Amos, my guess is a minor prophet that was probably
not on your devotional, daily devotional bingo
card. One, a prophet we don't necessarily spend
a whole lot of time with, but a minor prophet
who had a very, very tough job. And I'm going
to set the stage, right? So God himself, probably
in a way we wouldn't recognize. What if he came
in today? or last Sunday or our Easter service
or our candlelight service or whatever, goes
through our worship service, gets up on the stage
and says, Munster Church, I hate all of this.
I don't know how we would take it. I'd probably
just go fetal, right? As the pastor of the church,
I'd fall down, start sucking my thumb and go,
I knew I should have done something else with
my life, right? How would we as a body take that?
Just let that sit. And if you have courage to
answer, I know it's aggressive, but that's the
minor prophets. A lot of times they had to go
in and give a very aggressive message of the
Lord to the people of Israel, to the Munster
churches of that day and today. And that's what
Amos is getting and kind of starting us off with.
What kind of reflection would you have? If after
I gave the benediction, probably before the band
played the last song, God just came up and said,
by the way, I hate all of this. How do you think
you'd react? Why? Okay, so Nick would be the
first one to be probably turned to salt. Okay,
you'd speak up against God. Why? Done. All right.
No, I don't know. Anyone else? Hurt. Ooh, yeah.
You can join me on the ground sucking our thumbs.
Anyone else? Devastated. Okay. Hurt. Multiplied.
Absolutely. Defensive. Okay. Wow. To the Almighty.
All right. Father, we pray for Brad. But understand,
anyone else? Balcony. How would you be feeling?
You guys probably, I mean, I don't know if he'd
be looking up to you or just over here, right?
But some of you probably have already left. But
in the balcony, one or two, I hate all of this.
Disappointed, right? Because Mark's the sound
guy. God's probably looking right at him first,
right? And so understand that what God means
by this, what Amos had to say this to the people
of Israel, it had nothing to do with the music.
Evan, you're safe, right? It had nothing to do
with the building, okay? Building grounds, you're
safe. It had nothing to do with the sermon length.
I'm still fetal, but I'm safe. Okay? The worship
itself, it was us, collectively. This is exactly
what happens in the book of Amos. If Hosea showed
us a God who pursues wanderers, and Joel showed
us a God who restores what is ruined, Amos shows
us a God who refuses to be worshipped without
something specific. And this makes God angry.
The worship that makes God angry is when we worship
without justice in our hearts individually and
collectively. This is the uncomfortable truth
of the Chesed we're going to learn about today.
God's steadfast love does not tolerate a divided
life. And grace that saves also transforms through
that division. And Amos forced to ask the dangerous
question. So we're going to start it today. Right
in the beginning. What if our worship sounds
faithful, but our lives contradict that worship?
I know, it's heavy. I already warned you. But
let's work through it. So first, who is Amos?
Amos, minor prophet, God sends an outsider. Amos
7, 14. Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah,
I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I
was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs.
Just an average guy. That he was an outsider.
He did not get that call of prophet, per se.
He was not from the Levitical line. He really
had no credentials to go in and speak to Israel.
But as we've learned, throughout these sermon
series, God uses the ordinary for the extraordinary.
Yet, Amos prophesies around 760 BC, during the
reign of... reign of King Jeroboam II, and at
this point, the snapshot of Israel economically
booming, politically secure, but spiritually
hollow. When you think of a hollowness, whether
in a tree, what does that mean? If a tree is
hollow, there is what? Nothing inside, right?
Though it may look like a tree, it's hollow inside,
and the fear for hollow trees Is that even a
slight breeze can knock them over. Simple things.
One of my boys running into it can destroy it.
If it's hollow. That's not asking you guys to
try. Spiritually hollow. In this season of Israel.
They had the wealthy elites. The borders were
expanding. Impressive religious festivals. Every
day was like some of our top worship services.
Whatever that means. And God sends Amos, not
a trained prophet, but a shepherd, a fig farmer,
and an outsider from Judah. Why? Because prosperity
has blinded Israel to their sin. Things were
going so well, they forgot about Yahweh. Something
they've done over and over and over again. And
if we're being honest, something we do constantly.
