1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,640 Its name is Shufut. 2 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:13,920 It means shoe for the foot. 3 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:22,720 A path of a Yanomami village in the Brazilian rainforest. 4 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:31,960 In the book Spirits of the Rainforest, Shufut tells what his life was like before turning 5 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:37,320 to God as a savior and lord. 6 00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:41,160 What was his life? 7 00:00:41,160 --> 00:00:47,640 War between villages, murder, violence and constant fear. 8 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:57,840 At the base of this violence, there was a religious vision of the world that we could call 9 00:00:57,840 --> 00:00:58,840 animism. 10 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:08,360 A belief in which the world is filled with good spirits and bad spirits. 11 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:13,800 And we have to seek to protect ourselves from bad spirits. 12 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:31,000 And the means for the Yanomami to protect their village is not the path that speaks to 13 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:40,560 the bad spirits, that makes sacrifices, interventions to protect their village. 14 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:54,400 But Shufut tells us in this book that when he was charming the spirits with little s, 15 00:01:54,400 --> 00:02:03,920 oh I'm sorry, little o, they always tell him not to approach the spirit with a capital 16 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:11,480 O, because it would destroy three Shufuts and your whole village. 17 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:18,240 But Shufut realized that it was a lie. 18 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:29,160 The spirit was the real living God who had given his Son to open the way in the jungle 19 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:36,640 of life so that we could enter the house of God, the spirits lied. 20 00:02:36,640 --> 00:02:48,560 When Shufut and others came to faith in Christ, everything changed in the villages of his region. 21 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:56,720 It was even a surprise for the anthropologists who were disappointed by the work of missionaries 22 00:02:56,720 --> 00:02:59,600 with the Yanomami. 23 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:10,960 The wars have stopped, the mothers have stopped, the rapes and the bad treatments inflicted 24 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:13,080 on children have stopped. 25 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:24,600 I want to propose this morning that our secular culture is similar to the enemy religion of 26 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:27,040 the Yanomami. 27 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:37,280 A religion is a set of beliefs through which we interpret the world around us. 28 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:47,920 The secularism is the religious beliefs that God does not exist and if he exists, he is 29 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:52,080 not relevant to our development. 30 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:58,880 Our evolution depends entirely on our human ingenuity. 31 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:04,320 It is a whole network of religious beliefs. 32 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:14,080 Our public systems, our public schools that say they are not religious, we cannot have 33 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:18,720 information without the foundation of a vision of the world. 34 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:22,480 This is exactly what is propagated in our schools. 35 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:29,360 It is a vision of the world, a religious, a series, a network of beliefs that is the 36 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:34,480 foundation of their perception of life. 37 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:44,600 And like the shamans, the enemy shamans who see that human impoverishment is better achieved 38 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:52,640 when they do not communicate with the only true spirit, the E. 39 00:04:52,640 --> 00:05:00,000 The people of our secular culture think that the development is better achieved when we 40 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,520 do not approach God. 41 00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:11,040 That we live like in a sanitary laboratory, but it is not life. 42 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:13,440 It is too narrow. 43 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:21,760 We are cut off from the history of humanity and the future in our secular culture when 44 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:28,920 every minute, how many of us have a watch, a cell phone, how many times, we count every 45 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:33,080 minute minutiously, but we forget eternity. 46 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:38,560 This is secular culture. 47 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:48,920 The search for peace in society through secularism does not happen without seeking God. 48 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:52,160 Shufut is wiser. 49 00:05:52,160 --> 00:06:08,040 The social injustices that we try to repair, the violence, the inequality in society, the 50 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:13,840 injustice, it is important we must fix them. 51 00:06:13,840 --> 00:06:18,560 But we cannot do that without God. 52 00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:27,720 So the need that I want to address this morning with you, and this is the title of this preaching, 53 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:30,840 searching for the eternal and living. 54 00:06:30,840 --> 00:06:34,040 Searching for the eternal and living. 