Amos 4:4 KJV Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:
Amos 5:4-6 KJV For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: [5] But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought. [6] Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.
I. INTRODUCTION -- “Overcommitment”
A. Be Careful Not To “Overcommit”
Two Irishmen, Pat and Mike, had narrowly escaped death on a sinking ship. They were floundering around in icy ocean waters on a couple of planks. Pat had a problem with often resorting to some of the grossest profanity and he thought that he ought to repent of it and then the Lord would come to his rescue. Mike thought his theology was sound. Pat began to pray, but just before arriving at the main thesis of his repentant prayer, Mike spotted a ship coming toward them. As delighted as Columbus when he first spotted the North American shore, Mike hollered, “Hold it, Pat. Don’t commit yourself, here’s a ship.” Pat immediately stopped praying! Isn’t that the way that many of us are? The only time we pray is when we are “in a jam.” As soon as things improve we forget God. (From John Haggai, Run To Win)
-Sadly that is way that we often spend our lives particularly in the call of prayer. We appear to be “busy” for God and yet our souls are just as parched and dry as a summer cornfield.
B. Be Careful To “Overcommit”
-What are the things that keep us from prayer?
• Unanswered Prayer -- But I must tell you that there are a lot of prayers that we pray that are either out of the will of God or as James says, “asked amiss” (James 4:3). Like a prodigal son, we ask for the farm and God knows that it is out of His will to grant it. Therefore, He does not grant to us the answer.
• Unconfessed Sin -- I ran across this when I was reading through Malachi a few days ago. Those three brief chapters are good medicine for the self-righteousness that have unconfessed sin.
• Unresolved Conflict In Our Relationships -- Our homes, our families, our friends, and even those with whom we worship.
• Selfishness -- Prayer is not. . . . Dear Santa Claus. . .
• Uncaring Attitudes -- Proverbs 21:13, whoso stoppeth his ears to the cry of the poor. . .
• A Lack of Faith -- We must go back to James 1. When you ask, you must believe and doubt not!
-There has to be a commitment to prayer!
E. M. Bounds -- The apostles were as dependent upon prayer as other folks. Sacred work—church activities—may so engage and absorb us as to hinder praying, and when this is the case, evil results always follow. It is better to let the work go by default than to let the praying go by neglect. Whatever affects the intensity of praying affects the value of our work. “To busy to pray” is not only the keynote to backsliding, but it mars even the work done. (From The Weapon of Prayer in Complete Works on Prayer, p. 370.)
-The prevailing question of our day is “how far can you go on empty?” I have discovered in my little Civic that once the low fuel light comes on that I can drive for another 90 miles or so. The reason that I know this is because the light comes on with I have about 3 gallons of gas left in the tank.
-We spend much of our life with God trying to determine how much we can do without prayer!
II. THE PROPHET, AMOS
-So it was with Israel during the days of Amos, they lost their understanding of the purpose of Bethel and Gilgal and it was detrimental to them. If we are not careful we can lose the ability to understand the purpose of our relationship with God. It is not a new problem, in fact, Israel had to deal with the same dilemma.
A. Amos, The Man
-God had a man that could pull the nation of Israel back to a more focused state in the prophet, Amos.
-Amos was the child of the quiet countryside of Tekoa. Tekoa was some six miles south of Bethlehem, which was in the southern portion of the kingdom of Judah.
-Amos was summoned from the spade to preach to the educated ranks of men who lived in the streets of the northern kingdom.
-Amos was not a rich man by any stretch of things, in fact he was just a small herdsman, a roving cowboy in the days of his calling. He did not own the large flocks of sheep but rather was merely a shepherd who cared for the sheep.
-Much like John the Baptist, he lived on the land. He ate sycamore fruit which was one of the coarsest and least desirable of the foods during that particular time but it was all he could afford as he was just a poor shepherd.
-Poor in this life but hugely wealthy in the life beyond and had unlimited spiritual resources in his life. It can often be said that prophetic vision and faculties are not the prerogatives of the rich.
1 Corinthians 1:27-29 KJV [27] But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; [28] And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: [29] That no flesh should glory in his presence.
