The Book of Amos // Pastor David Ivarson

Alright, good morning. Good morning to everybody. So glad you guys are here today. I'm grateful to be here. Last time I spoke, I mentioned that I love to do yard work. I love to do yard work. I love to kind of help and be an encouragement in those areas that relaxes me and just kind of helps me. It's a great time to pray.

It's a great time to really think through, well, listen to podcasts and think through. But I wanted to encourage you guys a little bit because since that time up until now, only Ms. Pat Wilkins has taken me up on my offer to do something. I got to go over to her house and trim some rose bushes. And it actually was just a huge blessing for me because I also got to eat some pecan pie.

Amazing. Or maybe you guys call it pecan pie. I don't know. What do you guys, left hand for pecan, right hand for pecan?

I don't know. But it was delicious. It was delicious. So I had a good time and we got to hang out. That was fun. So I want to put that back out there. That's an offer.

I love to do those kind of things. I also, because I have some time in front of you, I want to make a shameless plea for student ministry here at Union Grove. We meet on Wednesday nights, 7th grade through 12th grade. We meet early or earlyish, 6 o'clock, play games in the gym, eat some food.

That should get you there, right there. The games and the food. But then we come upstairs to Grady Hall and we do like the rest of our programming with music, teaching time in small groups. And I feel like the whole reason we meet is for those small groups.

Like I want, me and the rest of the leaders, we want our students to realize God's word and the truth that's found in it and obviously use those truths to dispel all the lies and different things in our culture. But also to be able to look across the circle or whatever they sit in as they're meeting and just say, here's what I'm struggling with and then have that realization. Oh, you too? You're having that same struggle. You're going through that same thing.

Or maybe you're on the opposite side of it, the tail end of it or even God has been so faithful, which of course He is and has brought you out of that and you can share those things with me. So we want students to have those realizations and really be encouraged in that. And I get to work with some of the most fantastic youth leaders around and they are an incredible voice in the lives of students and obviously in the lives of one another.

We sharpen one another. But we're always looking for new voices, if that makes sense, if I can say it like that. Like we want more voices in the lives of these students. If you look at a lot of the research, it's overwhelmingly in this favor of if you, the students who stick around, who grow their faith and live their faith and even after getting out of high school and into college, the ones that make it, the ones that hold on to their faith are the ones that have multiple adults in their lives saying the same things about Jesus. And that's basically that He's worth following. He's worth following.

So we always need more voices. Come talk with me if you need that. That would be, or if you feel led to plug in, I'd love to help get you plugged in.

And then, for those of you, because I'm still new here, we're trying to set up the best way to communicate. If you have not done this and you are a parent of a teenager, parent of a student, later, not right this second, but later, go to the Grove Parents. It's a private Facebook group, the Grove Parents. Go ahead and request to be in there. Like I make it to where you have to be approved because I don't want students in there.

It's just a parent thing. That way we can put out information. We put articles in there and different resources that you guys need.

So hopefully that's helpful. That's the Grove Parents. And then if you guys want to be that voice, if God's moving you to be that voice, that would be encouraging to jump in. We are going to be in the book of Amos today. And we are going to cover the whole book, the entire book of Amos. This is not my attempt to make my sermon as long as Pastor Josh's.

That is not my attempt. What we are going to do is we are going to walk through the book of Amos today. And as we go through, we have a big idea that we'll talk about in just a moment that's going to kind of guide our time today.

We'll also mention it at the end. We've got some observations from the entire book that we will use as our reflection and invitation time today. But then we are going to walk through each chapter in a way where we grab a verse. Sometimes there are phrases that are repeated and so we take that and say that's an important point that the book of Amos is trying to get across to us. Also we do understand that this was written in the Old Testament. It's prophetic for the people of Israel specifically. So we don't want to necessarily read ourselves in there and say, oh yeah, everything that they said definitely applies to us. But there are some timeless principles that absolutely do apply. And so those are the things that we want to look at today. So let's start with our big idea for today.