55 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:41,320 For you who are not yet Christians this morning, let's seek the meaning of turning to Him for 56 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:43,440 the first time. 57 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:54,600 Turn to your sins and turn to God for the fulfillment, for life. 58 00:06:54,600 --> 00:07:02,160 For us who are Christians here, we need to hear this preaching too. 59 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:05,360 Searching for the eternal and living. 60 00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:12,760 This means we must turn to our sins, we must turn to how secularism has invaded our own 61 00:07:12,760 --> 00:07:19,920 thoughts, our own habits, how many times we have spent three hours on our phones and 62 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:24,120 we say we do not have time to read his words. 63 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:29,920 We are invaded, saturated, supersaturated by secularism. 64 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:39,760 We must turn to the Lord, we must seek the Lord and to live, let's seek the eternal 65 00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:40,760 and living. 66 00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:48,360 So we are in the series, in the book of Amos, which was written by Amos, a shepherd, and 67 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:51,920 in the 8th century BC. 68 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:59,120 And the first two preachings were six things that God hates. 69 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:07,080 He targeted all nations around Israel, but the people of God did not spare the judgment 70 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:08,080 of God. 71 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:16,560 In His grace, He sends messengers, that is grace, that is a prophet, a messenger, to 72 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:23,040 call upon the people of God to return, to seek the eternal to live. 73 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:33,880 Today we are going to look together at the central section that covers three messages 74 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:34,880 of judgment. 75 00:08:34,880 --> 00:08:42,240 Look with me in your Bibles and I hope you can find the book of Amos. 76 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:45,360 Sometimes it's difficult for me too. 77 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:50,840 Amos is in the middle of our Bibles. 78 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:59,480 We will start with chapter 3 verse 1 until chapter 5 verse 17. 79 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:08,160 In chapter 3 verse 1, chapter 4 verse 1 and chapter 5 verse 1, it says this sentence, 80 00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:10,160 listen to this word. 81 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:18,080 We see that we have three sections here, listen to this word. 82 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:25,320 The word listen, the verb, is an important word in the imperative form for the people 83 00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:29,440 of God, for Israel, which was far from God. 84 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:34,160 And it means to hear, understand and spread. 85 00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:41,360 So for the original public, it was in the danger zone. 86 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:51,960 So there were messages of warning at the same time as the Lord had sent. 87 00:09:51,960 --> 00:09:54,240 They were in the danger zone. 88 00:09:54,240 --> 00:10:03,040 They were so far from the Word of God that they no longer seemed to be worried. 89 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:10,080 Their distance from the Word of God manifested itself in two things. 90 00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:16,440 A corrupted cult and social injustices. 91 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:22,240 A corrupted cult and social injustices. 92 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:31,880 They needed to listen to what God said because they were enough. 93 00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:35,480 So God said enough is enough. 94 00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:38,800 So listen to me, I am your God. 95 00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:42,680 So there are three sections that we will look at together. 96 00:10:42,680 --> 00:10:48,440 The first is chapter 3 verse 1 to 4 verse 5. 97 00:10:48,440 --> 00:10:56,520 The title is this, we seek the eternal before it comes to judgment. 98 00:10:56,520 --> 00:11:02,760 I repeat, we seek the eternal before it comes to judgment. 99 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:09,200 Chapter 3 verse 1 to 4 verse 5. 100 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:13,040 The second, chapter 4 verse 6 to 13. 101 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:23,880 If we persist in rejecting God's warnings, we will have problems. 102 00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:29,240 If we persist in rejecting God's warnings, we will have problems. 103 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:36,960 And the third and last is this, we seek the eternal and live. 104 00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:39,640 We seek the eternal and live. 105 00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:42,400 Chapter 5 verse 1 to 7. 106 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:49,080 So the first section, chapter 3 verse 1 to 4, 5. 107 00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:52,760 We seek the eternal before it comes to judgment. 108 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:58,480 We see the first word, listen to this word. 109 00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:05,880 We don't have time to read each verse in this section of scripture. 