Living Outloud: Minor Prophets, Major Wake Up Calls

We trace how Amos and Micah expose the pull of comfort, the danger of flattering sermons, and the courage to speak truth in love. Ordinary believers can carry hard words with the Spirit’s help, learning to seek comfort that follows obedience, not replaces it.

• why “cows of Bashan” indicts luxury built on exploitation
• how our entertainment diet shapes our hearts
• Amos 7 and the urge to silence uncomfortable truth
• ordinary callings carrying God’s words with courage
• the Spirit teaching and reminding when we speak up
• Micah 2: comfort as a sign of alignment
• spotting the “lying windbag” who promises easy blessing
• choosing pastors who preach repentance and holiness
• practicing discernment by reading Scripture ourselves

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Transcript

Welcome, Prayer, And Setup

SPEAKER_03 0:11

Hey, welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike, and this is Kelsey. Hello. Kelsey's here. And uh thankful you're feeling better, well enough to again be in the studio and record an episode together.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Yeah, I'm grateful for for this as well.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

And uh we're going through the minor prophets, and specifically this week, talking about Amos and Micah, which don't get a lot of airtime, frankly. They're uh they're very minor. Not that they're in unimportant, but their messages are just shorter.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yeah. And so this week we have some minor thoughts. Not that they're less valuable, we hope, but that they are shorter. So we've got just a couple thoughts on a few different verses throughout these minor prophets. Perfect. Yeah.

Amos And The “Cows Of Bashan”

SPEAKER_03 0:56

And so uh hey, let's let's pray. We don't always pray before these conversations, but I think it would be wise to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

To be clear, you and I pray before these conversations. We don't always add them into the episode.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

But let's do it today. God, would you please soften our hearts to be able to hear your word and hear specifically what you would like us to be able to do today? I pray that you'd guide our conversation to be uh to be just focused on what is valuable and good, and uh, and thank you for the opportunity for all of us to be able to learn more about you through the reading of your word. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

So the the very first minor thought from this minor prophet of of Amos, just a phrase came up in the reading that I'm like, yep, that's where we get it. Kelsey and I have kind of a running joke, I don't know, reference. Um the the whenever we see, and maybe you've seen the ads, maybe you even watch the shows, but like the shows that are like the real housewives of whatever, or or some you know, reality show following some family of a bunch of you know pretty women doing awful things. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Or some island full of single people just celebrating debauchery, whatever at all.

SPEAKER_03 2:08

You know, those kinds of reality shows. I I don't I I I don't know. My dad may have started it. Sounds like it's something my dad would have said at some point. Um, but whenever I see those ads, I think, uh, cows of bastion, which comes from Amos, chapter four, verse one, where it says, listen to this message, you cows of Bastion, who live on Mount Samaria, you oppress the poor, you crush the needy, you say to your husbands, bring us more to drink. And I just see these ads about these shows and these commercials for all these reality show women drinking their wine with their fancy dresses and living it up.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

And I just think, oh, these are And their whole lives surround being rich and wealthy and controversial and dramatic, dramatic, and petty and drinking wine.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

And Bashan is this it's a it really rich pasture lands in Israel and on Mount Samaria, just like really rich pasture lands. This was even spoken in a time where Israel had uh uh a lot of wealth, a really successful king and uh successful at least monetarily, uh, and and so cows of bashin was just this euphemism for these women who were living in a lap of luxury and and God's not impressed. And so I what there's do I have a super deep spiritual point about this? No, but I can't unsee it.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Now that you've heard us say that we see these uh reality show types as cows of bastion, you won't be able to unsee it, honestly.

Entertainment, Envy, And Discernment

SPEAKER_03 3:48

Now you're gonna see the ads, like, oh man, cows of bastion. Uh I I mean, I guess I will accompany that with like, if you're super into these reality shows where you just, you know, watch these people live in their debauchery and their drama, I look, I I just I would just say maybe that's not wise because if we're drawing entertainment from the kinds of people that God is condemning in the Bible, uh, that's it's not entertainment. It's it may not be forming a worldview that aligns you with them, but it it's just it's just dangerously close to celebrating to celebrating those things. And and we don't need to be doing that.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

So we don't need to dwell on that point much, but I But calling them cows of bastion uh definitely makes for me watching those shows less attractive.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Because it's putting it in in some and and to be clear, um, the women in those shows are made in the image of God and God loves them very much and they need Jesus. I just don't think that we have any uh any place as followers of Christ watching those shows for our own entertainment.

