How To Be Secure In Your Faith

Introduction

I. April 15, 1912 - in less than 3 hours, somewhere in excess of 1500 people die as the result of an unsinkable ship, the RMS Titanic sinking.

A. There were a lot of reasons that so many people died when the Titanic sank, BUT, I wonder how many died, in part because they felt secure on an unsinkable ship.

1. This ship can’t sink

2. It could get damaged, but what the worst that could happen?

B. I would imagine that more than a few people perished, more or less because they felt secure and safe in what human hands had accomplished.

II. December 7, 1941, A day that will go down in infamy.

A. Why would such a day go down in infamy?

1. In part because the Japanese attacked the United States on American soil.

2. That was not supposed to be a possibility, at least not without our knowing it was coming; not a sneak attack.

a. We had not entered the war at that point.

b. There was no human way that a country like Japan could possibly reach American soil.

B. I certainly do not mean to minimize what happened on that day, BUT,

1. I believe in part, December 7, 1941 should go down in infamy as a reminder that the United States had felt secure in what could be accomplished by human means.

2. There were a lot of reasons as to how December 7 could have happened, but in part, December 7, 1941 happened because the United States felt secure in what was humanly possible, or impossible.

III. September 11, 2001,

A. I hope that none of us here this morning lost loved ones on that day.

B. But, who would have thought that simply going about their normal routine would mean the end of life as they knew it.

IV. An Allstate Insurance advertisement states that there is an accident in the United States, every 5 seconds.

A. Yet how many of us get in our cars every day, believing it couldn’t happen to us.

B. I see people driving their cars

1. While reading the morning newspaper, or

2. Talking on their cell phones,

C. I even see some people looking in the rearview mirror, applying eye liner or lipstick, while cruising down the turnpike.

1. I’m safe.

2. Nothing bad will happen to me.

V. Over 50% of all marriages in the United States end in divorce.

A. In spite of the increasing number of pre-nuptial agreements signed these days, I doubt many people get married, believing that their will end in divorce.

B. Why do so many divorces happen

1. Not always, but all to often because the partners in the marriage feel overly secure in their relationship stop considering the needs of the other person.

2. I am safe, nothing bad can happen to me.

VI. And how many people are close to eternity, and believe they are just fine, because by human standards they are pretty good people?

VII. And how many of those same pretty good people enter eternity in not nearly as good a shape as they thought they would be, because they trusted the wrong things.?

Vs. 9-11 - Don’t Trust The Culture Around You

I. What do we see in these three verses?

A. God, through Amos has called for Ashdod and Egypt to come and observe Israel.

1. Ashdod was a major city in Philistia, which is south west of Samaria,

2. The great nation of Egypt is even farther south west of Samaria.

B. To me what is interesting is that God has called for the “godless” to come and observe the followers of God.

1. And even more interesting perhaps, is that God is not calling for these nations to come and observe Israel because they are doing right, but rather because they are doing wrong.

2. It is almost as if God is saying,

a. Look, I am justified for bringing correction to My people.

b. Or could God possibly be saying, “If I am willing to do this to my own followers, how much more might be in store for you.”

II. It is not like Philistia or Egypt were “good” nations.

A. They were aggressive in their desire to acquire more lands.

B. They took little pity on those that they conquered; however,

C. They were very well known for oppressing those around them.

D. What they were not known for was for oppressing their own people, and that is the point I believe God is making here.

III. Look at verse 9 - “Proclaim in the citadels of Samaria and Egypt, that they should come and observe what Israel is doing, WITHIN THEIR VERY OWN WALLS.

IV. In actuality there are two activities that are most likely taking place.