Fat Cows and Dead Religion
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Intro: Some years ago I read a book by Thom Rainer entitled “Autopsy of a Deceased Church”. He outlines 14 churches that he was called to consult with to help revive them, but they all died because they would not heed his advice. In his book he gives the ten most probable causes of dying churches. Of those ten he mentions two that are the most prevalent causes of a dying church, and they are;
1. The Great Commission Becomes The Great Omission [Chapter 6]
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
2. The Church Rarely Prayed Together [Chapter 9]
42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
With those two thoughts in mind, I want us to look at Israel this morning and see that they did the same thing and it brought God’s judgment.
I want to talk about “Fat Cows and Dead Religion” this morning.
Text: Amos 4:1-5
1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, Who oppress the poor, Who crush the needy, Who say to your husbands, “Bring wine, let us drink!”
2 The Lord God has sworn by His holiness: “Behold, the days shall come upon you When He will take you away with fishhooks, And your posterity with fishhooks.
3 You will go out through broken walls, Each one straight ahead of her, And you will be cast into Harmon,” Says the Lord.
4 “Come to Bethel and transgress, At Gilgal multiply transgression; Bring your sacrifices every morning, Your tithes every three days.
5 Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, Proclaim and announce the freewill offerings; For this you love, You children of Israel!” Says the Lord God.
1. Fat Cows; 1
1. Fat Cows; 1
Why did Amos call these women cows of Bashan? Not because these women were overweight and looked like cows, but because by their sins they were fattening themselves up for the coming slaughter.
Bashan was in the Transjordan area east of the Sea of Galilee, and was famous for its lush pastures (Jer. 50:19; Micah 7:14), and its well-fed cattle. These cows were like show cows are today. Well fed, pampered, groomed and sleek in appearance. They were the limousine of cattle!
These upper class women demanded attention and pampering from their husbands at the expense of the poor and needy. They had forgotten what God said about helping others.
6 “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
Helping the poor was to let them glean the fields, lending money without interest, giving bread and water, meeting needs without burdensome requirements.
These ladies were acting like “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”. They demanded their husbands give them what they want or else. And their foolish husbands complied.
Wine- this is more than just drink, it is a fleshly appetite. They craved more and more of whatever it took to satisfy their flesh, even strong drink, which suggests a craving for sexual pleasure.
[Side note] The word “cows” was used in a feminine sense but also included the homosexual/lesbian crowd. Many rulers of that time practiced such abomination. We know from history that when a nation starts to go down, homosexuality comes to the forefront. It was that which began the downfall of Rome. This certainly can be brought up to date. What is taking place in our own country is alarming, and it can spell our national doom.
McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Prophets (Amos/Obadiah) (electronic ed., Vol. 28, p. 52). Thomas Nelson.
John Wesley
Israel had forgotten their calling;
1. To be the channel through whom the Lord would send His Holy Word and the Savior (Messiah) into the world
2. To bear strong witness to the world that the Lord—He and He alone—is the living and true God
The Great Commission Becomes The Great Omission because they were thinking only of themselves!
[Thom Rainer, chapter 6] As I looked at the fourteen churches, I saw a common pattern. Obedience to the Great Commission faded; it usually faded gradually... It was a slow erosion. Instead of Great Commission amnesia… perhaps it would be more truthful to say these dying churches had “Great Commission disobedience.” They chose not to remember what to do. They chose their own comfort over reaching others with the gospel.
The church in America today may be coming Fat Cows!
2. Slaughtered Cows; 2-3
2. Slaughtered Cows; 2-3
What do you do with fat cows? You carry them to the slaughter. The Lord God swears by His “holiness” that these people will be led away to the slaughter.
Holiness- God’s existence as completely separate from his creation and, at the same time, to his pure and utterly incorruptible nature.
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,
Fishhooks- When you catch a fish, you are taking him out of his place of comfort and putting it into the frying pan. That’s the picture here.
The Assyrian practice was to put hooks in the noses or lower lips of their prisoners, attach ropes, and lead them away like animals, either to captivity or to death.
These wealthy elites who prospered off the backs of the poor, these cliques in the church who placed themselves above others, the congregation who did not live in obedience to the Great Commission will be taken out of their comfort zone and judged!
Posterity- future generations of people [children, grandchildren]
The fat cows selfish priorities and sinful examples were being passed on to their kids. The wealthy younger generation in Israel had everything money could buy, but they didn’t have the things money can’t buy, the things of the Lord that make life worthwhile.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
God will not punish children for their fathers sins. But what parents do in moderation, the kids may do in excess or extreme.
The deception that Abraham practiced with Sarah was picked up by his son and grandson. With each generation, the deception increased.
2 Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
7 And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.”
32 And his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” So he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
Harmon is a place that is not identified in scripture, but that it was beyond Damascus. But it is no doubt a place of humiliation and suffering being that all that these people put their trust in will be destroyed.
If we live like Fat Cows we will be slaughtered like fat cows!
3. Dead Religion; 4-5
3. Dead Religion; 4-5
Amos now uses religious sarcasm of their dead religion. Amos is simply saying “that to continue in the same way without repentance is not going to change your outcome!”
Bethel and Gilgal were notable places in the history of Israel. Bethel was the site where Jacob worshipped God after receiving the promise of Abraham from God (Gen. 28:10–22; 35:1–15); and Gilgal, which was near Jericho, was where Joshua set up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan after the children of Israel crossed over into the Promised Land (Josh. 4:19–20; 5:1–10). Instead of being used to remind the people of God’s faithfulness, they had been turned into places of idol worship.
Bentley, M. (2006). Opening up Amos (p. 52). Day One Publications.
Go there and continue to sin [multiply transgressions]. Bring your sacrifices … your tithes … a thank-offering … your freewill offerings’. All of it is “dead religion” because no one is bringing a sin offering!
The thanksgiving offering was given with leaven which was forbidden by God, so it was unclean.
11 ‘No grain offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any offering to the Lord made by fire.
The freewill offerings [voluntary offerings] were done in a manner to draw attention to self, not God.
1 “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
The people of Israel “loved” going to religious meetings, but they didn’t love the God they claimed to worship. Making a pilgrimage to Bethel or Gilgal was the popular thing to do in that day, and everybody wanted to keep up with the crowd. There was no confession of sin, no brokenness before the Lord, but only a religious event that made the participants feel good. The whole system was corrupt; the people were sinning when they thought they were serving the Lord.
The application to today’s church is obvious. It’s very easy for us to join a large, happy religious crowd, enthusiastically sing rousing songs, and put money in the offering plate, and yet not be changed in our hearts. The test of a spiritual experience is not “Do I feel good?” or “Did we have a big crowd and a good time?” The real test is “Do I know God better and am I more like Jesus Christ?”
Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). Be concerned (p. 38). Chariot Victor.
Religion is worthless without a real relationship with Jesus Christ [Amos 5:4-5]
That relationship begins with a prayer and is maintained by prayer!
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
17 pray without ceasing,
Close;
At the end of Thom Rainer’s book, “Autopsy of a Deceased Church”, he gives 12 ways to keep your church alive based upon its symptoms of sickness. But he also makes it clear that these 12 ways are not some magical, easy fix solutions. To the contrary, he says, “They are more of a cry to God to intervene, and to create a willingness on the part of the church members to be obedient.”
Let me ask you a question about Westview Baptist Church this morning and I want you to be honest about the answer.
Is Westview Baptist Church a Fat Cow with Dead Religion?
If the answer is “Yes”, then we all need to repent and change our ways!