“I am sick and tired of you not doing what you are told.” Does this sound familiar to anyone else here? My dad used to say this all the time when I didn’t complete my chores or just do what he said in general. Now, some of you have probably imitated your parents and now you say the same thing or at least something very similar. It really does wear on our nerves after a while when people do not do as we have asked them. I personally hate repeating myself and so having to repeat myself five times to make my point is very agitating. Everyone one of us has a breaking point at which we would finally retort or speak out against what’s happening or not happening. Do you realize that humans were made in the image of God? We have the same faculties as God such as emotions, intelligence, and a spiritual life. Our attributes are very limited in comparison to God’s of course. God has a line of patience that we should call grace in which he will allow us to go towards but after we cross that line, punishment is coming. God’s patience is amazingly durable compared to ours. Even the most patient human beings could not wait as long as God can. Yet, there is an end to that patience.
In the book of Amos 5:21-25, we encounter one of those points at which God has finally reached the end of His rope with the people of Israel. They were supposed to be God’s people. The people of Israel had become rich and powerful and had become corrupt and evil. They had pushed and pushed the envelope until finally God had had enough of their evil actions. He finally declares judgment on them through the prophet Amos. In this particular text, God expresses His disgust with their worship habits. "I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.” God gets “sick and tired” over worthless worship services. He even names three specific areas in which He has reached His limit; the solemn assemblies, the sacrifices, and the songs.
The Solemn Assemblies – Amos 5:21
“I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.”
Why would God be so angry at the men and women of Israel that he would hate their gatherings in His name? Well, a little review of the history of Israel can reveal that answer. Since the formation of the people of Israel, the people have rebelled against God. God took them out of Egypt and immediately they began to complain about water, and then the food they had been given from God. God provided all the Manna the people needed and yet they complained for meat. God punished them by making them walk for forty years in the wilderness lost. Once they did get to enter the land of Canaan as God had promised, they were told to clean it out of all the false religions and tribes. Yet, when the time came to do so, Israel once again chose to disobey God and keep some of the people around. They began worshipping the idols of the nearby tribes of people. This never stopped even up until the time of David basically. David cleaned house and put Israel where God wanted and yet his successor, Solomon, chose to go right back into idol worship. You see Israel had a history of running away from God. They would deny God but yet have “worship” services to God anyway. They would sacrifice, pray, and even sing songs dedicated to God with absolutely no true intent of worship.
This sounds awfully familiar to me when I think of today’s church. People choose to go out and act and live just like non-Christians and have the gall to say they know Jesus. Idol worship has run amok in Christian circles for years. According to a Barna Group study, the average Christian looks exactly like the average non-Christian. Money is a top priority on both lists and is followed by lots of stuff that they just had to have. People are too busy worshipping T.V. than they are at reading their Bibles and then they have the nerve to come to a church building during “worship” and sings songs about God being number one in their lives. Sounds the exact same as what Israel had been doing all those years. Now, instead of worshipping Asherah poles and Baal alters, people worship television, internet, books, games, and mostly themselves. “I am the most important person and I can do what I want.” “I earned that money and it is mine to use.” “I have a right to be angry, sad, depressed, upset, etc.” Sound familiar… I hope not but I seriously doubt that we here have said none of these. These feelings of “I deserve” continue to grow until you are the absolute #1 most important person and will destroy anything that gets between you and what you want. No wonder God hates solemn assemblies when they are filled with idolatrous hearts. I wonder if God hates when we gather together and yet aren’t here to worship.
The Sacrifices – Amos 5:22
“Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.”
God hated the solemn assemblies of the people because of their idolatrous hearts. They worshipped other things besides God and then came claiming to worship God. Now God makes a point out of specific parts of worship. First he attacks their sacrifices. A major part of Old Testament worship was the sacrifice. Now almost every “god” of the day required some sort of sacrifice. The Greeks and their pantheon of gods required offerings and sacrifices to appease the gods. They had many gods and each one had its specific sacrifice to make the god happy. God’s people also had a sacrifice and they did this before all the others. The other religions and beliefs imitated Judaism with the wrong intent as well. When the people disobeyed it was called sin and sin had a punishment; death. God allowed the people to sacrifice rams and bulls among other animals in place of giving up their own lives. So, they would bring their sacrifice as a part of their worship each and every time they came together. They even brought offerings just to bring them to please God called fellowship offerings. God would not even accept these because the people had abandoned Him.