Amos 7: Unpopular Truth At Bethel

SPEAKER_03 4:57

Either we tend to envy them and want their lifestyle, or we tend to compare, I think I'll more commonly we tend to compare our lives with theirs, and we think, oh man, our life is pretty good actually, compared to that. I don't I don't want to live in that mess. But let's not draw comfort from comparison either, you know? Yeah. So, all right, hey, we'll leave that point there. Uh but I I there's just some other great nuggets here in the book of Amos, just uh a few chapters later, in Amos chapter seven, it's an interesting confrontation that Amos has. Remember, Amos is not he's not a like professional prophet. I call him like the blue-collar prophet. He he tended fig trees and he he ran some herds, you know, he took care of some cows. Um not cows of Bashin, but that probably did that probably did hit him, interestingly. Um, but he he calls out King Jeroboam and says, Hey, Jeroboam's gonna die by the sword. Israel will definitely be carried away into exile from its land. And then the priest who was around in the northern kingdom of Israel was that just get out of here with this. Like, look, go go back to Judah, go earn your living and prophesy there. He's assuming like he's doing it for money, right? Uh don't don't prophesy here. We've got the temple, we've got the palace here, as if like that, I don't know, means anything. Um and and it's it's just we gotta be aware of when the Bible, when God's word, when when a man of God, even or woman of God is saying things that we just don't want to hear, we have a tendency to do this ourselves. Like, look, I I'm I'm good. I go to church, I got I got the I got the temple here, you know. Like I got I go to church and look, there's other people who who could benefit from this. I we're good. And I and we we just gotta be careful to not just shut out the words that we don't want to hear because that's uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Yeah um and I think it's worth pointing out, Michael, in Amos 7, chapter or 713, what you just read, don't prophesy. It specifically says at Bethel, and I know that that's the name of the city, I know that's a location, but the word Bethel means house of God. And so this is a priest, theoretically a man of God, telling someone who's speaking on behalf of God, don't prophesy at the house of God. We don't want to hear that here.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

And my concern is for a lot of um for for for a lot of churches that want to just keep living in line with the world, who want to to be able to be prosperous and well liked and not be controversial. They're telling people who actually want to speak the word of God, saying, don't come in here to the house of God with all that. Get out of here, go do that somewhere else. Because what we want as humans isn't lining up with what the word of God says, and we'd rather keep going the way we want to go rather than being faced with something uncomfortable from the word of God. And so we might even be kicking people out of our churches who are speaking truth because we don't want to hear it.

Ordinary People, Holy Calling

SPEAKER_03 8:08

Yeah. Yeah, that's good. And I I think it's also fair to not not just put ourselves in the position of the bad guy here. Although I I always want to hold us up to scripture to make sure that we don't just assume we're the good guy here. But you know what? We can also put ourselves in Amos's shoes here and and just consider the fact that, hey, we may not be professional prophets, all right? We may not be preachers, we may not have gone to seminary, but we can align ourselves with with the word of God, we can align ourselves with God's heart, and we can know what God thinks about a matter. And we do have a responsibility and a privilege, no matter how scary or unpopular it may be, to represent the truth and represent the word of God to the people, the very people who don't want to hear it. And we can take uh some encouragement from Amos here and his words, and and Amos says, hey, look, I'm not a prophet by profession. I was a herdsman, and I also took care of sycamore fig trees. Like, look, I'm not here making, I'm not here for the money. I'm not here trying to boost my platform. I'm not here to get more followers because I'm trying to be make it as a prophet. Like, his like, no, like I I'm not here to be a prophet for for my own reputation. I could go back to tending my herds and taking care of my figs, but I'm here not for your money. I'm here not to make friends, I'm here because this is what God is saying, and I can't help but tell you what he's saying and tell you what's true. And he says, like, the Lord took me from tending my flocks and he gave me this commission. Go prophesy to my people Israel. Let's let's take a note here from Amos and like, look, if I'm not saying God's gonna tell you to quit your job to go share his word with people, he might be. If that's on your heart, if that's on your heart and you feel that nudge, maybe lean into that and be encouraged that hey look, God will take care of you, even if it's he's telling you to do some scary steps. But but let's be encouraged by this conversation here to we gotta say the unpopular things. If that's what if that's what God has given you a mission. I I do love the word commission because it's co-mission. It's it's not just giving you a mission. All right, you gotta go do this, like mission impossible. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, go do this, this message will self-destruct. Good luck. Like, no, it's a it's a commission. It's a co-mission. God is on this mission, he's already on the mission.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Yeah.

The Spirit Teaches And Reminds

SPEAKER_03 10:42

Are you going to co-mission with him to go do the work that he wants you to do?