Here it is. God's mercy is meant not just to forgive us, but to transform us as well. Like I am so thankful for His mercy.

His mercies that are new every morning. The scripture talks about that. But if that was it, if it was only meant for me just to kind of like, oh okay, well great, I'm thankful for it.

But then it stopped there, I think that would be a bad thing. So that's why it's not just meant to forgive us, but it's also meant to transform us and transform us specifically in a way to where we would go and act and give out that same mercy towards others. Like when somebody does something towards us, how can we dare hold it against them after all that we've done towards God and then how He has forgiven us of those things. So God's mercy is meant not just to forgive us, but to transform us as well.

Let's look at, we're going to jump into chapter number one, and there's a repeated phrase, and that's our number one for today. It's a thus says the Lord. And we're going to, if you look in verses three, six, nine, 11, and 13, and I'm going to read those because they're very specific warnings for these people that He was talking to and ultimately this should help us kind of get kicked off and get going in the right direction. So thus says the Lord, look first at verse three of chapter one. Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Damascus and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron. Jump to verse six, thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Gaza and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they carried away captive, the whole captivity to the Lord to Edom. So, so far in common they have, they have not three things but four.

Let's continue with that. Verse nine, thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Tyrus and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they delivered up the whole captivity. And then 11 right before we do verse 13, thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Edom and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof because He did pursue His brother with the sword and had cast off all pity and His anger did tear perpetually and He kept His wrath forever.

And then the last one in verse, I mean in chapter one, verse 13, thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of the children of Ammon and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead that they might enlarge their border. So these things that God's saying, thus saith the Lord are the idea that this is what the Lord is saying was all in warning to these people of the impending and coming judgment. And here's ultimately what we should take from this. When God says something, I should listen. Now it could be bad news.

It could be bad news, but it could be good news. So whatever God says, we should listen. And I want to try to draw the distinction, not just hear, but actually listen. And when we listen, that's more geared towards the potential for obedience too. Like it's very, it's a short step from listening and really knowing what's going on to obedience.

It's a shorter step there than it is just hearing like the audible things that are going on. So we definitely, when the Lord speaks, we want to hear. That was chapter one. Chapter number two is found in, let's read verses nine and ten. Nine and ten of chapter two say, Yet destroyed I, the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and he was strong as the oaks.

Yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath. And continue, verse ten, also I brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you 40 years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite. And so number two or specifically what we're going to glean from chapter number two is it is God who rescues us. You see how he rescued them in verses nine and ten. He destroyed, it says that two times in verse nine and then basically rescues, it brought them up from the land of Egypt. So it's kind of rehashing and just reminding them of their history, which is a really great thing obviously when we remember because we were prone to be so forgetful.

Maybe that's just me, but I definitely am prone to forget the things that God has done for me and it's so great to be reminded. But just like God rescued them, destroy, and part of his rescue was destroying the people that had the judgment coming. God enacted that judgment but then also delivering them from that judgment and taking them out of Egypt. So he will fight for us and there are some great reasons but a few of those that I thought of is because of his great love for us and because he knows what's best for us and he wants what's best for us. So ultimately God does what's best for his glory but also for our good. His glory but for our good.

So that's the God who rescues us and that's a great thing to celebrate continually and that was chapter two. So chapter number three, it talks about how they did not know how to do right. They do not know how to do right and that is found in verse ten of Amos chapter three. For they know not to do right.

I didn't have to really stretch that in and finagle it. I mean it's pretty much right there. For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. This really literally means like they've forgotten how to do right. Yes, they knew it one time but they have forgotten how to do right and that's really, really a bad thing. So maybe we need a reminder like they did what exactly we should do.

