God’s White Elephants
Amos 5:21-24
Intro. We are officially into the Holiday season. Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is coming at us fast and furious isn’t it? Lists are being made and shopping has started for the ladies. Men don’t worry; we have another month before we have to shop. My wife is writing her list and I am picking out the easy presents and giving the hard ones to my sons.
. Gifts are part of Christmas
. It all started with the Nativity didn’t it?
. During the Christmas play, three six-year-old boys acted out the role of the wise men. As they presented their gifts of Gold, Myrrh and frankincense at the nativity scene, each boy stepped forward and stated what they were offering to Christ.
The first held out his arms and said, "Gold." The second boy knelt down and said, "Myrrh." The last boy obviously nervous and struggling to remember his lines, stepped forward and declared, "Franki sent this."
. Like the little boy, sometimes we forget what the gift is.
. We forget that Christmas is all about God. Not Us and the things we can acquire.
.Last Sunday I was talking to some folks and stated that the seniors were having their Christmas gathering in a few weeks and that they were doing the white elephant thing. As we were talking, I realized that there are varying views of what white elephant really is. The general consensus was that they are gifts that you are given that you don’t want. You then “re-gift” as they say.
. As I was studying for our message this morning, it occurred to me that we give God white elephant gifts. Things that He doesn’t want.
. While God is not a re-gifter, He is given many things that He doesn’t want.
. Our scripture this morning speaks of white elephant gifts that god does not want and what God really wants from us.
Amos 5: 21-24
. 21“I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
22I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.
I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.
23Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,
an endless river of righteous living.
. Amos tells us the things that God doesn’t want and the thing that God really wants from us.
. Look at verse 21 again
. 21“I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
. Amos is telling the Jewish people that they were pretenders.
. They were pretending to worship God with all their pomp and show.
. They were pretending to worship God with their festivals and their solemn assemblies.
. What they were doing was hypocrisy.
. They would show up for church and put on a grand show.
. They would dress in their finest clothes and have festivals that were supposed to be in honor of God.
. Supposed to be worshipping God.
. Instead they were there for themselves. They were pretend followers of God and God says that I don’t want pretend followers. Your pretend worship is a white elephant to me. I don’t want it.
. How dare those Jewish people act like this. They should know better.
. Folks God doesn’t want pretend Christians either.
. Just like the Jewish people, we dress up and we come and are part of this festival and solemn assemblies but we really aren’t here.
.Many come because that’s what is done on Sunday. They get up and get dressed and go to church.
. The worship of the true God is the farthest thing from their mind.
. God is missing in their worship because they really weren’t there to meet with Him.
. A little girl was getting ready for bed one night and she knelt down to say her prayers and as she was talking to God she said “God we sure did have fun at the church service today. Everybody was in there best clothes and all my friends were there and we had a great time together. I wish you could have been there”
. Why are we here? Why are you here? Are we pretending to come and worship. Can we say that at the end of the service that we met with God here today?
. While we use the scripture that says where two or more are gathered in my name, there I will be also, out of context many times; we can say that if we are truly coming to our worship services seeking God, He will show up.
. Sometimes, we get out of a worship service and say “That was really a good service”. What we really meant was that the program was good. Everything went on smoothly. The song items were good. The flow of the service was good. The church ambience was good. The message was short, sweet and encouraging. We all left the service “happy”. But was God “happy” with our services?
Israel was busy observing her feast days and sacred assemblies not knowing that God actually despised them.
Many celebration services today are planned to make the congregation happy rather than to please God. At the end of the service, we all say “That was a good service”. Was it really good in God’s eyes?
. What is supposed to be a gathering that will allow people to worship God has turned into a place where we network and meet in order to be a part of the community.
. I hear people say that I just didn’t get anything out of that service.
. My question is what did you put into that service.
. I guarantee you that if your heart is filled with the purpose of worshipping God during a worship service, He will meet you there.
. God says that He does not want worship services that are full of pretend Christians.
. That type of service is a white elephant to God.
. Next we see that God doesn’t want impure offerings. They are a white elephant to Him.
. Look at verse 22 again.
. 22I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.
I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.
. Israel presented many offerings to the Lord.
. Burnt offerings, Grain offerings, Peace offerings.
. When God had instituted these offerings, it was an opportunity for the Jewish people to acknowledge who God was and to Give Him a portion of the best that they had. While they were physical activities, the spirit in which they were given was what was important.
. Offerings were a part of worship. That is one of the ways that they were to worship. They were to give out of a heart of love and gratefulness to their God.
