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You may be seated. This summer, we're learning major spiritual lessons from the minor prophets. But before we meet them, let's set the line up. In the beginning, God created man in his image for a perfect relationship with him that fell apart in the Garden of Eden. So, God set his redemptive play in motion by calling a man named Abraham and promising to make him a great nation. And that nation became Israel. Over time, the nation divided into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Both struggled with idolatry and rebellion, repeatedly turning away from God, and eventually, God said, You had to be strike. You are out. He sent them into a 70-year exile. But God did not remain silent. God raised a prophet, ordinary people, like farmers and shepherds and servants, to speak his word to his people. Jonah, Amos, and Hosea spoke in and around the Northern Kingdom before they were conquered by Assyria. Micah, Joel, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and Obadiah spoke in and around Judah before God of God conquered them. God's people were made in exile until King Cyrus allowed them to return to their homeland and rebuild. And prophets like Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi encouraged the people to rebuild the temple and the nation. These are the 12 minor prophets, and this is our summer in the Bible.

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Morning, Family Church. If you have your Bibles, will you open them up with me to the Book of Amos? The Book of Amos. As Pastor Derek mentioned, my name's John. I'm one of the pastors here at Family Church, married to Brooke, and we have two kids, Everly and Elijah. Usually see him running around terrorizing lobbies after church. We're really, really um glad to be here with you guys this morning. It's been such a great morning already. I love the baptisms that we get to see taking place across our family of neighborhood churches. It's just evidence of God working in so many ways in our family. It's really, really special. And uh shout out to the interns who are here. I would like to emphasize that you can feed them, okay? Like I would encourage you, give them food. These are college students. Uh they are they are volunteering their time over here this summer. Like, if you see them, just like give them give them food, all right? Um, as Pastor Derek had mentioned, I give leadership to our student ministry calls all of our campuses, and I am just so grateful for how um important Family Church has been in our lives. Um, our kids are growing up here, and we love that. It's been it's been so special. Matter of fact, in a few weeks, they are getting on some buses and they are heading to kids camp. And uh that's gonna be a blast. If you've got kids and you haven't signed up for kids camp, you need to sign them up because we do such a great job. Um, Pastor Zach and his team do such a great job, and and it's gonna be phenomenal. I also love our church's commitment to teach the Bible. Every single Sunday at Family Church, we have a Bible study, and this Sunday is no different. So I would encourage you to have your Bibles ready or turn your Bible on. Grab that listening guide that you got on your way in and get ready to take a few notes. We're continuing in the series called Summer in the Minors, where we've been working through a collection of shorter prophetic writings. And I just um just want to say this up front. These are not easy books, okay? There's a reason why a lot of people don't preach them. They're they're hard books. Each week it feels like just a punch in the face of different things that we're being called out for in terms of our sin, just with the tone and the words of the prophets. I mean, week one, Pastor Jimmy called us all gomers, didn't he? Like we had to think through the ways that we have been unfaithful to God. Last week, Pastor Christian led us to the book of Joel. We were reminded of how our sin makes everything suffer and how we can sometimes make other people run laps for our sin. Um, this week, again, we're covering the book of Amos. It's gonna be a very similar tone. Amos is one of the larger minor prophets. He's actually most famous for his cookies. Um, so you know, if you've seen that around. Um, this book is nine chapters long. It's filled with all types of warning and judgment, and we're not gonna be able to cover everything this morning. So, my hope is that we can identify just a few anchor points in the text that we're gonna read together, and then we'll consider some things of how they might apply to us. Sound good? All right. Why don't we start by just reading the first um the first verse together? The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoah, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. So again, recall, Amos was written about 150 years after the split of the northern and southern kingdom. You can see that and kind of find Amos on the top line there. Um, the northern kingdom was going through a financially prosperous season under the leadership of King Jeroboam II. Jeroboam II was a really good military leader. They had won a lot of battles. And so, on surface, if you were looking from the outside, just looking at them as a nation, they were very wealthy. They were prospering like crazy, but underneath all of that, they were experiencing moral decay. They were drifting away from God, they were committing acts of injustice and idolatry. And the problem was that because of their success, they felt pretty good about themselves and what they were doing. And they attributed their success to God's blessing on them and assumed that they were headed in the right direction. However, and this is actually point one on your notes, prosperity can hide spiritual poverty. Prosperity can hide spiritual poverty. Israel assumed that they were good. But apparently you can think that you're good and still be in crisis mode, spiritually