SPEAKER_00 10:46

And if you're wondering, well, what should I say? I don't know what to say. Maybe I don't know the Bible very well, or I'm a new believer, or I just I'm not really good with words. I want to give you encouragement from Jesus himself before he left his disciples. And that extends to us, his modern-day disciples, following him. In John 14, verse 26, he simply says, When the Father sends the advocate as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit, he will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you. So, first of all, that's how we can be sure that the words of Jesus were recorded correctly because he said it himself. The Holy Spirit would be with his disciples to record correctly what he had said while he was on this earth. Yeah. We can trust the New Testament, we can trust the words of Jesus in the scripture, but also I think we can take that to have encouragement that when we go wanting to share the love and the word and the truth of God, the Holy Spirit is with you. The Holy Spirit resides within you if you are a follower of Christ, and he will teach you, he will guide you, he will remind you what Jesus has taught you and what Jesus has said is true, and you will be able to speak those things when you need to.

Truth In Love And Our Limits

Micah 2: Comfort As A Litmus Test

SPEAKER_03 11:58

Yeah, that's good. We we have to be brave sometimes to say these things that aren't going to be popular. And we know they're not gonna be popular because it's the truth of God conflicting with the way someone lives, and that hurts kind of like when light shines in your eyes and you're used to the dark. It's like, ah, ow, I don't want that. But I I think it's important to remind ourselves right now that you are not responsible for how the word of God lands in someone's heart. You're you are responsible for how you communicate. Like Jesus demonstrates he communicates full truth in full love. And and look, if you lean too much on just saying what's true without also speaking in full love, then people are gonna get hurt, and it's not entirely uh their fault. You know, it it I think we have a responsibility to speak full truth in full love, and that's a difficult tangent to manage. Um but you're only responsible for uh speaking the truth in love, you're not responsible for it being received any particular way. That's between them and God. And we see that even played out here as we move on to some passages in the book of Micah, too. We get to cover Amos and Micah together today. Or minor thoughts from the minor prophets. Minor thoughts from minor prophets from Mike and Kelsey. Um I I'm I'm really fascinated in Micah chapter two. Uh I read in in verse 7, it says, To be sure, my commands, God speaking, bring a reward for those who obey them. And you were looking at this verse earlier, Kelsey, and you saw it in the New Living Translation.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

In the New Living Translation, it says, If you would do what is right, you would find my words comforting.

SPEAKER_03 13:40

Yeah, great. Another way to phrase that, I think that's I think that lands well.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

And I I love that that just as a oh gosh, if we could let that verse seep into us and recognize that when the word of God is spoken, if we find comfort in it, it's a confirmation that we're living rightly. When the word of God is spoken and we find discomfort and we find conviction and we find we kind of want to push away from the table a little bit, that may be a sign that we are not living rightly. Because the word of God, when spoken to those living rightly, brings comfort. When those spoken to those not living rightly brings some condemnation. And so it's just a really good litmus test, isn't it, of our of how aligned our lives are to the word of God. That when it is spoken, are we responding with, oh, I don't like that, push away, ugh. That's a sign that you're not aligned with the word of God. He didn't change, you did. Or when the word of God is spoken, are we like, oh, thank you, Lord, for that comfort. That brings me comfort. We can be encouraged that it it is a sign that our lives are are more aligned with his word when we receive comfort from it.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

But we we gotta be careful with using comfort alone as a litmus test to decide what's true. That's different than what you just said.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Right.

Beware The Pleasing Preacher

SPEAKER_03 15:05

That's that's close, but it's it's importantly different. Because just a couple verses after this, Micah 212 says in the new English translation.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

To 11.

SPEAKER_03 15:16

To 11, yes, to 11 in the new English translation. It says, if a lying windbag should come and say, I'll promise you blessings of wine and beer, he would be just the right preacher for these people. Like, I I just like how sarcastic that is. Um, literally, we actually I had to look up in Hebrew, it was like lying windbag, how much of a uh translation interpretation is that? Uh and the word wind actually shares the same word as spirit. So kind of like someone with a uh a false spirit and lying should come and say. So a lying windbag is a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek, kind of a playful translation, but I think it's fair too. Um but if this would be comforting, right? If if someone is to say, hey, like, look, follow the Lord and He's gonna give you increase and you'll experience abundance and prosperity. We know this, we know these kinds of preachers are out here today preaching this sort of like, hey, you know, you do this, the the Bible says you'll experience these blessings. And it's uh what's tricky about that is like it's though as the best lies often are, it's based on in a little bit of truth. You can find Bible verses and some some principles in the Bible uh about God blessing abundantly and and prosperity for his people.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Sometimes and comfort for his people and goodness for his people and gifts for his people. The problem is when someone is preaching to you and all their preaching are things that you want to hear anyway, and you're like, oh good, the Bible tells me what I want to hear.