They've forgotten to do right and so maybe we should flip over and I think we should. Romans twelve two, you can write that down and come back to it or I'll read it for us here in a moment. Romans twelve two, we're also going to look at Micah six eight but Romans twelve two says this, oh I'm sorry, twelve one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. Very familiar verse probably but what I wanted to draw out today is hopefully something you've heard but if not I can bring it to you because it's something that I hadn't heard until very recently but Romans one through eleven, you guys that know the book of Romans, Romans one through eleven is setting the stage with a lot of doctrine and kind of letting you know okay here's what you need to believe and then Romans twelve kind of makes that turn of like now you got to live it out. Like we've got to live this out and we've got to actually do these things that we say we believe and so I summarize Romans twelve one this way. Mercy therefore worship. Like because of mercy because of everything that God's done for us found in chapters one through eleven our only real response should be worship and the way that we worship is by living out exactly what God has put in us so that's one of the ways like we're talking about how these people have forgotten how to live that's the way or how to do right that's the way that we can be reminded and we can remember multiple times because remember to to live out our worship and it's based on the mercy that God's given us we are worshipers like we are we were created in God's image we were created to worship and it does it will not take you long whether you're looking at my life or you're looking at somebody else's life and hopefully it won't take you as long when you look at your own life it will not take you very long to figure out what you worship that's how you spend your time that's how you spend your money and there are there are lots of ways or that those are the main ways I'm sorry to find out what you worship because we are worshipers at our core so that was one of the things that they did not know what to do right maybe we need to be reminded I think we do reminded of what it's like to to do right and then Micah 6 8 talks about how we do justly love mercy and to walk humbly for our God so those are some with our God those are some great reminders of how to do right these people had forgotten I think the culture that we live in today is the same like they've totally forgotten how to do right they're calling right wrong and wrong right I mean they're not getting everything mixed up and I say they like we do that sometimes too we get tricked into into being squeezed into that mold and that's the verse we didn't read Romans 12 2 like 12 1 sets us up mercy therefore worship Romans 12 2 talks about how we're not supposed to be conformed like the world wants to line up Christians right next to non-Christians and they want us to all to look the same they want us to say the same thing think the same thing listen to the same music watch everything the same so we've got to be careful about squeezing into being squeezed into that so they have forgotten how to do what's right chapter 3 there we live in a culture that's the same way and we want to fight against that by knowing what is right and by following and doing those things the way that we need to and then chapter 4 it said you did not return to me we're going to read through a couple verses some things that God had allowed to happen and even instigated on his part to draw the people back to him but then you'll see he keeps reminding like I did this you did not return to me I did this you did not return to me so let's look at those we're gonna look at verses 6 8 10 and 11 in chapter 4 let's start with 6 and I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and want of bread and all your places yet have you not returned unto me saith the Lord so he allowed these natural disasters to come to where they had a famine and where they had like things got broken down he allowed natural disasters to come and they still didn't return to him verse 8 so two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water but they were not satisfied yet you have not returned unto me saith the Lord so the idea of them not having water to quench their thirst but still that didn't get their attention let's continue to read on verse 10 I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt your young men have I slain with the sword and have taken away your horses and I have made the stink of your camps to come up into your nostrils yet have you not returned unto me saith the Lord I think the stink of the camp what that made me think of and maybe this will remind you that too that reminds me of what it smells like when you go in a middle school boys cabin at a week of camp like it's terrible in there it's terrible in there no amount of axe spray is going to cover that up I mean it's just awful my earlier years of student ministry when we would go away for a week of camp this is when I was young and I not young anymore this is when I was young and I didn't know all the responsibilities that I was like hey if I can get him there and we're all safe and we come back that that's that's a good week of camp I didn't know that I was going to have to like monitor how many showers everybody took so before I knew that that was my responsibility we had a it was in middle school at that time came all the way through our our student ministry and he still is a little bit weird but he he made it all the way through a week of camp and I think the only thing he did in relation to cleaning himself was he may have put his feet in a sink and washed them once the whole