When our life stinks, the bank account's in negative,
we cry out to God. When everything's good, We
tend to forget them. And God's hesed refuses
to let injustice hide behind religion. Behind
the way that people are talking the talk, walking
the walk. There's a hollowness there. And God
comes in hot. He comes in like a roaring lion.
Because God will not, has not, will not, and
will never ignore injustice. Hear that. God will
not ignore injustice. Right? So this is our second
point. The roaring lion. Amos 1, chapter 2. Sorry.
Chapter 1, verse 2. And he said, the Lord roars
from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem.
The pastors of the shepherds mourn and the top
of Carmel withers. Right? Mount Carmel. It withers.
This is a picture of God's. Anger. Things are
not going well behind the scenes. Friends, we
all have PhDs in this. When things are not going
well, we know how to make it look that way, whether
in person or online. We know how to do it. The
book opens not with comfort, but with a warning.
Like I've said, minor prophets, get in, do the
job, get out. He comes in hot. Amos begins by
announcing judgment on Israel's enemies. Damascus,
Gaza, Tyre, Edom. Israel cheers. They think,
another great day in the Lord. Yahweh's got our
backs. When we remember him, Yahweh's got our
backs. But Amos isn't done. Amos, yes, calls
out judgment for all the outsiders, so to speak.
Then turns right at Israel. I liken this. Maybe
when you're growing up, you're in a group of
friends that maybe got in trouble about doing
something. I remember me and the guys from the
neighborhood. We all went to camp together. We
all got in trouble about something, and everyone
was brought in. All the moms and dads were brought
in. I look back on it and, like, all the dads
huddled up to see who was going to get, like,
the first licks in. And they just, they hit us
with, we're disappointed, never do this again,
all this kind of stuff. And then you knew it
wasn't done. Because, yes, everyone was together.
But, Kyle, what do you think it was like when
we all got to our own homes? Terrifying, right?
This is coming from a boy house. He's been through
this, I'm sure. It was very different when mom
and dad got us alone. We didn't see Jeff after
that. Just kidding. No, that didn't happen. But
understand that all of a sudden, Israel turns
to his own. This is different than mom and dad
going, I don't care what your friends do. I'm
not their parents, right? Absolutely. All of
a sudden, Israel gets brought home. And Amos
opens up. The cheering stops. Because Israel's
sins are now completely splayed before them.
And they're repeated throughout Amos. Israel's
sins. Exploiting the poor. Manipulating the courts.
Hoarding wealth. Crushing the needy. Living in
luxury while others suffer. Leave that up. This
is not accidental sin. This is all lifestyle.
Israel forgot their center. They lost who was
the one that created them and called them to
a people who gave them a book of rules that spoke
against doing all of this. But much like us,
we are Israelites of 2026. We fall into what
I'm going to call systemic. or systemic injustice.
This is Micah, right? Do justly, love mercy,
walk humbly. Sorry, Micah, that's weird. I have
Micah as one running squeeze, but there is a
prophet Micah, right? Do justly, love mercy,
walk humbly with our God. You come to me, Pastor,
what's the best way for me to live my life? I'm
going to start there. First, I'm going to start
with love the Lord your God with all your heart,
soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as
yourself. The greatest of these, right? Jesus
says that. Everything hangs on that. Well, how
do I walk that out? Do justly, love mercy, walk
humbly with your God. Well, how do I do that
practically? Don't do this. Friends, read this
over. Burn this into your mind. Again, not accidental
sin. Systemic injustice. This is the sins of
the heart and the sins of the body. Are you starting
to see why God might hate the worship? Because
people have the audacity to come for 90 minutes
maybe, one day a week, and lift up praises, sing
the songs, pretend to listen, all or whatever,
yet go out and live like this. I know we joke,
and we haven't made them in a while, but you
have the Munster Church bumper sticker. And I've
always said, if you drive like a jerk, please
don't put one of these on your car. Okay? That's
not a good witness. Right? And if for some reason
you find yourself, you know, giving everybody
the pinky as you drive, we should probably have
a conversation, okay? Because that's not a good
thing regardless of what stickers you have on,
you know, all of those kind of things. But please
don't do that. Amos makes this painfully clear.