You see, there was a major problem with these sacrifices; they were blemished or impure. God required the people to give their very best animal and actually sacrifice of their own wealth. They would instead bring their lame and weak animals to God and act as though that was an acceptable sacrifice. They would bring grain that had been tainted by bugs or disease. It’s like buying someone a loaf of bread as a gift and giving it to them knowing that it is moldy. They brought old oil, moldy bread, and dying animals and “gave them” to God. Again this sounds somewhat familiar to me. Today, we do not have to make animal sacrifices because Christ died once for all to cover our sins. Yet we do have two parts of our services that cover this idea. First, we have our communion time where we are to remember Christ’s sacrifice for us. Honestly, many of you make a mockery of this time because you claim to worship God but barely if ever remember His sacrifice for you. How many times in the last week did you think about Christ dying for your sins? We mock God and shame Christ’s sacrifice by our selfish and arrogant ways. Only through Christ can man reach God and yet we act as though we are good enough. The second part of the service we do is the offering. This is our chance to give back to God and sacrifice from our own wallets. Let me be really honest and really frank here. You worship your money and love your money more than God. Some of you do not from what I have seen as you give sacrificially. Some of you give big amounts and I cannot help but wonder if you are only giving from your surplus instead of sacrificing. Some of you give from your very little and sacrifice to give that. Some of you have very little and plan on hanging on to every single cent. I have good news and bad. The good news is that if you are sacrificing, God is totally happy with you. The bad news is that if you are not sacrificing, God hates every single cent you give because you are making a mockery of Him.
The Songs – Amos 5:23
“Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.”
God will no longer accept the services and he will not accept your offerings. God has just one more thing you need to know and pay attention to now. God is sick and tired of half hearted worship songs and the people who sing them. If you ever read the book of psalms it is full of vibrant emotions and pictures of the great glory of God. The people used to sing these psalms as songs of praise to God just like we sing praise songs today. Psalm 134 says, “Behold, bless the Lord, all servants of the Lord, who serve by night in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands to the sanctuary and bless the lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion, He who made heaven and earth.” That is just a small psalm they would have sung for worship. Yet, they were probably singing it like this. Sing in a very mumbling, monotone voice.
Now, they probably had plenty of excuses such as blaming the band playing the music. Hmm… that would never happen around here. The real problem was that their hearts weren’t worshipping God. Hmm… that would never happen around here. I asked one of the band members about what they thought would help the band. They said that the one thing that helps them worship and create a worshipful environment in this church is seeing people in the audience truly worshipping. Wow, what an amazing thought? If you want to worship, it will help create a worshipful atmosphere in the church. The music isn’t here to get you in the mood. The musicians aren’t mood setters. They get up each week and play music in worship to God. Some weeks they struggle with worship because they have had hard times come. It is up to you as individuals to choose to worship God regardless of the music. Who cares if it is hymns or chorus’ so long as you can worship God? God is the main focus of worship music. He is the one to worship. You want better music; come ready to worship God and I guarantee that the music will magically appear better because your heart is focused on giving to God and not getting from the music.
The Silver Lining: Amos 5:24; 9:11-15
God is pretty upset according to the words of Amos. He hates our worshipless and empty services. He cannot stand how little we give to Him from our hearts at communion and from our pockets during offering. He is sick and tired of our heartless songs. There is however a silver lining. There is a way to make it all better. “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” God says that He wants to see righteousness. Do you know what righteousness is? It means “Right in the Sight of God.” It means living just as God would have wanted us to live. It means coming to church prepared to worship. It means loving God more than money and stuff. It means opening your heart and letting God live with you. It means truly remembering God during communion and actually making sure you have rid yourself of sin before taking communion. It means singing to God and actually meaning the words. We should live right in God’s sight like a never-failing stream. If we choose to live this way, God has something much better in store for us.
At the very end of Amos in chapter 9 God gives a little ray of hope. He promises to one day restore Israel from its fallen state and rebuild His people. They will one day live in great abundance of food, drink, and wealth if they would only listen to God and live righteously. Let’s all be truly honest with ourselves. We live in a place where abundance is underwhelming. We have all the food we could ever want and then some in this part of the world. If you have just one television in your home, you are among the lower classes in America. How many of you own your own home? You are rich beyond measure and yet you complain when your car gets a ding. You know what is missing in our society; contentment with what we have, compassion for those who do not, an understanding of who gave us what we have, Godly living with our abundance, etc. God took away Israel’s prosperity because they become complacent and loved what they had more than they loved God. God planned to give it back once they learned to live righteously. That’s the silver line; righteous living puts us back into God’s life. This is a choice we make to live like God has said.
We can have more lively worship with celebration and joy. We can have songs that bring us closer to God. We can have joy and peace when we enter this sanctuary but we have to get right with God first. Specifically, you as an individual have to get right with God first. You want to experience knowing God? Do what he says to get your life right and when you come to worship it will really mean something to you. You cannot fix your life so quit trying. You have to give your life to Christ. This means truly, honestly believing Christ died to save you from sin and death. Christ lives again in heaven. You must turn away from your past sins and openly confess Christ as Lord to your family, friends, and the whole world. Then you must be obedient in baptism to wash your sin away forever. I have a question for you. What will you do? Do you want more from Church? Do you want more happiness, peace, and joy in your life? Do you truly want to feel loved by God? If you are a Christian, fix your worship habits and you will be on track to receiving all those things. Live righteously and you will be amazed at how faithful God can be. You need to get your lives in perspective. (Video, if possible). What is truly important in your life? Who do you live for?