week of camp a whole week of camp so that is a yeah that's a that's a bad token of shame that I bear for many many years but hey now I know now I know you got to make people get in the shower and hose them down or whatever you need to do so that's good but that's what I think about when I read this just the idea of the camp stinking came up into their nostrils but even that wasn't enough to make them return to God and then I believe you have one more yeah one more verse 11 in chapter 4 I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning yet have you not returned unto me says the Lord and so there are there are so many things that God is doing here and he's telling them telling these Israelites through the prophet Amos and yet it doesn't matter didn't matter if it was something bad that happened it didn't even matter if it was something good it did not get their attention what I'd like to focus on for us asking basically the same question are we going to return to God that gives the idea first that we were with him and then something happened and we were drawn away by maybe being squeezed into the mold like we talked about or something else so it does give the idea that we were with him at one time but yet we had wandered off and now he's calling us to return so let me ask you this question when God allows failures and trials in your life how do you respond when God allows bad things to happen in your life how do you respond something I heard this week is that failure is social like it like when someone fails it gets other people involved and I think that's a good thing I think God designed it like that on purpose he also uses failure as one of the best tools for us to really grow like if things are going super easy guess what I do look what I did like I need the credit and I need the benefit from that right there but when things don't go well I'm like God what are you doing so I'm immediately turning to him and so failure is a good thing so failure is one of God's best tools for him to use to push me toward growth so here's my challenge on this fail well seems like a weird paradox right fail well this makes me think of one of mine and Shanna's not greatest parenting wins all right so we are up in Gatlinburg Pigeon Forge area one of our favorite I love playing mini golf love playing mini golf so we're up there playing mini golf and our oldest son he's freshman in college this year and this was he was very competitive and he got this for me he the what he got for me was the idea that we hate losing more than we like winning is everybody else like that like I hate losing so much I hate it I hate it so much and so we're playing miniature golf putt putt whatever you want to call it and he was not winning he was crawling on his knees and just was throwing a fit and a tantrum and my wife looks at him and says don't be a sore loser just be a loser so I think I think I think he got the point our 10 year olds now they remind us of that all the time like mom how could you how could you tell them that but I think I think he got the point that you need to if you're gonna fail because everybody is just fail well fail well and don't be crying about it all right just just fail and and accept it and then learn the lessons that we need to learn to learn and another thing too before we jump to chapter number five encouragement from me to you as I've I've learned this the hard way to fail trying instead of watching I go it go ahead and fail because you're jumping in and trying something instead of just sitting on the sideline like go ahead and get in the game go ahead and get in the game and participate and so all the encouragement that God gave them through the prophet Amos to return to the him they did not he's saying the same thing to us like if you've gone through failures if you've gone through good times and you're not learning the lesson if you've gone through trials whatever it is return to me because it's worth it it's worth it you need to do that and let's let's do that together let's do that and then chapter five talks about this in verses four and six seek the Lord and live so finally finally some good news I didn't return to him but here's here's the answer to that let's go ahead and seek him let's go ahead and live and trust him verses four and six of chapter five for thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel seek ye me and ye shall live but seek not Bethel nor enter into Gilgal and pass not to Beersheba for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and Bethel shall come to naught and then verse six seek the Lord and ye shall live lest he break out like a fire in the house of Joseph and devour it and there be none to quench it in Bethel and so the idea of those three verses kind of what it encapsulates here yes we need to seek God and live but there are so many other distractions like there's so many other things remember because we're worshippers at our heart level there are so many other things that will let us try to draw us in our attention and get us distracted and so who here's our question who who and or what are you seeking like this specifically and very yeah very specifically tells us to seek the Lord and live but you can really put a lot of things seek the what and you won't live like you can't continue that statement and it be accurate with other things but you could be distracted you may enjoy some form of success by the world standard but so who or what are you seeking who or what are you seeking and really is it the Lord because that's our standard there's not a shortage of things to seek in this world not a shortage of things or to seek or worship in our world so we have to make a conscious decision to seek the Lord what