Religious activity will never cancel out moral
failure. So it makes us different than the Catholics.
It makes us different than the understanding
of church history that if I do in the church,
it will magically erase what I do in the world.
Jesus comes to say no, and guess what? It was
even before Jesus. It was all throughout the
Old Testament. Because God makes it very clear
in Amos 5, I hate your feasts. Now that might
not slap as much as it should in 2026, right?
Because they're like, I hate your feasts. I don't
feast. You hate my Thanksgiving, God? Great.
Right? No, this is not what he means. Jump into
Amos 5. When worship is empty, Amos 5, 21 to
23. 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.
Micah, leave that up. It's pretty direct. But
let's kind of do a little bit of a 2026 kind
of commentary on some of this. I hate, I despise.
You can get that. You understand what that is.
That's the same in the Hebrew as it is in the
English, right? I hate. The funny thing is, is
the Hebrew kind of foundation for I hate and
I despise. The way Hebrew is written, it's more
in kind of the visual and the auditory in that
sense, right? It's hard to really find thesaurus
and dictionaries for the Hebrew per se. It's
more of kind of the experiencing the words, especially
learning it. It's an experience, right? And now
Evan goes fetal. But understand, I hate, I despise.
You should really look at this as God, as he's
saying it, he's turning his back on it. I'm not
even going to engage it. Those of you that are
married, you're in maybe an argument, heated
or not, with your spouse and you just went through
this laundry list of things and your spouse just
turns around and walks away. Don't look at your
spouse right now and make it weird. How are you
feeling when that happens? Maybe you've prepped
this. You've talked to yourself about this in
the car. You've talked to maybe some friends.
You've maybe emailed me about it and I pretended
to write you back. All of the things. And you
give this monologue and you know you have it.
And that person just, bloop, and walks away.
How are you feeling? Careful now, you're in the
church. How are you feeling? Frustrated. Okay,
let's start there, because that's really down
here, I feel like. Good answer. You got the ball
rolling, Doug. Again, you practiced this. You
knew you got them. This is gotcha marriage stuff,
right? Like, oh, man, after I just light them
up, they're going to want to sleep on the couch
for a year. Am I overdoing it? Maybe. I don't
know. How else are you feeling? Angry? Frustrated?
Come on, open it up, friends. Those have been
married for decades. How are you feeling? Rejected.
Yeah. Powerless. Interesting. Disrespected. Ooh,
said. Said with the voice of Randy DeVries. That
put chills in me. Wow. Okay. Whew. All the things.
You're also feeling injustice, aren't you? That's
exactly how God's feeling. By all the stuff.
I hate, I despise your feasts, meaning your gatherings.
This isn't couples club, okay? That's a great
thing. This isn't what he's talking about. All
the things you're doing for me, your feasts,
your solemn assemblies, your burnt offerings,
your grain offerings, your peace offerings, even
the noise of your songs. Even the harp. I hate
and despise them because of your heart. He's
cutting right there. One of the most shocking
passages in all of scripture. God rejects the
sacrifices, the songs, the assemblies. Why? Because
worship had become disconnected to following
his word. I liken this to verbal disrespect to
Carrie and I, yet their rooms are immaculate.
At that point, I don't even care if you're going
to be disrespectful. I don't care about your
room. I don't care about what you think you can
show me because I know your heart. This is exactly
what God is mad about. God is not anti -worship.
And God is not anti -worship. He's anti -hypocrisy.
What he's calling out is their heart. They are
hypocrites. We are hypocrites. And he's calling
out the church. Why? Because it's become disconnected.
Worship does not shape how we treat people. A
worship that does not shape how we treat people
isn't worship. It's a show. It's fake. And God
is doubling down. Unfortunately, this is a hard
look at Chesed. This is Chesed turned inside
out. Covenant love for God must produce covenant
faithfulness towards others. God covenants with
you. You understand what that means? That love
is there, not as a contract, but as a covenant.