Culture, Pulpits, And Courage

SPEAKER_03 16:54

Like that should be a red flag. If you only ever agree with your pastor and like what he's saying, and you leave every Sunday feeling good about yourself, or your pastor, or whatever preacher online or social media sort of clips you get from someone's messages, look, I'm glad you're having a good experience at church, but I I just think that I think that's a red flag of is he saying what's true and is he communicating the often convicting nature of the Bible to line ourselves up with God? I would argue maybe not. And and that's maybe the right kind of preacher for you. If this is the right kind of preacher for you, I think I said the thinking out loud thought for the day, like then let he might be the right kind of preacher for somebody. Let it not be the right kind of preacher for you. Yeah. Uh the right kind of preacher for you, if you want to follow God and live biblically, is the right kind of preacher is gonna be the one that says the hard things, lets it sting a little bit, and our response needs to be, ouch, okay, God, can you help help my heart like adjust whatever needs to be adjusted accordingly?

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

That's that's all.

Know Scripture For Yourself

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Yeah. Recently here we had the Super Bowl in the United States. And uh, if you follow the Super Bowl, you know it always happens on a Sunday. And so I was thinking the morning of the Super Bowl before we went to church, I was thinking, you know, there's gonna be so many pastors this morning who use the Super Bowl, who reference the Super Bowl, use it in part of their sermon or use it to connect with their audience, use it to get a laugh or a whatever while they're on their platforms preaching today. And I had the thought that if you have a pastor who will reference the Super Bowl in order to sound culturally relevant in his sermons, but that same pastor has never from his pulpit spoken that abortion is murder and goes against the heart of God for the unborn. And if you have your pastor has never spoken from the pulpit that homosexuality is a sin and goes against God's plan for sex and marriage. Like if you have never had a pastor speak against the things in culture that are actively anti-Christ, then you don't have a pastor who wants to be culturally relevant. You have a pastor who wants to be your buddy. And quite frankly, you don't need your pastor to be your buddy. You need your pastor to be a person who will speak truth, the truth of the word of God into your life, who will lead you through culture in a way that references and responds to culture in a biblical way, in a Christ-like way. If you only ever hear things relevant to culture from your pastor that make you go, ha ha, he's just like me. We're buddies, then you don't have a pastor, you have a buddy who talks to you every week. But you need a pastor. Like leave that church, go to a church where you're going to hear the truth of God unapologetically preached, even when it's unpopular.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Well, there you go. That's good.

Discernment, Deception, And Closing

SPEAKER_03 20:02

I it's it's important to just be aware of what sort of words bring you comfort and hold them up to the word of God. And and if you obey the word of God, you gotta know the word of God. You gotta get into it yourself. Don't just hear it from other people. Like you, you you may have a great pastor. That's great. He should not be the only one who is speaking the Bible to you and and encouraging you to follow it. I'm glad you're here on this podcast. We should not be the only ones speaking into you and and I and and guiding you toward obeying the word. I I hope you find a lot of value in it here, but this should not be the only source. Get into it yourself, recognize the heart of God in the word of God, and then do it and let it give you comfort. If you obey, if you do what's right, you'll find God's word comforting. And sometimes it's not comforting, and then you know, you gotta make the adjustment then, and God can help you with that. But we gotta be aware of those people who are trying to build their own platforms and trying well, and but by building their own platforms, a way to do that is say what's popular and don't say what's not popular. And uh let's just be discerning about what brings us comfort and who we listen to regarding where we hear the word of God.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

And just because someone is sharing the word of God does not necessarily mean they are a person of God.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

No.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

We need the discernment to recognize when someone quotes the Bible for their own purposes in order to push forward their own agenda versus sharing the word of God because it's what's true.

SPEAKER_03 21:38

I'm glad Satan quoted the Bible to Jesus when he was when Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness at the start of his ministry. I'm glad Satan quoted the Bible because that just shows us one of his tactics that he can quote the Bible, he knows it, and he can twist it for his own agenda. And he teaches people to do that all the time. So uh be be alert, be on guard, and uh and just just pray even today for discernment as we go about the rest of this week. I think that would be good. Well, those are some minor thoughts from the minor prophets from Mike and Kelsey. So So uh hey, thanks for joining us here on this uh next Living Out Loud episode, where we've taken what we read earlier this week and we talk about how are we actually gonna live this out? What are we gonna do about it? Next week we're gonna be covering a lot of ground. We're gonna be completing several books, several minor profit books, and I'm excited to go through that together. We'll see you then.