speaking. So God sends this shepherd boy, Amos. He was a he was a country boy from the northern part of Judah, and he goes and he confronts them. And the way that he confronts them in the first few chapters is really interesting to me. Okay? So in chapter one, what Amos does is he starts listing out these different nations that all surround Israel. And again, you can see this on the map to see what this looks like. And one by one, he goes through and he starts talking about these other nations, warning them of judgment that is coming for them. And you can imagine the Israelites, like, they were they were receiving this well. Amos would go in and he'd be like, hey, Damascus, aren't those guys terrible? And the Israelites are yes, we can't stand those guys. And then he goes to Gaza and he's like, Isn't Gaza the worst? And they're like, We know. That's what we've been saying all along. He goes through Tyre and he goes through Edom and he goes through Ammon, he goes through Moab. And then he takes a shot at Judah, their relatives to the south. He spends a few lines talking about how they abandoned the commandments of God. And the Israelites are thinking, like, yes, that's why we split from them. Like, I love this guy, Amos. He's great. But all of this is a setup. It's a rhetorical device being used by Amos to expose the heart of the Israelites. Because Israel, and again, you can see this on the map, lies right in the middle of all these nations like a target in the crosshairs. And then Amos adds one more nation to the list. This is in chapter 2, verse 6, if you would turn with me there. Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. Those who trample on the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted, a man and his father go into the same girl, so that my holy name is profane. They lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined. Amos's condemnation of Israel, if you continue reading, is three times longer and more intense than any other condemnation he spoke over another nation. And that is just chapter two. Apparently, out of all the nations in the area, Israel was actually the worst. And because of their prosperity, they were pretty blind to it. Now, I want to pause here for a moment because Amos' approach actually really stood out to me. Because we all have a problem recognizing our own sin at times, don't we? I mean, it's easy to kind of look at somebody else and see their sin really quickly. We point out the issues and the nations around us. We gossip about that stuff all day long. Like, get us in a room with the right people, and we will start very quickly complaining about others. But many of us, myself included, we can lack self-awareness at times. By way of confession, I need to tell you about something that happened a few weeks ago. So my family has recently gotten into um flag football, our kids, right? And so I got a nine-year-old, 11-year-old, and they were playing in this local Wellington league out on the fields. And uh my 11-year-old was in the championship game. She plays quarterback, and she's pretty good. And uh we're out there in the championship game, and they're driving down the field, and she's, you know, she's slinging passes, it's going well. And then um she drops back for one pass, and the defender comes around the side and hits her arm. Now, here's the thing: you can't do that. That is a flag, that is a penalty, that is something that should not happen. Um, but her arm gets hit, no call, and the ball flies like a like a wounded duck in the air, and the other team intercepts it. I was livid. I was like losing my mind. I'm on the sidelines and I'm like, you can't do that! That's a foul, call the penalty, and I'm like, I'm going absolutely crazy. Now, again, these are seven to 12-year-old girls. I'm a 40-year-old man crashing out on the sidelines over this thing, like losing my parents are looking at me. It's super embarrassing. And ultimately, she ended up losing the game by one touchdown. And her heart was just like, so we're in the car, we're in the car afterwards. And I'm just trying to console her, right? Really, I need the consoling, but like I'm trying to console her. And I'm like, you know, it's like frustrating. You're so close. And that one play, right, where your arm got hit, like that had been frustrating that there was no call there. She kind of looks at me, she goes, What are you talking about, dad? I said, Yeah, well, well, the girl hit your arm. She goes, No, the girl never touched me. My hands were just sweaty and the ball slipped out. It was totally my fault. If you were there this morning that morning, this is my public confession, okay? Just getting that out there. But there's something in our human nature where we love to call out injustice and sin and others, assuming that we are right, all the while ignoring our own issues. Some of us in here are even thinking right now, like, how, man, this would be a good message for so-and-so to hear. But that's kind of Amos's point, isn't it? That we can't ignore our own sin just because there's sin around us. This is for me. I've got to deal with the darkest corners of my heart. I've got to be honest before the Lord about how I have walked in disobedience. Amos opens his letter by warning us that just because things are going well, it doesn't mean that we are in good spiritual shape. We've got to pay attention to our own spiritual poverty. The second lesson we learned from Amos is this, and I want you to write this down. Worship without obedience is hypocrisy. Worship without obedience is hypocrisy. See, here's how it works. The problem is that when we don't recognize our own sin, we can start to live in a world where we lack significant self-awareness. We develop these massive blind spots of pride and self-justification that can lead to a misalignment in the things that we say we believe and how we actually act. Driving is a really good example of this. Most of us, if we're honest, are pretty