-We must understand that when God calls a man that he is well able to equip that man if that man is willing to make the consecration. God can exalt those of low degree to the chief seats in his kingdom.
James 1:9 KJV Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
-Thus the picture is painted that shows the prophet of Tekoa. He was God’s man for the hour.
• What kind of excuses do we offer God in our lot in life?
• How will those excuses stand the fire of judgment at the Bema?
B. The Word Pictures
-When a man such as Amos is used by God to preach, then he uses the things around him to paint pictures so that people will adapt to their responsibilities to serve God. His metaphors came from nature.
• He spoke of the locusts in the meadow (7:1-3).
• He drew the portrait of the basket of fruit (8:1-3).
• He described the battle of shepherds fighting with lions for their prey (3:11-12).
• He spoke of the sifting of the corn (9:9).
• He knew of the foaming torrents of winter that would descend into the Dead Sea.
• He drew the picture of the midnight sky with its seven stars and the ruling Orion (5:8).
-These served as the vivid illustrations to a wayward nation.
-In graphic word pictures, Amos was a man who could tell Israel that Jehovah would crush Israel as a wagon full of sheaves crushes what is under it (2:13). Amos told Israel that the remnant left after the judgment of God would be likened to the two feet or piece of an ear saved from the lion’s mouth.
-When a man such as Amos spoke, it was with a deep seated conviction. Amos and his message did not stay out in the country among the sheep but he traveled northward to the king’s court. His message was heard loudly in the royal sanctuary at Bethel to the brilliant crowd there.
-How could Amos preach with such passion and power? The answer is found in the third chapter of this minor prophet.
Amos 3:7-8 KJV Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. [8] The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?
-His entire theme of preaching was the sinfulness and doom of the kingdom of Israel.
There is some mention of the surrounding countries to be judged by God also but the crux of the judgment sat squarely on the shoulders of the nation of Israel.
-Our text sheds light as to the reason why that Israel had allowed itself to get in the sad state that they found themselves in. Bethel had taken priority in their lives. Gilgal suddenly had become the place of preeminence. There is but One who should have preeminence.
Colossians 1:14-18 KJV In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: [15] Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: [16] For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: [17] And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. [18] And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
-When our lives lose the focus of Jesus Christ then idolatry sets in. Sin is prone to arrest us. Bondage to habits began to recur. Without Him, I Can Do Nothing. NO - THING can be done without the reign of Christ in my life.
III. LOOKING FOR GOD IN THE WRONG PLACES
A. Bethel
-The name Bethel means "house of God." Israel had many a great victory at Bethel.
• Jacob built the stone altar there.
• Jacob saw the golden ladder from heaven there.
• Jacob came back to Bethel in later years for a renewal with God.
-Bethel was the place where people met their God. But as the times changed, Bethel got mixed up in the rituals of the day and the house of God became the house of idols. Jeroboam set up the golden calves to be worshiped here.
-This church, even though a great church, cannot save you. There cannot merely be that belief that just because we participate in church that we will be saved. Church for some has becomes a ritual. It is just a place that we go. A cool place in the summer and a warm place in the winter.
-Church has to be the place where we really meet God. The singing is great, the worship is great, the prayer and faith is great, the preaching is great, but somewhere in all of it we have got to find God. To come to church and never meet God, or to never change, or to never deal with the bitterness, the envy, the anger, the hate, the inability to forgive, is a sad thing.
I recently read a book that was telling the story of Indian tribes of America. One of the curses that was placed upon another tribe was this, "May you never change!!!" I don’t want Bethel to stir me, I want Bethel to be a place where I change. Bethel needs to be my place of spiritual maturity and growth.
-Bethel loses its power every time that we began to entertain Balaks.
1. Entertaining Balaks
-Balak was the king of Moab who wanted to defeat the children of Israel but was afraid of them (Numbers 23-25).
-Balak monopolized the time of Balaam and soon Balaam became an ill tool in the hands of an improper alliance. Instead of being a great voice for God, Balaam became the weak link in the chain. He collapsed all because he did not follow close after the leading of God.