How dare we love a world with a contract love
then? We are learning nothing from God's love.
Because justice, let it roll down, Amos said.
This is the heart of Amos, Amos 5 .24. But let
justice roll down like the waters, and righteousness
like an ever -flowing stream. Our righteousness,
our justice, talking the talk, walking the walk,
having the heart walk that out and talk that
out too is exactly what we're talking about.
Justice is not optional charity. Justice isn't,
oh, I gave that homeless person a dollar. This
is living a life of justice. This is covenant
faithfulness lived out publicly. How you live
your life. In scripture, we see justice and righteousness.
We're going to break it down this morning, okay?
Justice, righteousness. Let's go to the next
one. Justice is giving people what God says they
are due. Righteousness is living in right relationship
with God and neighbor. Together, they are the
visible fruit of chesed. This is how the world
tries to understand chesed through us. Ooh, that
church, they have decent, good worship, 90 minutes,
a sermon, okay? He won't put you to sleep, like,
whatever. But then they go out and live life
terribly towards people. They're all about themselves.
They want their pound of flesh. They don't forgive.
They forget the needy. They look down on the
widow and the orphan, all the things that the
Scriptures tell us to do opposite. That's why
grace... must produce justice. That's where we're
going next. Grace must produce justice. The meaning
behind this is you have been shown grace. How
dare you not show others grace? Well, pastor,
they really hurt me. Okay? And guess what? If
you are perfect in the situation, then you can
cast all the judgment in the world. Trick question.
None of us are. If we've been shown grace, we
must show grace. Because grace produces justice.
This is where the canons of Dort are going to
tie these two truths together. Grace 101. We
are saved by grace alone. Right? Head 3 and 4,
line 3. Humanity is incapable of good apart from
regeneration. You don't know what good living
is. I don't know what good living is without
the Holy Spirit at work in my life, without Jesus
as my Lord. One, seven, salvation rests entirely
on God's sovereign grace. We're going to unpack
that with high school today, that we are saved
by grace alone. Salvation rests entirely on God's
sovereign grace. You've been shown grace. We
must show grace to people. Israel's problem was
not in worship forms, but in the unregenerated
hearts hiding behind religion. I've been shown
grace. I'm going to worship the grace giver.
But I'm going to demand my pound of flesh every
other day of the week. Then you don't get it.
Grace 201. Grace always produces fruit. 3, 4,
11 through 12. God renews the will, making people
willing and able to live in obedience. Your best
understanding of grace in your life is showing
grace to others and obeying God's word. Okay,
pastor, we get it. We're terrible people, right?
How do we walk this out? The nice thing is I'm
a terrible person too, and we all have received
grace. So we must live. with grace -colored glasses.
Now that doesn't mean you don't hold people accountable.
That doesn't mean you don't ask for forgiveness
when you fall and when you sin. But especially
in the church, no matter how badly we've been
hurt, you've heard me say before, I'll say it
again, if you're in Christ, I'm in Christ, and
we have conflict, we can't come to resolution,
restoration, reconciliation. We can come to that
if we're in Christ. Yeah, we may not be BFFs
afterwards. We may not be on each other's Christmas
card list, and that's okay. But there is grace
found in faith. Let's pause here for one second.
What happens when they really hurt you? What
happens when you really fell, when I really fell,
when we are in the pit of it? It's hard to accept
because we don't think we're worthy of it. Friends,
Christ didn't go to the cross for no reason.
He went to the cross not because we've done so
many great things, but because the sin was so
great and we couldn't save ourselves. He went
to the cross. While we were still sinners, Christ
died for us. For the wages of sin is death. And
that was... A covenant none of us could walk
out ourselves. You have received grace and forgiveness.
I have received grace and forgiveness. And as
we declared in worship today, he remembers your
sin no more when that grace, when that forgiveness,
when that confession really happens. God goes,
you've been forgiven. Walk as one forgiven. There's
a lot of depth to the canons of Dort. And the
canons reject two things that our society loves
and even the church does subscribe to in a false
teaching kind of way. Moralism, the understanding
of earning salvation by works. The canons of
Dort helps us understand that that's bad theology.
