Heaven Roars

Amos  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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God often speaks through the least qualified, but His message is both timely and effective.

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Find Amos chapter 1 in your Bibles please.
We begin a new series this morning entitled Amos: Let Justice Roll.
Any time we do a new book study, I like to begin with a video that summarizes the book we are going to tackle. I think this is particularly necessary this morning because I would be willing to wager that no one in this room has spent much time in the recent past in the book of Amos. It is not a book we tend to be a s familiar with.
Watch this video and then we will dive in.
Heaven Roars
Amos 1:1-2
Big idea: God often speaks through the least qualified, but His message is both timely and effective.
The words of Amos, who was one of the sheep breeders, from Tekoa—what he saw regarding Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
The words of Amos, who was one of the sheep breeders,a from Tekoa—what he saw regarding Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
2 He said:
The LORD roars from Zion
The LORD roars from Zion
and makes his voice heard from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds mourn,
and the summit of Carmel withers.
There was a middle aged woman who had a heart attack and went to the hospital. They had to do surgery and while she was on the operating table, she had one of those near-death experiences. She saw a long tunnel with a bright light at the end of it.
Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.There was a middle aged woman who had a heart attack and went to the hospital. They had to do surgery and while she was on the operating table, she had one of those near-death experiences. She saw a long tunnel with a bright light at the end of it.
The light spoke and she realized it was God. When she realized it was Him, she asked Him if her time was up. God spoke to her and told her, “No. You have another 43 years, 2 months and 8 days to live.”
God spoke to her and told her, “No. You have another 43 years, 2 months and 8 days to live.”
The next thing she knew, she woke up in the recovery room. Knowing that she had that much longer to live, and wanting to make the best of it, when she recovered, she went to see a plastic surgeon about some cosmetic surgery. She got a nose-job, a face-lift, liposuction and a tummy tuck. She had the doctors unsag all the sagging places and tighten up all the loose places.
She had the doctors unsag all the sagging places and tighten up all the loose places. When she recovered from all that, she went to the cosmetologist. She got her hair dyed, her new face painted, her new body tanned, and her nails done. After everything was coated, painted and dried, she left the shop. After she walked out of the door, she started to cross the street and got run over by a bus and killed. When she got to heaven, she questioned God. “I thought you said I had another 43 years left?” God squinted up His eyes and said, “Oh, that was you—I didn’t recognize you!”
When she recovered from all that, she went to the cosmetologist. She got her hair dyed, her new face painted, her new body tanned, and her nails done. After everything was coated, painted and dried, she left the shop.
After she walked out of the door, she started to cross the street and got run over by a bus and killed. When she got to heaven, she questioned God. “I thought you said I had another 43 years left?” God squinted up His eyes and said, “Oh, that was you—I didn’t recognize you!”
The moral of the story is, watch out if you think you’re getting a private word from God. It might change your life, but you’ll probably get run over by a bus anyway.
But God does speak to us. He speaks to us through prayer. He speaks to us through teaching, and the primary way he speaks to us is through his word, the Bible.
The two verses we’re looking at today serve as the introduction to God speaking through His prophet Amos. We’re going to look at three consistent truths about the way God speaks. The first truth concerns Who God Speaks Through.