a great encouragement for us verse six oh well we didn't stay too long on the on the positive now now we're back to chapter number six where it says God hates pride God hates pride verse eight the Lord God hath sworn by himself saith the Lord the God of hosts I abhor the excellency of Jacob and hate his palaces therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is there and so the idea of them building palaces and building the city and and making things look good if people were on the outside looking in God saw to the heart of that and he saw their pride he saw that they were feeling something that they should have filled with God they were feeling it was something else so everything that the Israel that Israel was doing to try to earn God's acceptance was hated by God he saw its emptiness but they didn't and here's our question or a question that could come out of this what am I doing to try to earn his acceptance by my hand or by my thoughts and efforts let me just clue you into something you already have his acceptance you already have it he has put everything that you deserve on his son Jesus and Jesus has taken care of it Jesus has taken care of it and so now it's just for you to accept it's for you to accept and receive that gift so you don't have to you don't have to toil you don't have to strive anymore and just like God saw through to the heart of what was going on in lives these Israelites the pride and he hates it he sees that in us too so he wants to strip that away he hates pride he does not want us to do have it feel like we have to do anything by our effort because then what happens then we feel like oh I did this and now I can take the credit and now I can do these things and he doesn't want that he values humility hopefully you guys have heard this before as well humility is not thinking less of myself but thinking of myself less as an often like I'm thinking of myself less often because I'm thinking of others more often and more prominently like giving them what I would like for myself I'm going to give to them instead that doesn't mean you won't be taken care of because if you're doing that and others around you are thinking about others first and then those things will happen and God kind of set up that way to be handled in his economy and here's something I knew or I learned very recently here's a great practical thing to fight pride just make a conscious decision to be curious be curious let me let me explain it just a little bit like when you're curious you don't have a closed mind like you know that there's something else out there that you don't know but when you have pride you feel like you know everything right so be curious make a conscious decision maybe when you get up in the morning or maybe when you after you've had your coffee whatever and your your mind's thinking a little bit more clearly okay I want to be curious today if somebody comes to me with something that I know a lot about don't let don't let me close it down and be prideful about what I know and there's not much I don't know let me just be curious to hear their point of view so I thought that was a good practical thing is something that's really helped me nobody likes a know-it-all or a one-upper do we know those people don't don't look to your left to your right or turn around that's that's real obvious but and if nobody knows the one-upper if you can't think of a one-upper in your mind it might be you it might be you so we can we can we'll have we'll have time to deal with that in a little bit as we reflect but God God hates pride and that's in chapter six and so we want to get rid of that as well just like for the Israelites we want to get rid of that as well in our lives and run to God chapter seven says God measures and we do not measure up God measures and we do not measure up the only way that good news can be good news and be received is when we truly realize where we're at like when we know the bad news when we know that God measures and we don't measure up so that must mean that we have to look somewhere else for our answer and for our help and that's exactly what's happening let's let's look at verse eight of chapter seven and the Lord said unto me Amos what seest thou and I said a plumb line then said the Lord behold I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel I will not again pass by them anymore plumb line is a tool for construction and it makes sure things are straight they're lined up the way they need to be so that they don't cave in later and they fall down a lot of things could have fit there as far as just tools that make sure things are right but I love that they use the plumb lines not I mean I haven't used that ever but it's a great idea of just God measures us we don't measure up based on exactly what he was saying to the Israelites at this time as well it's hopeless on our own hopeless hopeless I can't I can't say that enough that's hopeless on our own but we aren't left to ourselves we can trust in Jesus's finished work on the cross that's what our hope is in Paul talks about if Jesus is not raised from the dead like we're most miserable people in the world because we have we have no hope if he didn't actually raise from the dead so that's that's what we need to understand is we don't measure up but we don't have to because Jesus did for us Jesus did for us now chapter eight reminds us that or tells them and also lets us know a little bit about our culture he was talking about a time where it wasn't a famine of bread and water but of hearing the word of the Lord a famine of hearing the words of the Lord chapter eight verse 11 behold the days come say at the Lord God that I will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water