Let The Church Say Amen

TITLE: LET THE CHURCH SAY AMEN

SCRIPTURE: REVELATION 3:14 / REVELATION 7:12 / REVELATION 22:21

The word “amen” is a most remarkable word. It was transliterated directly from the Hebrew into the Greek of the New Testament, then into Latin and into English and many other languages, so that it is practically a universal word.

• It has been called the best-known word in human speech

• The word is directly related – in fact, almost identical to the Hebrew word for “believe” (AMAN), or “faithful”

• Thus, it came to mean “sure” or truly,” an expression of absolute trust and confidence

• When one believes God, he indicates his faith by an “Amen”

• When God makes a promise, the believer’s response is “Amen”–”so it will be!”

• When we pray according to His Word and His will, we know God will answer, so we close with an “Amen”

• So also do we conclude a great hymn or anthem of praise and faith with “Amen”

Truth be told we say “Amen” quite frequently, but usually we don’t even think about it. Take a moment and think about how many times you have said “Amen” this morning.

• Most of the time we treat “Amen” sort of like a punctuation mark

• We say our prayers; then say “Amen,” and it just means “O.K. -- the prayer’s over”

• But “Amen” means a whole lot more than that

• The more we look at this little word, the more we see how important it really is

Have you ever felt like a word gets overused so much so it loses its meaning? Words have a way of changing meaning based upon the intention of the person speaking it. It’s not that the word has actually changed but the word loses its intensity. Kind of like listening to the same song over and over again, it loses its original effect.

• I recall some years ago when TAMELA MANN came out with that powerful song “Take Me to The King”

• I loved listening to it and could not get enough of it

• After a few months however, when it came on the radio, I began to say, “Oh not again”

• When we hear things over and over again it loses its intensity and intended affect

How many times have you been in Church and hear people say “Amen” after every sentence? Or people are preaching about the horrible things happening in the world and then hear people say “Amen”?

• Do we know what the word means?

• Are we saying “so be it” when things are being preached that are not biblical or when wrongs are spoken of?

• Are we saying “Amen” when the devil is having a hay day with someone?

• Are we standing in agreement with negativity unawares?

• Amen is a word of agreement more so than just a reply to a statement given

The word “Amen” is found 78 times in our English Bibles. The first time we see it is in the OT Book of Numbers, and the last time we see it is in Revelation 22:21.

• “Amen” is the last word in your Bible

• It is God’s last word on His Word

• And it means “SURELY - TRULY - FIRMLY - SO IT IS - SO BE IT - MAY IT BE FULFILLED”

Let’s look into God’s Word this morning and see why this little word is so important. First -- Our Amens are important for what they say to God. For example, our Amen can say - “GOD, WE AGREE!”

• So we must be careful not to just throw our Amen around

• So we must be careful because there are somethings we should not Co-Sign

• From the Pulpit to the back door, there are times we need to hold on to our Amens!

• There are times we need to keep our Amen in reserve

• Hear those from Pulpit or around us in the Pew state “Say Amen Somebody” - what are we saying we agree with?

• I can’t say Amen if I don’t agree with what you just said, if it is contrary to the Word of God

• I can’t say Amen if you are in the pulpit just making a whole bunch of noise

• I CORINTHIANS 13:1 “…SOUNDING BRASS OR A TINKLING CYMBAL”

Amen means - we agree with your Word. We agree with what you say about yourself. David’s great song in I CHRONICLES 16 is a good place to see this agreement. VS. 23 we agree that ALL THE EARTH SHOULD “SING TO THE LORD,” AND “PROCLAIM THE GOOD NEWS OF HIS SALVATION FROM DAY TO DAY.” We should --

• Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples