Wasting Prosperity (Amos 3–6)

A $314 million lottery ticket sounds like a dream until you watch what it can do to a human soul. We start with a true-to-life cautionary story of sudden wealth followed by chaos: wasted money, ruined relationships, addiction, legal trouble, and a family tragedy that shows how fast “more” can become a monster. The question isn’t whether money is powerful. The question is what prosperity does to us when it starts to feel like proof that we’re fine, approved, and beyond consequences.

From there we open the book of Amos and trace three urgent messages to a nation enjoying peak comfort while decaying at the core. We talk about privilege and accountability for God’s people, why the “roar” of judgment is never empty noise, and how false security collapses when a culture builds its life on luxury instead of obedience. Amos doesn’t just confront personal sin; he exposes public injustice, where the cravings of the comfortable crush the poor and normalize selfishness.

We also deal with religious hypocrisy, ignored warnings, and the chilling line “Prepare to meet your God.” Yet hope still breaks through: “Seek Me and live.” We connect that call to modern life, including Amos’s demand that justice and righteousness actually flow through the land. If you’ve ever wondered whether comfort is shaping you more than you realize, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway: where do you need to “swim upstream” right now?

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Transcript

Amos Warns Prosperity’s Rotten Core

Message One: Privilege And Accountability

Judgment Coming For Every Stronghold

Message Two: Luxury That Crushes The Poor

Religious Hypocrisy And Ignored Warnings

Message Three: Seek God And Live

Justice And Righteousness Must Flow

SPEAKER_00 0:54

I remember reading some time ago about a man who won$314 million in a lottery. And you know it wasn't long before his personal life turned into a series of tragic disasters. Well, for one thing, he spent his money wildly. He indulged his desires. He made a lot of friends with the wrong people. He ended up being robbed on two different occasions, was arrested for driving under the influence. He got deeply involved in gambling. He was eventually sued by a casino for bouncing checks totaling over a million dollars. On top of that, his granddaughter found many new friends, so to speak. They pulled her into a life of drugs, and that eventually took her life. You know, we can do a lot of wonderful things with money. The problem really isn't money. The bigger issue is what does money do to us? You know, financial prosperity has this unique potential to lead us away from the Lord, to convince us that, well, God must approve of us, whatever we do. The luxuries that we crave, you know, they become needs that are justifiable. You know, prosperity is frankly more dangerous than poverty. Well, during the ministry of the prophet Amos, the nation of Israel here is experiencing great prosperity. Many people are living in luxury. Frankly, everything about Israel right now looks healthy and prosperous, but the nation is like this shiny red apple that's rotten at its core. Now, in chapters three through six here in the book of Amos, the Lord reveals to us the rottenness at the very heart of the people and explains why judgment is coming to the northern kingdom of Israel. Now there are three messages in these chapters. Each one begins with the words, hear this word. Hear this word, listen to this word. That reminds me of my mother who would have been saying, Now, Stephen, you need to listen up. The first message in chapter three is a reminder that Israel is God's chosen people. God tells them here in verse two. You only have I known of all the families of the earth. In other words, he's reminding them that they are his special covenant people. With that special privilege, though, brings a very special accountability. Verses three through six present a series of questions that reveals Israel's unfaithfulness and frankly why God's judgment has to come upon them. The Lord asks them here in verse three, do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet? Well the implication is that God can't walk with people who no longer want to walk with him. He asks them here in verse four, does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? In other words, a lion roars because it's caught its dinner for the night, and in the same way, the roar of the Lord is not meaningless. It indicates that judgment is on its way. And this judgment will involve all of Israel. In fact, verse eleven says, an adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses, your strongholds shall be plundered. But we know that Samaria, Israel's capital, will fall. The altars at Bethel, Israel's religious center, are going to be destroyed. The summer and winter homes of the wealthy, that is the great houses, we're told here, will come to an end. Verse 15 tells us. No part of the nation is going to be spared. Well, now here in chapter 4, the second message begins, and again, listen up. We're directed first here to a reference to the cows of Bashan. Bashan, east of the Jordan, was known