hypocritical drivers. Like if you go out on the road, we get so frustrated, we cannot believe it when somebody bends the road laws a little bit. You know what I'm saying? Like they go a little faster than they should, or they or they jump into that merge at the very last second, or like, or whatever it is. But then we go and do the exact same thing. You're like, I don't do that. I see you out there on Dixie Highway, like, or even worse, Southern Boulevard. Like, it's it's just crazy. Like we find ourselves in a situation of being hypocritical. But many of us can think of even more extreme examples of this. Unhealthy religious hypocrisy. People who say one thing, and then their lives reflect something totally different. And this is what was good, this is what was going on in Israel. Underneath all of the religious ceremonies, underneath the feast and the festivals and the sacrifices, underneath all the spiritual language they tried to hide behind, there were some dark things taking place. Just look at how God exposes them in chapter 5 and verse 12. He says, For I know, for I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins. You who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, who turn aside the needy in the gate, therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. God says it was an evil time in the nation of Israel. And you can start to see some of the things that God was upset with. They were afflicting the righteous, they were taking bribes, they were turning aside the needy. Matter of fact, if you were to go through and read chapters three through five, there's all these things that start to come out that they were doing. He was accusing the wealthy of ignoring the poor and allowing injustice. Essentially, here's what was going on they were taking people into debt slavery, and then when it was time for them to get out of that, they were withholding lawyers from them so that they could never escape. Elsewhere, Amos calls out their sexual immorality. These were people that were also uh overtaxing the poor. These were people that had uh established idol worship, they began to worship other gods in addition to their religious acts towards Yahweh. And all of this, all of these things, they were doing two things. First, it was leading them to their own destruction. Because sin always leads to death. That's what it does. They were destroying themselves and others. Their sin was splattering all over the place. But secondly, they were abandoning their God-given call to live as a distinct people. They were supposed to be image bearers, they were supposed to be the representatives of Yahweh and his justice in the world. They were supposed to be a light to the nations, and instead they were consumed with darkness. And the inconsistency of their lives communicated something to the world around them. Because when God's people drop the ball, living as God's representatives, it actually hurts the way that people view God. Because they think if this is what God is like, then I want nothing to do with him or his followers. Maybe some of you here this morning, maybe you were somebody who's really hesitant to come back into church because you interacted with somebody who claimed to be a Christian and yet their life reflected something totally different. That can leave some scars. And I want you to know that it bothered God too. God was pretty fed up with their hypocrisy. In fact, in chapter 5, verse 21, he calls it out. If you would turn with me there, God says this to the nation of Israel. These are some harsh words. God says in verse 21, I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not 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 to the melody of your harps, I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Notice how Israel was still going to church, they were still having their worship services, they were still offering their sacrifices, they were still singing songs, and because their obedience did not match their worship, God wanted none of it. He hated it. He refused to look at it because it was all fake. It was all fake. Their heart really wasn't for God, it wasn't for the things of God. It was more focused on what was convenient for them and what made them feel good. You know what God really wanted? He says so in verse 24. God wanted justice to roll down like waters. He wanted them to treat people fairly. Now, I hope that none of us struggle with selling people into debt slavery. Um, if you do, you can email Pastor Derek about that one. He would love to talk to you about it. Um, but I do think that there are some clear parallels that we can find from the book of Amos for us to consider for today. And so I'm gonna put this in the form of question. First, do we treat people fairly? Do we believe that every single person is made in the image of God? Secondly, are we living in God's design in terms of our sexuality? Amos called them out on this. Where are you at in your current relationship or in your relationship goals? Does it align with God's design as detailed in the scriptures? Third, are we being good stewards of God's resources in our lives? Israel really struggled with the way that they handled their money. What about you? Do you live generously? Do you make money ethically? Or are you cutting corners for profit? Lastly, what is our heart posture when we come to worship? Is there a chance that maybe we've set up some idols in our lives? Things that maybe we don't even recognize, that we've held our work, our relationships in our life above the place of God. You see, injustice may or may not be as obvious as some of the things that Israel was struggling with, but it's very much present in our lives today. And we have to address the areas of disconnect that can occur between doing religious things and actually being obedient to God. And how do we do that? Well, the heart of Amos' message comes in chapter 5, verse 4, with a four-word invitation. God says to the people of