but of hearing the words of the Lord that's that's kind of terrible that would be terrible and I think we're kind of living a little bit in that right now like we have incredible access to God's Word incredible access to God's Word but yet we probably read it less and I'm lumping myself I'm lumping all of us I'm making a grand generalization with all of us being church people that that probably do spend time in God's Word but like we don't do it as much as we should we don't know it as well as we should know it so that's that's our challenge too is if that were a time that was coming well we'd be in big trouble talking about the famine idea but boy do I love some food I love it I enjoy it my wife had a birthday this week I got to take her out for lunch on Wednesday here in town but then yesterday we decided that we were going to go to Raleigh and find one of our favorite restaurants that's in Chattanooga but the closest one is in Raleigh and so we were able to go there and it did not disappoint it was amazing it was so good still thinking about woke up like three times thinking about it last night just how how awesome it was but but we were able to go there and I also I also really really love to eat like things at the house like who in here has an air fryer who in here has an air fryer is that not like the second greatest invention of all time maybe third behind spork is up there too I mean that's just incredible who would think of that like a spoon and a fork putting those together genius genius but an air fryer is great but I think I take it a little bit too far because even Asa he's in here today but he'll look at me like dad can we just put this in the microwave like can we do we not have can we not use the air fryer so I may go a little bit over the top of this I made burgers in there the other day just formed them up like I usually do and instead of putting on the the flat top grill outside I just put them in the air fryer and they turned out fantastic so anyway great time but I wanted to kind of make that connection between it's one thing to have a famine of food and water but that's not what we're talking about what we're talking about is how terrible it would be if there was ever a famine of God's Word and so we need we need to be studying we need to be learning we need to be reading we need to be trusting and maybe if you want extra credit you can read God's Word while you're waiting on your food in the air fryer all right I'll talk to him I'll talk to him about that see if he can kind of credit that to your account but all right and then chapter 9 of Amos it says what God speaks he does boy I'm thankful for that what God speaks he does he doesn't just make up stuff and say stuff and he's real cryptic and you got to figure out what's going on no if he speaks it it's happening he speaks it it's happening and that's a good thing verses 11 and 12 of chapter 9 tell us about this and that day I'll raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches thereof and I'll raise up his ruins and I will build it as the days of old that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the heathen which are called by my name saith the Lord that doeth this so the idea of everything that he was warning them of the way they started in chapter 1 all the way through like hey your your pride is showing and your heart is showing and you're not coming after me like you should and and you know what's going to happen you're not going to be able to read God's word anymore so you really need to store up on it right now because a famine is coming you I've measured you and you don't measure up all these things that he's been saying have built to this point he's eventually going to restore them he's eventually going to restore them bring them back to the land and that's exactly what he wants to do with us he wants to restore our hearts he sees deep inside and that's scary but it shouldn't be scary it's scary if maybe our friends our family members see what we really think what we really hope and feel like but the the main point is that God who is our creator that that's a safe place that's a safe place when God who knows us better than we even know ourselves knows what's going on down there and and reveals it to us so that we can change so what God speaks he does this is the ultimate good news because he's proven he can be trusted and so here's here's a question before we go into our observations will you and I trust him today more than we did yesterday based on his character based on his deeds so he can be he can be trusted to do what he says he's going to do and to be who he says he is and those are things that we need to think through and remember let me give us a few observations and then we'll transition to our reflection time observation number one God's name and character are perfect and demand my obedience God's name and character are perfect and demand my obedience that sounds like just really harsh like you say the word demand it sounds harsh but I couldn't think of a better word because the only thing that we should do based on everything he's done for us is to just obey just listen and obey obedience is a blessing in fact for some reason God set it up in his economy the way that things work according to him and in his kingdom that we would do things with the gifts that God has given us with the opportunities and inside the relationships that God has set us up in and that we would just be obedient God would bless us like how does that make sense how does that make sense that he would do things that way but that's the way he does it so obedience is a blessing and so here's a question as again we're trying to transition to our time of reflection based on God's