for its pasture lands and cattle. Here the wealthy women of Israel are pictured as these pampered cows who do nothing productive, but they demand more and more luxuries from their husbands. Not a very flattering description. They're unconcerned that their demands result in the oppression of the poor and the crushing of the needy. You know, we tend to think that people's self-centeredness and their self-indulgence hurt only their lives. But here the prophet reminds us that that harms other people's lives as well. Those who suffer directly, as well as those who watch, frankly, who follow their bad example also can waste their lives. Well, now the Lord promises here in verse 2 that the enemy will take them away with hooks. This is more than likely a reference to the Assyrian method of leading captives with hooks placed in their noses, hooked through their noses, attached to ropes. This is a brutal description of the women who are going to suffer the same indignity as all those poor people that they oppressed. Now, above all, Israel is guilty of religious hypocrisy. They had set up this golden calf at Bethel, which probably was portrayed as representing the Lord. In reality, it blasphemed the Lord, it violated the word of God. Now the rest of chapter 4 is an indictment of Israel for their refusal to respond properly to God's discipline. He says here in verse 7, I withheld rain, but verse 8 says, Yet you did not return to me. God also sends pestilence and calamities designed to get their attention to bring them to repentance, but all of it is ignored. In fact, throughout this section, verses 6 and 8, verses 9, 10, and 11, we read that repeated statement, yet you did not return to me. Well, sadly the Lord says here in verse 12, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel. Now this isn't going to be a pleasant meeting, by the way. This is like my elementary school teacher telling me to prepare to meet the principal. I knew I knew I was in trouble. Well, Israel is in trouble. The Lord is going to deliver judgment, and at this point, there is no turning back. Now chapters five and six form the third message. You need to listen up here to this message, Israel. The fifth chapter begins with the Lord's sorrow over the coming, destruction, the fall of Israel. But then he says here in verse 4, Seek me and live. You see, although the nation is headed for certain disaster, the Lord is graciously reminding individuals within Israel that they can individually repent, they can turn to Him in faith, they can find life in Him. So seek God and live. And let me tell you, beloved, this message hasn't changed today. Reject God and you're going to face eternal judgment. Seek God and you're heading for eternal joy. Even though the world is set on rejecting God, even though the world is running headlong into his judgment, and that's not going to change. Well, we don't have to go along with the world. We individually don't need to suffer that judgment. In fact, any dead fish can float downstream with a current, but it takes a live one to swim upstream against the current. But God gives that kind of invitation here. In fact, in chapter 5 and verse 14, he says, Seek good and not evil that you may live. Well, the self-deceived majority in Israel thought they were good. They saw themselves as righteous, certainly more so than their pagan neighbors. They were even longing for the day of the Lord to come, as if it would bring destruction only on all those wicked enemies over there. But the Lord again says here in verse 18, Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness and not light. In other words, when the judgment of God comes, it isn't going to be sunshine and flowers for all those nations and for Israel as well. Amos's message includes the well known words here in verse 24. Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. Now you need to understand in this text, he's not talking about the righteousness of God. He's talking about the righteousness of Israel. This is what they ought to be doing, letting justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream through their land. The trouble is the river of the water of Israel's polluted. It isn't flowing, you see, it's stagnant. Well, with that we now come to chapter six, where Israel is described as feeling rather secure, they're living in luxury again, but their prosperity has deceived them. And the Lord declares that they're no better than the Philistines. Beginning in verse 4, he says, Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory, who anoint themselves with the finest oil. Verse 7 says, They will be the first of those who go into exile. Oh, they're they're prosperous, all right, but they've wasted their prosperity. They think only of themselves. Well, how about you today? Are you wasting your prosperity? Or are you using what God has given you to help others? How about the greatest treasure of all? The treasure you have of the gospel. Are you sharing it with people whom God has placed in the traffic pattern of your life? Let's make sure we're using today what we have been given by God for the glory of God. Well, now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.