110 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:15,160 So I hope you will read word by word what we will discuss today. 111 00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:21,960 But verses 1 and 2 of chapter 3 help us to place ourselves in the argument. 112 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:26,280 Listen to this word that the eternal says, before it comes to judgment. 113 00:12:26,280 --> 00:12:29,080 He has said this before in his speech. 114 00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:39,120 We see it and then look to the 115 00:12:39,120 --> 00:12:47,640 next, he said not to get a tongue out and say 116 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:48,640 the eternal. 117 00:12:48,640 --> 00:12:49,760 Come on, listen, Islam. 118 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:57,760 understand and answer. Israel is called to listen carefully to the message of the Eternal. 119 00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:07,760 The basis of this message is that the Eternal chose them. He saved Israel 120 00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:16,760 from slavery in Egypt. It is his people. He chose to be their God and that they be 121 00:13:16,760 --> 00:13:23,760 his people. So it is the language of the alliance, the language of commitment, the 122 00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:35,760 commitment of a relationship between God and his people. The consequence of being 123 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:44,760 in a relationship with God is that God wants us to live for him and Israel was not 124 00:13:44,760 --> 00:13:55,760 living for God. So he said that I must, in love, in my grace, send a punishment. 125 00:13:55,760 --> 00:14:07,760 Not because you are not my people, but because I love you. I love you Israel. I have been 126 00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:17,760 a father for 13 years, almost 14 years. It is not easy. Sometimes it is complex, but 127 00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:26,760 we must, we cannot let our parents, we know that we cannot let our children do 128 00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:34,760 what they want sometimes. In love, we send warnings, advice, we listen to them, 129 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:41,760 we leave. This is what God did with his people by sending the prophets. It is a discussion, 130 00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:49,760 it is a reminder, it is the grace of God in the ancient alliance. In Hebrews chapter 131 00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:56,760 12, it says that if we are the children of God, sometimes there are the punishments 132 00:14:56,760 --> 00:15:04,760 that come from our Heavenly Father. It is a lie that we are, in fact, his children. Sometimes 133 00:15:04,760 --> 00:15:11,760 if we continue to live in sin, the Lord sends us little reminders, it is not my 134 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:21,760 voice for you, I want you to return to me. We see in the next section, chapter 3, 3 to 8, 135 00:15:21,760 --> 00:15:30,760 in fact, it is a series of statements explaining the cause and the effect. Basically, the 136 00:15:30,760 --> 00:15:40,760 formulation is, this does not happen unless this happens first. So there are several 137 00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:53,760 examples, but in verse 6, it becomes more intense. Verse 6, do we feel, chapter 3, 138 00:15:53,760 --> 00:16:01,760 verse 6, do we feel the storm in a city without the people being in the scary? 139 00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:11,760 Of course, yes, alone we ignore a warning storm. Next sentence, does 140 00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:19,760 misfortune happen in a city without the Eternal being the author? In our secular 141 00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:30,760 vision, we think that everything happens without God, but it is not the biblical vision. 142 00:16:30,760 --> 00:16:41,760 There is no wall between God and creation. Does misfortune happen in a city 143 00:16:41,760 --> 00:16:52,760 without the Eternal being the author? No. Even misfortune comes from God, in his wisdom, 144 00:16:52,760 --> 00:17:01,760 in his providence, to accomplish his own plans, to achieve a goal, the best goal for 145 00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:10,760 humanity, is to be close to God. Verse 7, because the Eternal Lord does nothing 146 00:17:10,760 --> 00:17:20,760 without revealing his secret to his servants, the prophets, the red lion who would not be 147 00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:29,760 afraid. The Eternal Lord speaks who would not prophesy. So the idea, Amos 148 00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:36,760 sends a prophecy because the lion, the Eternal, has reddened. That is the cause. 149 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:44,760 The cause is the Eternal reddened like the lion. We spoke in the last 150 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:54,760 preaching, our vision of God must not be minimized. God is not the Father in heaven. 151 00:17:54,760 --> 00:18:02,760 God is not. He is much more than that. His love is much more than your 152 00:18:02,760 --> 00:18:14,760 grandfather has for you, but he is holy. I like a lot Jordan Peterson, but in my opinion, 153 00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:23,760 he aligns more with Stoicism than with a vision of the biblical world. In Stoicism, 154 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:32,760 it is discipline that is the answer to all our problems. But the God of the Bible 155 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:45,760 comes into contact with us. He loves us. And we love God. The Bible is the prophetic 156 00:18:45,760 --> 00:18:55,760 of God for us in this time before the day of judgment last. Are we listening? Are we 157 00:18:55,760 --> 00:19:01,760 listening to what God says? The Eternal is described as a lion who reddened. He sees 158 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:10,760 everything. He is powerful and he acts. Is that our vision of God? In our secular 159 00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:20,760 era, who says that God does not exist and he is not relevant. Is our culture wrong? 