The words of Amos, who was one of the sheep breeders, from Tekoa
The first truth about the way God speaks concerns the man God speaks through. So, who was this guy, Amos? Well, first, he’s not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture. Everything we know about him comes from this book. He was from the little town of Tekoa. Calling it a town might be an exaggeration. Tekoa was about 5 miles southeast of Bethlehem. You know, the one we sing about: “Oh little town of Bethlehem.” Well, little tiny Bethlehem was where folks from Tekoa went when they went to town. Tekoa was rustic. It was back-woods. Nothing went there and nothing of any substance came from there. The name itself indicated it was just a stopping off point for sheepherders. Almost like a camp spot rather than a real town. We get more insight into who Amos was over in chapter 7:14-15. There he tells us that he was not only a herdsman, but he was also a gatherer of sycamore fruit. Some people have mistakenly taken this to mean that he had his own herds and orchards. Really, he was just a poor shepherd. He tended other peoples’ flocks and ate what the really poor folks of the time ate. He picked the figs off the wild fig trees. Where he was from made him a nobody. What he did for a living made him a nobody. And who he was kin to made him nobody. Back in 7:14, Amos told Israel’s leadership that before God called him, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son.” He wasn’t related to anybody special. His name didn’t mean anything to anybody. Any way you want to look at it, Amos was a nobody. On top of all that, he wasn’t even from the same country he was prophesying in. He was from the southern kingdom of Judah and God told him to prophesy in the northern kingdom of Israel. And, even though Israel and Judah weren’t enemies, they were in pretty serious competition with one another. So, he was a nobody and an outsider. He didn’t fit in with people in his own country of Judah, much less the folks of Israel. So, if Amos was that much of a nobody and an outsider, why did God choose him to carry His prophetic message? Don’t you think God would have been better off choosing one of the big-named priests? Or even better yet, don’t you think He would have been better off choosing one of the kings? At least somebody from Samaria, the capital of Israel. Or if it had to be an outsider, at least somebody from Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. But, no. God chose Amos. An outsider who was a no-name nobody from nowhere. Why did God choose him? Because nobodies are who God likes most to choose.
Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence.
Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
Throughout Scripture God consistently chooses the insignificant things of the world. The only thing on God’s qualification list is willingness. Isn’t it comforting that that is the only thing He requires in us. Can you speak well? Do you get nervous talking in front of people? Good! God might just call you to publicly preach His Word. If you’re looking for God to call you to your strengths, you’ll probably be looking for a while. Most of the time He’ll call you to your weaknesses. That way we can’t brag about it. That way He gets all the credit. That way He gets all the glory. That way we have to rely on Him. Remember Moses? “God, I don’t talk too well.” But God only wanted him to publicly address Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Oh yeah, and only about 2 million Israelites. But that’s not the way we want to do it, is it?
We want to do like Israel when they chose Saul as their king. Why did they want Saul to be their king? Because he was tall, dark and handsome. That’s who the people chose, but who did God choose? David—the youngest, most insignificant son of Jesse. A nobody shepherd just like Amos. Nobodies just like you and me. That’s who God chooses to speak through. God shows His strength by speaking through us in our weakness.
The first truth about the way God speaks concerns who God speaks through. The second truth concerns When God Speaks.
Here we are not talking about a time on the clock or a day on the calendar but rather the situational circumstance that God invades..
:1b.....what he saw regarding Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
Unlike many of the books of the Bible, Amos gives us a great time stamp as to when God gave him this prophesy. He said that back in his homeland of Judah, Uzziah was the king. And in Israel, the land he was preaching in, Jeroboam was king. But Israel had two kings named Jeroboam, so this one was the son of Joash. In other words, this was who we know of as Jeroboam II. Then Amos narrows it down a little more. He says it was two years before the earthquake. His original audience would have been able to know exactly what time-frame he was referring to.
Amos gave us a good time stamp so we know when those days were. What were they like? What were the days like when God spoke these prophesies? Judah, Amos’ homeland was experiencing unprecedented prosperity under Uzziah. During his reign, the borders were secure, and they were free from war. And because of that, their economy was booming. But for all of Judah’s success under Uzziah, Israel was having even more under Jeroboam II. Between the two of them, they had taken back all the land that they had lost since the days of Solomon. As a matter of fact, it was as if both nations were experiencing Solomon’s golden age all over again.
Maybe they were bragging about less than 4% unemployment, the defeat of ISIS, possible demilitarization in Korea...