name and character being perfect and demanding my obedience where in your life is God calling you to obey right now right now maybe it's go to Honduras maybe it's go across the street to your neighbor maybe it's go across the people still work in cubicles maybe go across the hall at work and talk with somebody like hey now I know you know God's put me on your heart put you on my heart that I want to talk to you and encourage you and just see if you know Jesus here's what he's done for me here's what he's done for me let me let me share that with you so where's God calling you to obey him right now what area in your life that's observation number one and question number one coming out of that number two returning to God means despising pride and lining up with God's commands one of his commands we talked about Micah 6 say be humble to justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God so returning to God means despising pride and lining up with his commands a question coming out of that where does God want me to be more curious where can I be or what area in my life can I be more curious where I realize I've got things to learn and I'm not shutting people down and things down that speak to that because I don't know everything in that area yet where can we be more curious that has to do with returning to God means despising pride lining up with God's commands last one not hearing God speak is a terrible thing listen to him and live not hearing God speak is a terrible thing so let's listen to him and live and then our question out of that is where is God calling me to listen better today how do we how do we listen better to him listen again listening because that's moving us toward obedience big idea just to remind us and then I'm gonna ask you guys to bow your heads and pray together God's mercy is meant not just to forgive us but to transform us as well hopefully we saw a little bit as we walk through the book of Amos together this morning that God's mercy is big God's mercy is big and he used so many he has so many different aspects it's multifaceted mercy but it should motivate us to reach out and give it to others that's how we show that we're transformed but also live it out in our lives so that we know we're transformed let me pray for us I'm ask you guys to bow your head close your eyes thank you so much for for your attention today thank you for those of you who took some notes maybe have a chance to kind of do a deeper dive into this at some point this week or next week or sometime soon there's so many other great things in the book of Amos we really just scratched the surface but wanted to give us a few things of encouragement hopefully and some help so I'm gonna walk us back through these observations and the questions give us an opportunity this is the time where you can reflect and you can respond in your seat you're welcome to come forward and use the altar if you feel more comfortable doing that this is a time where if you do not know Jesus and this stuff is kind of strange and weird and I don't understand it were they talking about obedience were they talking about submission were they talking about with following Jesus with my life we would love to explain that to you I'll be down here Pastor Bailey be down here we love to explain those things to you and another person that you know that's a believer they could explain that to you as well but let's walk through these observations again and that will help guide our prayer time for today God's name and character are perfect and demand my obedience so where's God calling me to obey right now maybe that's somewhere specifically in a relationship maybe that's with a thing something you need to do less of or something that you need to do more of to follow him more closely it's about his name and his character it's about his name and his character and giving him the worth that he's due and that's where obedience comes in so where's God calling me to obey him right now I want you to be to do that to be obedient in that area he's been all over me this week as I've been studying for this like okay David you gotta you gotta deal with this we've got like an outstanding thing going on here we need to talk about this and so if that's the case with you definitely get that settled today the second thing returning to God means despising pride and lining up with his command so so where do you have pride in your life that God's wanting to root out and where can you be more curious to where God can input that in there and remind you that hey it's good to be curious it's good to to realize you don't know everything and be teachable that's a good thing so where in what area of life does God want you to be more curious returning to him despising pride lining up with his commands and number three not hearing God speak is a terrible thing so let's listen to him and live where's God calling me to listen to him better maybe we know exactly where it is but we just haven't followed through that's that's a great challenge and opportunity for all of us to do that specific action today talk with somebody that God's been pushing you to talk with say goodbye to this habit that's just been just been whooping you a little bit it's not nobody everybody knows it's not beneficial but you just have not had that extra push to maybe get rid of it and stop doing it where's God calling me to listen better to him today so I'll give you guys a couple moments before I pray for us all and you guys again are welcome to stay there allow God to deal with your heart there you're welcome to come forward and use the altar for a time of prayer but I'll give us just a few moments of just the keyboard playing and then I will pray for us together.