160 00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:31,760 But yes. But yes. Chapter 3 verse 9 to 10. The witnesses are called. What are the 161 00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:43,760 witnesses? Verse 9 in fact, it is Asdod Egypt. Asdod was the main city of the Philistines. 162 00:19:43,760 --> 00:19:50,760 We have the Philistines and the Egyptians who were well known for their atrocity against 163 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:59,760 humanity. And God says, the Philistines come, the Egyptians come to see my people. The injustice 164 00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:07,760 is enormous in the center of my people. Look, they are worse than you. And look what 165 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:16,760 the lion will do to me. The confusion. Look in the middle of verse 9 and see what a huge 166 00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:23,760 confusion in the middle of it. That's what God says to the Philistines and the Egyptians. 167 00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:31,760 The confusion in the middle of it. What violence in its breast. Verse 10. They do not know 168 00:20:31,760 --> 00:20:41,760 how to act with rightness, says the Eternal. We have confusion, violence and ignorance. 169 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:50,760 Confusion, violence, ignorance. Which has even surpassed Egypt and the Philistines. 170 00:20:50,760 --> 00:21:02,760 Confusion, violence, ignorance. Are everywhere in our culture. Our culture has left behind 171 00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:12,760 it, like Israel, the foundation of our morality, the factory of our morality. It is the word 172 00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:21,760 of God. There is a book that I want to read and my wife is reading. It's Dominion. It's 173 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:29,760 written, not by a Christian, but by a historian who wants to show you how the Gospel is 174 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:38,760 the foundation of Western culture. Jordan Peterson says the same thing. That the foundation 175 00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:48,760 of Western culture is the Bible. I studied English literature and what I learned 176 00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:57,760 at Waterloo University is that the Bible is the foundation of all literature. It takes 177 00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:08,760 themes and uses biblical themes. The secular project cannot solve these three problems 178 00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:18,760 of violence, confusion and ignorance. How many of our culture, how many people are 179 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:34,760 so stressed. They live in fear. Stress is at a higher level than ever. Let's look for 180 00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:43,760 the Eternal and let's live. Let's look for the Eternal and let's live. Blaise Pascal 181 00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:55,760 said that there is a hole in our hearts that only God can fill. We, the people of God, 182 00:22:55,760 --> 00:23:05,760 must be an example of justice. Israel failed in this passage here, but we, in the New 183 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:18,760 Alliance, we must be an example of justice. Next section, chapter 3, chapter 11 to 12. 184 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:30,760 Destruction is coming. Look with me at verse 12. Thus, by the Eternal, as the shepherd 185 00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:40,760 pulls out the lion's mouth, two legs or a golden ear, so will the children of Israel 186 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:48,760 who are sitting in Samaria, it is in the place of Israel, at the corner of a bed and on the 187 00:23:48,760 --> 00:24:01,760 carpet of Damascus. God will send a judgment in his love and his holiness that is just 188 00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:13,760 and measured in the crimes of Israel and there will be a small number that will come out. 189 00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:21,760 The rampant justice that reigned in Israel will bring a terrible judgment and that is 190 00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:38,760 exactly what happened in 722 BC when the Assyrians attacked Israel in 1 Kings 18, 9 to 12. 191 00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:50,760 Next section, chapter 3, verse 13 to 4, verse 5. There are two major subjects in this section. 192 00:24:50,760 --> 00:25:02,760 The first is the false religion that took place in Bethel and Gilgal. The second is 193 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:12,760 the women described as the cows of Bashan. The two subjects are linked. The first is the 194 00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:18,760 false religion in Bethel. So let me explain to you a little bit what the problem is. A 195 00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:24,760 little bit of context. At the time of the division of the kingdom of the north, Israel with the kingdom 196 00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:33,760 of the south, Judah, Jeroboam the first, wanted to prevent the inhabitants of the kingdom of 197 00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:42,760 the north from going to Jerusalem for religious feasts because the temple was there. So what 198 00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:57,760 did he do? He founded Bethel. He built two gold vaults and established two sanctuaries 199 00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:07,760 on his territory. One in the north and the other in Bethel in the south. Two gold vaults 200 00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:18,760 to prevent people from going to Jerusalem in Israel. Terrible. Terrible. So what does 201 00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:26,760 God say in chapter 3, verse 13? Listen, declare this at the house of Jacob, says the Lord. 202 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:38,760 The Lord of the armies, that's the title, God of the armies, says that God is a warrior God. He is strong. 