. The sacrifice had become something that they would just go through the motions with. They had started worshipping other Gods and sacrificing to them also. It meant nothing to them anymore.
. God expects our offerings to be a part of worship.
. Not something that we just go through the motions with.
. Our offerings have to mean something to us.
. Over in 1 Chronicles 21 we find the story of King David being commanded to build an alter to the Lord in a certain place and his negotiations with the guy that owned the land. To make a long story short, the man David wanted to buy the land from said that he would give it to him because it was going to be used as an alter. David insisted on paying the man and look at what he said in verse 24.
. 24But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it for the full price. I will not take what is yours and give it to the LORD. I will not present burnt offerings that have cost me nothing!”
. Folks our offerings have to mean something to us. Not just something we do when the plate is passed and we offer to God the minimum.
. I see churches today who have taken the act of offering out of their worship service. They don’t see it as an act of worship.
. It’s not if it isn’t given with a right heart. The Jewish people were still bringing sacrifices and offerings as part of their worship but it wasn’t heartfelt. It wasn’t given back to God in gratitude and obedience for who He was. It was given just because it had become part of the ritual and not worship.
. I hear this subject preached and most talk about how God wanted their obedience and heart, not their sacrifice.
. I submit that they misunderstand.
. God Wants Both. If the offerings and sacrifices were not necessary and something that God wanted, He would have never instituted them in the first place.
. He wanted and needed these things but He wanted them given with a right heart. Not just in pretense of worship.
. Giving back to God in heartfelt obedience and love is what God expected and He wasn’t getting this from the Jewish people.
. God said that this is a white elephant to me.
. I don’t want this.
. Next, God says that the songs you sing are a white elephant to me.
. Look at verse 23.
. 23Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
. Music was important in the worship of God. It was so important that even before the temple was built by King Solomon, David’s son, King David prepared for worship in that temple by assigning and training musicians to play during their worship service.
. Look at 1 Chronicles 25: 1&7
. 1David and the army commanders then appointed men from the families of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun to proclaim God’s messages to the accompaniment of lyres, harps, and cymbals.
. 7They and their families were all trained in making music before the LORD, and each of them—288 in all—was an accomplished musician.
. What had happened though was that it had become nothing but a profession by the time Amos was speaking for the Lord.
. The music was much like the pomp and splendor of the service and the going through the motions of the sacrifices and the offerings. It wasn’t coming from the heart. All they did was gather on the Sabbath and sing a few songs that were familiar to them and they never really thought about what or to whom they were singing.
. They were just going through the motions.
. God said that it’s just a bunch of noise to me. It’s not coming from your heart and I don’t want it. It’s a white elephant.
. In a different context, this is the elephant in the room for many churches today.
. It seems that many get caught up in what songs are we going to sing rather than singing whatever song that is chosen to the Lord.
. The psalms cry out that we are to sing a new song to the Lord. This makes us think and look and realize who we are singing to and about.
. God says that no matter what you sing, if it isn’t to worship and honor Me and if it isn’t with a heart of love for the one you are singing to and about, then it’s nothing but a bunch of noise to me.
. It’s a white elephant gift of song and I don’t want it.
. Stop pretending to worship with your songs and truly sing with a heart of worship.
. While Amos Highlighted three white elephants for us in our relationship with God, he did tells us what God does want.
. What kind of gift does God really want?
. Look at verse 24 again.
. 24Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,
an endless river of righteous living.
. That’s very descriptive language and I don’t think that we can understand this without a little geography lesson.
. In the dry arid land that is the Middle East water was a precious commodity. In Israel endless rivers were a rarity. Instead they had streams and gullies. In the original language they were called Wadis and they only had water in them when the rains came and would fill the Wadis with water for only a short time and then they would be dry again.
. God was telling them that He didn’t want just part time justice and righteousness. He wanted their heart and life on a full time basis.
. He wanted a raging river of true worship and faithfulness.
. He didn’t want part time followers.
. Fast forward, folks, God does not want part time Christians.
. Those that come because that’s what they do on Sunday. Those that come in a show of pretense.
. He wants you to remember what offerings are for. That what you give is an act of worship. Not something given begrudgingly.
. He wants us to worship Him with songs of praise that are more than custom. He wants our worship to be heartfelt and not just noise to Him.
. Those things are white elephant gifts to Him and He doesn’t want them.
. God wants you. All of you. All of the time.
. Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
The Songs That God Hates, Wah Lok Nq, sermon central
