This morning I want to give some context for our guest teacher. I had asked her to be with us last week but she was in Houston. It turns out that this week is actually better as what she is doing and who she is are more directly related to the text. I am always glad when things work out that way.
1. Amos 7:14: “I was neither a prophet or a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But The Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, “Go prophesy to my people Israel.”
Two things to remember here. First, the role of a prophet is not necessarily to tell the future but to speak for God. It is to speak God’s words to a group of people in such a way as to make them aware of his truth.
Second, God calls people to this task who are not prepared for it in the normal sense. It does not necessarily run in the family and there are no courses offered in it. But…when God calls you to it there are no options. One way of saying it is this: “God does not just call the equipped but always equips the called.” Oswald Chambers said this about that call.
“Paul’s words have to do with our being made servants of Jesus Christ, and our permission is never asked as to what we will do or where we will go. God makes us as broken bread and poured-out wine to please Himself. To be “separated to the gospel” means being able to hear the call of God (Romans 1:1). Once someone begins to hear that call, a suffering worthy of the name of Christ is produced. Suddenly, every ambition, every desire of life, and every outlook is completely blotted out and extinguished. Only one thing remains— “. . . separated to the gospel. . . .” Woe be to the soul who tries to head in any other direction once that call has come to him. Beware of competing calls once the call of God grips you.
2. Amos 7:7-9
This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand.
And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”
“A plumb line,”I replied.
Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”
The wall that has been built true to plumb today is the church and the plumb line for the church is what it has always been. It is the Word of God. What does God say about the plumb line for the building of the church?
Isaiah 28:16-17: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed. I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line.”
What is it that is the true measure for the church? Is it programs or growth or activities or quality of teaching and worship? No, it is justice and righteousness. When the church is straight then the people will be as well. When the church measures itself by God’s measuring line then the people will as well.
This is not intended to be an accusation from God but a guide and an indicator that we use as we build. The more you build on an off plumb foundation the more fragile and dangerous to others it becomes.
Because we have been in the book of Amos and we have been discovering what God means by justice – defending those who cannot defend themselves – I have invited Missy Zivney from Refuge of Light to be with us.