203 00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:47,760 He acts. He doesn't have a kingdom that can face him. We saw in the last preachings, 204 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:55,760 he doesn't have the doors that are strong enough to prevent God from passing. He doesn't have 205 00:26:55,760 --> 00:27:03,760 the walls of defense that are strong enough to protect us from God's judgment. We must 206 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:14,760 seek, seek God to live. Verse 14 of chapter 3. The day I will pound Israel for its transgressions, 207 00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:21,760 I will strike on the hotels of Bethel. The horns of the hotel will be broken and will fall to 208 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:29,760 the ground. The horns of the hotel represent the place where people could find refuge and protection. 209 00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:44,760 God will break them. Go not to Bethel. Seek me. Seek me. Chapter 4, verse 1. Listen to this 210 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:55,760 word. So we are in the second message, second key phrase, so listen to this word. What does it say? 211 00:27:55,760 --> 00:28:06,760 Genesis 2, which is on the mountains of Samaria, who oppressed the miserable. So now, 212 00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:12,760 it's the social injustice that is the problem. It's not just a corrupted cult, but it's the social 213 00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:24,760 injustice. And it's the women here who are the objects of this message. You who oppress 214 00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:32,760 the miserable, who crush the natives, and who tell your wives to bring and eat. Go to Bethel 215 00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:41,760 and sin. Go to Gilgal and sin more. Offer your sacrifices every morning and your 216 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:51,760 deems every three days. We see that social injustice is linked with a corrupted cult. 217 00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:59,760 The women here are guilty of complacency towards themselves, depending on the poor and 218 00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:07,760 the helpless in society. Oppressing the miserable, the miserable are those who lack material 219 00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:17,760 wealth and social status. Through their actions, these cultivated women have become the 220 00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:26,760 oppressors of the working class. They insist on having a higher standard of living. Their 221 00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:35,760 demands push their mayors to neglect the rights of others. Having abandoned the Word of God, 222 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:43,760 these women are governed by the charnel passions, who, always when they are not corrected 223 00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:54,760 by the Word of God, lead to the corruption of life and society. Let's look for the eternal 224 00:29:54,760 --> 00:30:06,760 and living. These women and their mayors have not sought the eternal, and this has led to corruption 225 00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:22,760 in the cult and in the community. We are the people of God. We, like Israel, are the people 226 00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:34,760 of the New Covenant. And it is our responsibility to use our wealth to honor the Lord by taking 227 00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:44,760 care of those in need in the family of the Church. We are a family. The offense that 228 00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:53,760 God targets here, of these women and these men, was because it was against what God wanted 229 00:30:53,760 --> 00:31:01,760 for His chosen people, which must be an example to nations, not an example of oppression, 230 00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:12,760 but an example of justice. My great-grandfather, Thomas Tobin, was a very rich man, an editor 231 00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:25,760 of a great Toronto newspaper. He had a big castle. But his wife, my great-grandmother, 232 00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:40,760 was an alcoholic who spent most of her time in her bedroom drinking. My mother often remembered 233 00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:50,760 that when she was a little girl, my mother was born in Montreal, she grew up in Rosemere, 234 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:59,760 when she was a little girl, her grandfather took her for a ride in a car to visit 235 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:12,760 various poor neighborhoods and bring things. He opened the car and told my mother to stay 236 00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:18,760 in the car. He never told my mother what he was bringing in the house, but after, my 237 00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:28,760 mother learned that it was money, it was food, it was everything that poor people 238 00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:48,760 needed. When great-grandfather Tobin died, he had nothing left. He had given everything 239 00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:56,760 to the poor. His castle, there was a family who was looking for a big enough house for 240 00:32:56,760 --> 00:33:03,760 their big families. They didn't have enough money to pay for the house. And my grandfather 241 00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:14,760 asked, how much do they have? He sold the house for that price. How do we use our 242 00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:29,760 wealth, our power and our energy with the time we have? We must be an example for Quebec, 243 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:39,760 for Pierre-François. It is possible that you have been weak and helpless and therefore 244 00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:52,760 a victim of injustice. Abuse in your childhood, emotionally, physically, sexually. It is terrible. 