Jewish people split into Israel and Judah, the 10 northern tribes had not had one king that followed the Lord. Even though they were prospering greatly as the world defined it, their hearts moved further and further away from God. The judgment of God was coming soon. In a matter of a few years after the prophecies of Amos, God would use the Assyrian Empire to defeat and scatter the 10 tribes, leaving only Judah. As the key verse indicates the offense was not just the perversion of justice in the eyes of God but also the fact that it was being done in His name! Within the dire prophecies of Amos we see things to be wary of in the modern church and in our own walks. First, the religious spirit is a showy and proud spirit:

"Go ahead and offer sacrifices to the idols at Bethel. Keep on disobeying at Gilgal. Offer sacrifices each morning, and bring your tithes every three days. 

Present your bread made with yeast as an offering of thanksgiving. Then give your extra voluntary offerings so you can brag about it everywhere! This is the kind of thing you Israelites love to do," says the Sovereign LORD. -- Amos 4: 4-5 (NLT)

Look at the offenses listed here in these two verses. First of all, the people were offering sacrifices but yet were steeped in sin. We know that in many places the Bible implores us that the Lord prefers obedience to sacrifice. That is because obedience speaks to the condition of our heart in relation to God while sacrifice can speak to the condition of our religion in relation to God. How dangerous this can be in our walk with the Lord! We can get into the habit of thinking that the service we may perform as a ministry unto the Lord is sufficient to comprise our relationship with Him! We can tithe correctly, yet start to think that God will look the other way in terms of those areas of our lives we have not fully turned over to Him. That the sacrifices we make for God outweigh the disobedience we display towards Him. How often have we heard people say that they have "given things up for God" as opposed to have been delivered from them by God? The second offense Amos speaks to here is the motivation we hold for our voluntary offerings. These are generally things above the expected tithe. Perhaps it is money or even service to the poor. But what Amos is challenging us on today is the question of why? Why do we do the extra things for God? In Israel at the time of Amos the practice was to brag about the extra offerings. In fact as Amos states the end product of boasting was in fact the driving influence behind the offering! What did Jesus warns us about regarding this:

"Watch out! Don't do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don't do as the hypocrites do--blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. -- Matthew 6: 1-4 (NLT)

This is equally damaging to our walk with God. Why? Because it takes the focus off of God and places it onto ourselves. The Bible says that the only righteousness we have is because of the blood of Christ. When we start to desire that man sees our good deeds then we further the distance between ourselves and God. In these verses from Matthew we see that the religious people of His day fell into this trap of pride and unfortunately today it still can infect the church. We try to help the neediest in society not because we seek the accolades of man but rather, because of the grace God has already shown us. While this prophecy addressed the service being provided in the name of the Lord, the next would hit closer to home:

"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. -- Amos 5: 21-24 (NLT)

Despite living in relative disobedience to the basic underpinnings of the law of God, the 10 tribes still loved to have their religious ceremonies. They loved the pomp and circumstance of playing church. Dressed in their best and bragging about all they did, they would then proceed to lift up the name of God in worship. These are traps we can fall into in our own lives and the modern church. Lifting our hands up to God but not our lives. Which is true worship? God desires an uplifted life before we approach Him with uplifted hands! An uplifted life is humble before God and realizes that singing that we are a friend of God does not actually make us a friend of God. Singing about the majesty of God while not making Him Lord of our lives has to be insulting to God! Heaven forbid that our worship unto the Lord ever becomes just noisy hymns to Him! Instead we need to focus once again on righteous living and justice. Jesus also warned us about this:

"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law--justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. Blind guides! You strain your water so you won't accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel! -- Matthew 23: 23-24 (NLT)

Once again when addressing the religious leaders of His day, Jesus echoes the spirit of what Amos was prophesying 700 years earlier. How many camel swallowers do we have in the modern church today? People who are quick to accommodate a legalistic spirit within themselves but operate devoid of the grace and mercy God has shown them. The haughty, super-spiritual, superior spirit that infects the modern church is exactly what Amos was prophesying about and what Jesus was warning about. Does God desire our worship? Absolutely. Does He desire our sacrifice, tithes and offerings? Absolutely. But if we would simply be obedient to His Word and seek His kingdom and righteousness first, then our worship, sacrifices and offerings would be all about Him. When our lives do not line up right, our worship, sacrifices and offerings become about us, or even worse, about our religion. The final stop on the tour of the prophecies of Amos deals with the receptivity to true prophecies:

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, king of Israel: "Amos is hatching a plot against you right here on your very doorstep! What he is saying is intolerable. He is saying, "Jeroboam will soon be killed, and the people of Israel will be sent away into exile.'" Then Amaziah sent orders to Amos: "Get out of here, you prophet! Go on back to the land of Judah, and earn your living by prophesying there! Don't bother us with your prophecies here in Bethel. This is the king's sanctuary and the national place of worship!" -- Amos 7: 10-13 (NLT)

Who was Amaziah? He was the priest for King Jeroboam and the region of Bethel. He had a very important, religious role. He was the Pharisees in the days of Jesus. He can be the church today if we are not careful. Because it is too easy to begin to worship the church instead of God. That it is the church that is somehow infallible and inerrant instead of God. Look at the lengths Amaziah is going to here. He is lying about Amos hatching plots -- he was doing no such thing! The cold hard facts are that Jeroboam was killed and the people were sent into exile. God's Word is God's Word, regardless of how uncomfortable the truth might be or how it makes us feel.

That is the inherent danger for all of us in our walk before God. That we ignore the signs or warnings from God. That we convince ourselves of our own sense of importance instead of remembering that only God is important. Look at the words of Amaziah here. He is insulted that Amos would make such prophecies within the sanctuary of the King and the national place of worship! As if that matters to God! God does not care about how important we think we are. He is not a respecter of persons. But we too can adopt this religious spirit and place the church above the God it is supposed to serve. I am not suggesting consciously. But rather that we can become more enamored with the appearances than the heart. Jesus warned about this as well:

"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy--full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.  "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs--beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. -- Matthew 23: 25-28 (NLT)

Note the part where Jesus says that if we would just concentrate on the inside of who we are then the outside by default will be clean too! If we would just concentrate on the inside of who the church is then the outside by default will be clean too! We do not serve ourselves in our walk but sometimes we can fall into that line of thinking. How we look or are promoted becomes more important than what we are doing for God. Likewise, we do not serve the church in our walk but the God who founded it. The God who maintains it. The God who sustains it. That is why at the end of the day it does not matter what fancy programs or clever marketing strategies we employ. At the end of the day the Gospel of Jesus Christ is sufficient enough. As Paul described his service he said he only wanted to know Christ and Him crucified. Because in the end that is all that matters.

The Prophet Amos brought his prophecies to the 10 northern tribes of Israel right before God would pass judgment upon them and permanently scatter them. Similarly, He would send prophets to Judah before the Babylonian Empire would take them captive. Like He would send Jesus to the religious Pharisees of His day before Rome leveled Jerusalem to the ground. Like He is sending people today with warnings about where we are heading. Oh that we would not give our sacrifice and offerings unto God with an impure heart. Oh that we would not offer up our hymns without lifting up our lives first. Oh that we would accept the hard Word from God even if it is about our own walk or our own church. To ensure that God will actually be with us; just as we say He is.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- February 28, 2012



Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

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