Israel, seek me and live. Seek me and live. We must seek God and turn away from our sin. We begin that by acknowledging, confessing the areas of our life that have moved outside of God's design and design, and then we pursue obedience. Write this down. Repentance is the path to restoration. Repentance is the path to restoration. You know, unfortunately for Israel, they continued in their sin. They chose not to seek the Lord. And their sin led to their destruction. You see, 20 to 30 years after Amos warned them, Assyria invades Israel in 722 BC, and the ten northern tribes are defeated, humiliated, and assimilated into the surrounding nations, never to be constituted again. These were not empty warnings from Amos. They were a preview of where their sin was taking them. Because, and I'll say this again, and please hear me on this this morning sin always leads to death. It always leads to destruction. It always takes us further than we want to go. It always keeps us longer than we want to stay. And it always costs us more than we're willing to pay. However, it's important to keep in mind that Amos does not end with destruction. The book of Amos ends with a promise. Look at chapter 9, verse 11. God says this. And repair its breaches. And raise up its ruins. And rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Eden and all the nations who are called by my name, declares the Lord who does this. Okay, so I didn't really know what a booth was, so I had to look it up. So, like a booth is a stick-like hut, okay? It's kind of like a booth, something very frail, something easily broken. And what God was doing was making a promise that he was going to restore this weakened nation, this booth of David. He was going to repair them, he was going to rebuild them. But I want you to notice one more thing in this promise. He says in verse 12, he says, and all the nations who are called by my name. Guys, this wasn't just a promise for Israel. This was a vision of the future for all the nations. And I think this is really interesting. This is quite poetic. That a book that started out with condemnations for all these different nations is now including all the nations in the promise of God that is to come. In fact, we don't have time to unpack this, but like if some of you, some of you Bible nerds want to go look at this later, uh, Acts chapter 15 at the Jerusalem Council, James quotes Amos chapter 9, verses 11 through 12, noting how the inclusion of the Gentiles is the fulfillment of God's blessing and restoration extended beyond just the nation of Israel. It's pretty cool. But essentially, what this means is that this wasn't just about Israel. This was about all of humanity because Israel was just a microcosm of what we all experience. The shame of our sin, the chaos that it brings, and the selfish nature that can drive each of us. And that sin leaves destruction in its wake, like a tornado passing through. Everything is devastated and thrown into disorder. Before I graduated high school, my dad had been married four times, my mom had been married twice. Neither of them are married now. I went to a lot of weddings growing up. I have a lot of step siblings, I don't even know some of them. Like it's just, you know, chaos. And each time those relationships ended, for whatever reason, it left such devastation in my parents' life, and devastation in my own. Rumens of promise, of covenant, shattered pictures of the future. Anyone who's been close to divorce, you know what I'm talking about. Situations that feel absolutely hopeless, unredeemable, where we are left asking the question: how could God ever redeem what has been broken this badly by sin? But that is the promise for the people of God. That God can and was going to rebuild the ruins of the world, that he was going to rescue us from our own demise. Maybe you need some ruins rebuilt in your life. Maybe you have felt the effects of sin. Maybe your shame is overwhelming you so much that you were nervous to even walk into church today. I have some really good news for you this morning. That God did raise up a booth of David generations later. And that his name is Jesus. And Jesus lived the perfect life that you couldn't live, and he paid the price for our sins that we could not pay. And because he died, and because he rose again from the dead, all of our sin, everything that we have done to bring destruction to this world. You ready for this? It is no longer counted against you. Jesus on the cross, he took the full weight of our punishment that we deserved. He took on the judgment of God Himself. Justice rolled down like waters on him so that we might walk away guilt free. And we simply receive that by faith. Are you exhausted from living in the ruins of your life? Are you tired of bearing the weight of the destruction around you? This morning I would invite you to turn from your sin and to trust in Christ to give him your life. He alone can rebuild the ruins of sin's destruction. And to help remind us of this this morning, we are going to take the Lord's Supper together. We take the Lord's Supper each week to remind us of the sacrifice that Jesus made for our sins, the booth of David that was given for us so that we could be restored to the Father. I do want to remind you that the Lord's Supper is for after you've become a believer in Jesus. At Family Church, we believe it's best to take the Lord's Supper only after you've been baptized and after you've become a member. But if you're a guest with us today and you would normally take the Lord's Supper at your church, feel free to join us as part of the extended family of Christ. In a moment, we're going to eat and drink together. But right now, I want to encourage you to take a moment and just reflect. Look at your life. Consider the areas, maybe some of the blind spots that you might have that you might be unaware of, and confess your sins to Christ, knowing, trusting, believing that God is the God who can restore and rebuild.