-When Bethel is reduced to window washes, car washes, auctions, and walk-a-thons spiritual degradation is going to occur. When Bethel is reduced to running wide open in one hundred different directions, spiritual paralysis is not far away. When Bethel is reduced to praise and worship but no prayer and no sacrifice and no contentment our lives are headed for downfall.
-There are some here who are so busy that the red lights are firing and you run without giving them any attention. When the motor is knocking you never race the motor. But instead we go on and on.
-I know what some of you are thinking, "We have got a world to reach. We have the great commission of "Go Ye" to fulfill."
-Did it ever occur to you that the last words of Jesus were not "Go Ye." But rather it was:
Acts 1:4 KJV And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
Acts 1:8 KJV But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
• I am not sure about you but I do not have enough talent to save this city.
• I do not have the spiritual power to fill everyone with the Holy Ghost.
-That is why Bethel cannot have the precedence in my life. God has to be the thing that I seek after.
B. Gilgal
-Gilgal also became a detrimental place to the nation of Israel. Gilgal had just as rich a heritage as did Bethel. Gilgal was the place where a memorial of stones were erected to commerate the passage into the Promised Land.
-There are memorials that are to be built in the life of every saint but you cannot serve a God who lives in the past. There has to be that fresh passion of meeting Him.
-Amos spoke sharply to Israel about how that the place called Gilgal, the circle of stones, had degenerated into a place of ritual and no spiritual power.
1. The Danger of Distance
-Peter’s life fits quite well into what is being said here. He followed the Lord at a distance.
• When distance gets between you and God betrayal is near.
• Failure is evident.
• Shame is going to be embraced.
Luke 22:54-57 KJV Then took they him, and led him, and brought him into the high priest’s house. And Peter followed afar off. [55] And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down among them. [56] But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said, This man was also with him. [57] And he denied him, saying, Woman, I know him not.
-It is a sad state of affairs to follow afar off. The danger of the distance.
-The conditions of modern day living will devour our resources.
• If you are homeless, we direct you to a shelter.
• If you are penniless, we offer you food stamps.
• If you are breathless, we connect the oxygen.
• But if you are busy, we give you another thing to do.
-It is the busyness that robs us of our spiritual vitality.
-The whole purpose of Bethel and Gilgal and Beersheba is to bring us close to God. Bethel and Gilgal is merely the means of escape and not where the devotions of men are to exist.
IV. CONCLUSION -- THIS IS WHERE PRAYER IS CRUCIAL . . .
-Prayer gives us untold authority. . .
-From the book, The Azusa Street Mission and Revival: The Birth of the Global Pentecostal Movement by Cecil M. Robeck (p. 5):
Seymour arrive in Los Angeles on February 22, 1906. Two days later he began to preach. By Sunday, March 4, Mrs. Hutchins had decided that Seymour was not the man for the job. She rejected his ministry in a doctrinal dispute over the “baptism in the Spirit” and refused to allow him to continue. Turned away from his congregation and with no resources to leave the city, Seymour needed help. Fortunately, Edward and Mattie Lee invited him to stay at their tiny home until he could decide what to do. Each evening they gathered in their parlor for prayer together, and Seymour spoke to them. Before long, they had established a prayer meeting that others visited as well.
By mid-March the growth of that prayer meeting forced them to move two blocks to the larger home of Richard and Ruth Asbury at 214 (now 216) North Bonnie Brae Street. On April 9, 1906, this Bible study was visited by a move of the Holy Spirit in which people began to speak and sing in tongues. Within days this small group had grown so large that it was forced to find a more suitable facility for their meeting.
-Scattered throughout T. F. Tenney’s book, The Flame Still Burns: The Story of the Louisiana Pentecostals, you find many references to prayer meetings and prayer gatherings.
-What would happen to this church if we were to spend the rest of the year giving our whole-hearted efforts to prayer and fasting. . . I believe that there would be unprecedented revival in every home, in every marriage, in every family and it would spill over into the schoolhouses, the workplaces, and the community at large.
-We cannot live our lives running on empty!
Philip Harrelson
August 26, 2007