245 00:33:52,760 --> 00:34:04,760 Come to me or the other pastors or our diaconess Valérie Picard. We have women, men who can 246 00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:14,760 help you. Maybe it was an unfair treatment by a boss at work. Maybe you were treated 247 00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:22,760 unjustly by a teacher at school because of your belief in God. Our passage today reminds 248 00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:31,760 us that the Eternal sees and will act. It is not in us to exercise vengeance, but in the 249 00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:42,760 Eternal. Christ was abused, abused. He is in solidarity with us in the suffering of injustice. 250 00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:53,760 I want to say something else. Karl Marx is not a corner on the language of oppression. 251 00:34:53,760 --> 00:35:05,760 It comes from the Bible too. We must be a people of justice, linked with the living God, 252 00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:16,760 to be an example of justice in our society. The second section is in chapters 4, 6 to 13. 253 00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:24,760 If we persist in rejecting God's warnings, we will have problems. In this section, the Eternal 254 00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:32,760 reminds Israel of all the warnings it has addressed in the past. I will just go through 255 00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:41,760 this briefly. We have famine, drought, bad harvest, plague and destruction like those 256 00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:54,760 who hit Sodom and Gomorrah. It was the red flags in his love that he sent to his people. 257 00:35:54,760 --> 00:36:08,760 In his grace, in his love. Stop, stop not going in this direction. Return to me. Verse 258 00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:18,760 11 of chapter 4. I have troubled you like Sodom and Gomorrah, that God destroyed. And 259 00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:28,760 you were like a rod torn from the fire. And I forgot to say that after each red flag, 260 00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:36,760 the same sentence was said. Despite this, you have not returned to me, says the Eternal. 261 00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:46,760 We, his people, must return to him. If there is injustice among us, we must return to 262 00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:57,760 him. We must seek the Eternal to live. Verse 13. We do the last part of this 263 00:36:57,760 --> 00:37:07,760 section, it ends with a warning and a magnificent reminder of who God is. Verse 13. 264 00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:17,760 For here is he who formed the mountains and created the wind. So God is the Creator. 265 00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:27,760 In our secular culture, he does not know how the universe is created. And he does not know 266 00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:37,760 what happens after death. But we know, we know, the secular vision is too narrow and 267 00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:47,760 too superficial. It is not up to us, and I want to be clear on this point, it is not that 268 00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:56,760 we must be impolite with people in our culture, because we are, we have the same 269 00:37:56,760 --> 00:38:08,760 tendency, we have the same tendency to live like secular people who think that God has 270 00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:18,760 nothing to do with my daily life. But it is not true. God is the Creator. Look at the 271 00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:25,760 next sentence. And who makes men know his thoughts? God knows our thoughts. God 272 00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:36,760 knows our thoughts. We must be kind. We must have discussions with our friends at school, 273 00:38:36,760 --> 00:38:46,760 at university, at work, in our neighborhood. Because their vision of the world is too narrow. 274 00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:53,760 Too narrow. They can never reach the fulfillment they are looking for. The best thing 275 00:38:53,760 --> 00:39:06,760 we can do in love for our neighbors is to talk in love and patience with the truth 276 00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:12,760 with our friends who are not Christians. Next sentence. The one who changes the 277 00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:21,760 horror in darkness, that means he can transform the rising sun in the darkness of judgment. 278 00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:28,760 Keep this sentence in mind because it will be reversed in a few verses. And who walks 279 00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:36,760 on the heights of the earth? His name is the eternal God of armies. The eternal name 280 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:46,760 means that God is above time and has no limits to his power and to the fulfillment 281 00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:55,760 of his will. The God of armies means that he is a warrior. And angels are his soldiers. 282 00:39:55,760 --> 00:40:05,760 And he never loses. More than 20 years ago, when I was at the Dallas seminar, I was 283 00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:12,760 a celebrity. I was in the top three of men. And one of my best friends, Mickey Klink, 284 00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:20,760 his name is Edward Klink III. He wrote one of the best commentaries on the Gospel of 285 00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:26,760 St. John. Believe me, he is very intelligent. He is a pastor in Illinois and now he has 286 00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:38,760 done his doctorate in Scotland. But also, he weighed 130 kilograms. He played football. 