And it’s in those kind of days when God speaks to His people. Why? Because He has to get our attention. He had to get Israel’s attention because they had forgotten Him. They had been lulled to sleep by their prosperity and had completely forgotten God. They had gotten so caught up in their own personal comforts, they forgot His Law. They had gotten so caught up in selfishness and money, they forgot about the poor. They had gotten so caught up in their sin, they forgot about God’s prophets.
If that doesn’t sound like today, I don’t know what does. Everyone is worshipping at the altar of the god of their choice, wealth, health comfort, but few are paying attention to the one true God. Very few look to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What are the days God speaks in? These are the days God speaks in. Just like he did in the days of Amos. God tends to shake us from our slumber.
The last consistent truth that I want us to see in this introductory message, is the Word God Speaks.
Lastly
He said:
The LORD roars from Zion and makes his voice heard from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the summit of Carmel withers.
and makes his voice heard from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the summit of Carmel withers.
and the summit of Carmel withers.
What a picture this verse paints of God speaking. God roaring and speaking so profoundly that pasturelands would mourn and Mount Carmel would wither. That is an awesome picture, but what did it look like to Israel? It looked like some nobody named Amos coming from out of town to preach at them. But make no mistake about it, the words that Amos spoke were the very words of Almighty God Himself. Is that the way God works today? Does He have prophets that He reveals things to, and then have them to pass it along to everybody else?
Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him.
Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
The Word of God says that God spoke to the fathers by the prophets—when? In times past. The days of God making fresh revelation to people has ended. When did it end? When the prophets wrote it down. Verse 2 says that in these last days He speaks to us through His Son. And the only way His Son is revealed to us is in the finished Word of God contained in Scripture.
Isn’t it ironic. To the world, this just looks like a little black book. To Israel, Amos was just a country shepherd. He wasn’t a prophet or a son of a prophet. But in his humility, Amos roared with the thunderous, eternal Word of God Almighty.
Just like this simple looking Book roars with the thunderous eternal Word of God Almighty. All the Word of God is fulfilled in Jesus, because as tells us, He is the Word. He is the living Word of God who has given us and fulfilled the written Word of God. says, For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
When God spoke His Word through Amos, what was the reaction? Mourning and withering. But notice what mourned and withered. The fields and a mountain. Creation recognized God’s coming judgment on Israel. It saw that Israel would once again refuse God’s grace. It saw that Israel was too concerned with their prosperity and comfort to worry about God and His Word.
Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers. When God spoke His Word through Amos, what was the reaction? Mourning and withering. But notice what mourned and withered. The fields and a mountain. Creation recognized God’s coming judgment on Israel. It saw that Israel would once again refuse God’s grace. It saw that Israel was too concerned with their prosperity and comfort to worry about God and His Word. Creation saw it, but the people didn’t. The people didn’t mourn their sin. The people didn’t wither and turn from their wicked ways. They just kept on the way they always did. It was if they put God’s Word in the back window of their cars and left it there till the next week. God still speaks His message of grace and judgment of righteousness today. He doesn’t do it through special individual revelation like He did in Amos’ day. He only does it through His Son Jesus Christ as revealed in His written Word. Our choice is whether we’re going to listen or not. Will we hear His Word, mourn our sin, wither and accept God’s grace through His Son? Or will we keep on the way we always do, and let creation do it.
Creation saw it, but the people didn’t. The people didn’t mourn their sin. The people didn’t wither and turn from their wicked ways. They just kept on the way they always did. It was if they put God’s Word in the back window of their cars and left it there till the next week.
God still speaks His message of grace and judgment of righteousness today. He doesn’t do it through special individual revelation like He did in Amos’ day. He only does it through His Son Jesus Christ as revealed in His written Word. Our choice is whether we’re going to listen or not. Will we hear His Word, mourn our sin, wither and accept God’s grace through His Son? Or will we keep on the way we always do, and let creation do it.
As we continue to go through Amos these next few weeks, I would encourage you to listen with your heart not just your ears. Look with your heart for the injustices around you and take action as God leads you.
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