It's a bad way to live life. Because what's going
to stop you from earning your way to God? Friends,
though we may want it, none of us want that job.
You don't want to be the creator and sustainer
of the universe. I don't like going to Aldi by
myself and making those decisions. Why in the
world would I want to have to do that for everybody
in the world? So it's not a moralism thing. Antinomialism.
You're welcome. Right? What is that? That is
claiming grace without transformation. That's
being a Christian fraud. I'm not even going to
put, that's just being a fraud of faith. To say,
I have been given, I have been forgiven, I've
been given grace. Christ died for me. His blood
shed. I'm whiter than snow. But there's no life
change. Everything has stayed the same. Then
friend, you've been washed by nothing. Amos stamps
firmly in Reformed theology. I love it. And maybe
you'll take some time and read Amos this week.
Grace that does not reshape how you live. is
not biblical grace. It's not the grace of Christ.
Because the grace of Christ changes everything.
Even in those deep, dark pits of despair. Even
when that relationship, that marriage, that whatever
is pretty much over. There is grace that can
restore. It may not be restored to what it once
was, but it's going to be restored to what it
is in the Lord. How do we walk this out? This
is a tough one, isn't it? Because it's convicting
every part of our being. How do we walk this
out? What does this hesed in action look like?
What is Amos calling out for us today? First,
examine the gap. I use that word specifically.
Examine the gap between your worship and your
life. I'm going to double down. And your life
online. Because unfortunately, those two rarely
are the same. Examine the gap. Is it that much
or is it a Grand Canyon's worth? Either way,
it's bad. Does your songs match your systems
in your life? Do your prayers match your practices
day in and day out? Two, justice begins with
seeing people. Really seeing people. Not how
you want to see them. Not pretending you see
them, but actually seeing them. Chesed requires
noticing the vulnerable, listening to the unheard,
and refusing to benefit from systems that harm
others. It's exactly what Israel turned into.
We're going to benefit from all the good things,
but we're going to forget the nobodies. We're
going to forget the widows and the orphans. We're
not going to live out justice -filled lives.
This ties to that third one, and then I'm going
to hit it pretty hard right now in 2026. The
church must be a place where justice flows. That
second point and that third point is not political
ideology. If right away what I just said about
the vulnerable makes you uncomfortable politically,
stop worshiping at the political altar. This
is not what we're talking about. Yet we're seeing
it in our world today. And we need to respond
the way God wants us to respond. This is not
social posturing. We've got to look like we're
the best church on Ridge Road. No, we don't.
Who cares? This is gospel -shaped justice rooted
in God's love. Because at the end of the day,
you know who you are. And you know you did not
save yourself. I did not save myself. I didn't
climb myself out of the pit. God reached down
in his grace, pulled me out, and gave me a form
and a future, and he gave me a father that disciplines
me when I disrespect, when I disobey, and when
I dishonor, and loves me through those times.
Fourth. Ultimately, Jesus is the fulfillment
Amos is pointing towards. When Israel failed,
guess what? Jesus lived the perfect justice.
Jesus embodied the hesed. Jesus bore all of the
injustices, all of the jokes that we tend to
live out. Jesus bore those on the cross. Grace
does not excuse injustice. Grace redeems. injustice,
so we can live differently. Let's bring it home.
Let's land this plane. When love takes shape,
Hosea taught us that God's hesed pursues us.
Joel taught us that God's hesed restores us.
Take this with you today. Amos teaches us why
God's hesed is so great that our lives can reflect
that love and be forever different. Chesed is
not the abstract. It's not out there in the cosmos
for us not to understand. Chesed has weight.
Chesed has shape. Chesed has consequences. We
need to live this out the best, most biblical
way we can. So let the justice roll in your life.
But remember, it starts here. It doesn't start
by pointing everywhere else. It starts inside.
Let justice roll. Not because it saves us, but
because we've already been saved. And that makes
a difference. Let's pray.