287 00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:51,760 He is very, very strong. But one of my friends, another man in the doctorate, Paul and I, 288 00:40:51,760 --> 00:41:01,760 we decided one evening, after a long day of study, we decided that if we took Mickey 289 00:41:01,760 --> 00:41:12,760 away from us, we could win a pair of họ fighting each other. We entered Mickey's 290 00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:22,760 room and I still remember him reading on his bed. He started laughing at it when pranked 291 00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:26,760 I jumped on him with all my strength. 292 00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:31,760 But literally, in about four seconds, 293 00:41:31,760 --> 00:41:37,760 Mickey immobilized us and submitted two men of my size 294 00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:40,760 with incredible strength. 295 00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:43,760 We were all laughing. 296 00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:47,760 I remember his hands were on our two elbows 297 00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:49,760 doing this. 298 00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:53,760 I remember the wall like this. 299 00:41:57,760 --> 00:42:04,760 What I mean here is that it was nonsense for me and Paul 300 00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:07,760 to think that we could win against Mickey. 301 00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:15,760 How much more is it nonsense for us humans to think that we can win 302 00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:19,760 by opposing the Almighty God? 303 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:27,760 Do we take God's warnings into account? 304 00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:31,760 I know we don't want to talk about COVID anymore, but let me 305 00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:32,760 for a moment. 306 00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:36,760 COVID was allowed by God. 307 00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:39,760 It destabilized the world. 308 00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:43,760 It's a call to return to God. 309 00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:47,760 Are we ready to meet God? 310 00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:51,760 Not Christians here. 311 00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:55,760 Thank you for being here. 312 00:42:55,760 --> 00:43:00,760 The Bible teaches us that there is a day of judgment to come, 313 00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:03,760 and we must be ready for that day. 314 00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:08,760 Our secular society counts meticulously every second 315 00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:11,760 by forgetting eternity. 316 00:43:11,760 --> 00:43:17,760 Our society proudly thinks that it can prosper without God, 317 00:43:17,760 --> 00:43:23,760 while it can't explain how the world was created or what 318 00:43:23,760 --> 00:43:25,760 happens after our death. 319 00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:30,760 The Bible answers these two existential questions and gives us 320 00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:35,760 the meaning that we all seek in our lives. 321 00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:40,760 For us Christians, in Hebrews 12, verse 6, it says that 322 00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:46,760 the Lord chastises the one he loves, his children. 323 00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:52,760 He does that in love for us. 324 00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:58,760 The last section is this, chapter 5, 1 to 17, 325 00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:01,760 Let us seek the eternal and we shall live. 326 00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:07,760 In this third and last message, we have a funeral song 327 00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:09,760 sung by the Eternal himself. 328 00:44:09,760 --> 00:44:13,760 It brings about the sadness of Israel. 329 00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:17,760 In the first verse, we see this important phrase, 330 00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:21,760 listen to this word, this complaint, 331 00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:26,760 the word complaint here is the word for a funeral song 332 00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:29,760 that I pronounce on you, house of Israel. 333 00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:33,760 It is God who sings here, verse 2 of chapter 5, 334 00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:36,760 It has fallen and will not be raised again. 335 00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:39,760 The house of Israel is laid on the ground, 336 00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:41,760 no one will raise it again. 337 00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:44,760 The verb listen is imperative, 338 00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:51,760 as we said, it is to be careful, to understand, to answer. 339 00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:59,760 Verse 4, that the Eternal speaks in the house of Israel, 340 00:44:59,760 --> 00:45:03,760 the verb changes here, it is no longer listened. 341 00:45:03,760 --> 00:45:09,760 What is it? Seek, seek me and you shall live. 342 00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:16,760 Do not seek Bethel, I will break the horns of the hotel in Bethel. 343 00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:20,760 Do not go to Gilgal either, do not go to Beersheba, 344 00:45:20,760 --> 00:45:25,760 because Gilgal will be captive and Bethel will become a ruin. 345 00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:32,760 All false religious sanctuaries will be destroyed by eternal light. 346 00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:36,760 So do not seek refuge there. 347 00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:41,760 Israel has only one chance to survive this massive defeat 348 00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:44,760 by an authentic repentance. 349 00:45:44,760 --> 00:45:49,760 The Eternal says, seek me and live. 350 00:45:49,760 --> 00:45:57,760 Seek means to make knowledge of the Eternal our priority. 351 00:45:57,760 --> 00:46:00,760 To know it and obey it, 352 00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:04,760 the call is not to find something lost, 353 00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:08,760 but to pursue someone or something without relapse, 354 00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:15,760 to commit all your life to find God in order to stay close to Him. 355 00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:20,760 It is a call to pursue God with passion. 356 00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:27,760 Verse 6, seek the Eternal and you shall live. 357 00:46:27,760 --> 00:46:36,760 If we read verse 8 to 11, it is a vision of God, remarkable. 358 00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:39,760 He created the Pleiades and the Orient, 359 00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:42,760 He changed darkness into horror. 360 00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:45,760 It is reversed from what we saw in chapter 4.13. 361 00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:51,760 In chapter 4.13 it says that He changes horror into darkness, 362 00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:56,760 but here it says that He changes darkness into horror. 363 00:46:56,760 --> 00:47:02,760 It says that the Eternal is the only one who can transform the morning into darkness of judgment. 364 00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:06,760 Chapter 4.13, but here it is reversed. 365 00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:15,760 The Eternal is the only one who can transform darkness into light of the morning sun. 366 00:47:15,760 --> 00:47:25,760 Seek the Eternal and live. 367 00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:27,760 In fact, it ends. 368 00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:32,760 There are too many things to say in these two chapters and a half. 369 00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:36,760 I encourage you to reread each word. 370 00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:39,760 10 and 11, it starts. 371 00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:41,760 In fact, it is the answer of Israel. 372 00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:49,760 It is a sadness, a lamentation in response. 373 00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:54,760 God predicts what Israel will do. 374 00:47:54,760 --> 00:48:09,760 What is built on injustice cannot last. 375 00:48:09,760 --> 00:48:14,760 In verse 14, seek good and not evil, so that you may live, 376 00:48:14,760 --> 00:48:20,760 and that the Eternal, the God of the armies, may be with you as you say. 377 00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:27,760 Eize the evil and love the good, let justice reign at the door. 378 00:48:27,760 --> 00:48:39,760 We see that seeking the Eternal is to seek justice in the community. 379 00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:43,760 How do we seek the Eternal? 380 00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:48,760 We seek the Eternal in His Word and in His Prayer. 381 00:48:48,760 --> 00:48:53,760 But because we are so affected by secularism, 382 00:48:53,760 --> 00:49:00,760 sometimes we think that prayer is a waste of time, or to read His Word. 383 00:49:00,760 --> 00:49:02,760 But it is not true. 384 00:49:02,760 --> 00:49:07,760 It is a lie, a bit like Schubert has seen. 385 00:49:07,760 --> 00:49:13,760 It is not that he must move away from the true spirit, 386 00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:20,760 because the true life is in the spirit of this true God. 387 00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:26,760 Prayer is the best expression of faith. 388 00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:36,760 And to read His Word is the best way to seek the Eternal. 389 00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:46,760 Seeking the Lord is the answer to all our problems, the deepest, personally and socially. 390 00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:51,760 I have the impression that we have changed. 391 00:49:51,760 --> 00:50:01,760 We rarely seek pastors, and more so psychologists or actors, 392 00:50:01,760 --> 00:50:07,760 to alleviate our psychological problems. 393 00:50:07,760 --> 00:50:13,760 But come to us, your pastors. 394 00:50:13,760 --> 00:50:16,760 Come to us. 395 00:50:16,760 --> 00:50:20,760 Come to your sisters and brothers in the Church. 396 00:50:20,760 --> 00:50:29,760 Because the best way to remove psychological problems is to seek God. 397 00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:33,760 Sometimes we need help to seek the Eternal, 398 00:50:33,760 --> 00:50:38,760 to share our troubles with our brothers and sisters. 399 00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:42,760 Secularism counts every minute, but forgets eternity. 400 00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:51,760 It thinks it can solve its problems without God, violence, injustice and ignorance. 401 00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:54,760 But it is not true. 402 00:50:54,760 --> 00:51:06,760 In fact, people who spread secularism are like the chamomiles of Yanomami, 403 00:51:06,760 --> 00:51:14,760 who cut the villages from the true solution. 404 00:51:14,760 --> 00:51:19,760 Seek the Eternal and you will live. 405 00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:24,760 Knowing the Eternal is to truly live life. 406 00:51:24,760 --> 00:51:31,760 Justice and peace in society is in God. 407 00:51:31,760 --> 00:51:34,760 It is in God, seeking God. 408 00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:41,760 Knowing the Eternal is the only way for us to fully live life. 409 00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:50,760 Amen.