What God Expects From Us Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What God Expects From Us Part 1. He will be reading out of Amos 6:1-14.

God has called His people to remember that we are servants and that we’re to take up our tower and we’re to serve others and we’re to care for the poor and we’re to reach out to the hurting and we’re to minister to the suffering.

Hello this is Pastor Mike Sanders, the senior pastor of the Open Door Church and we welcome you to Hope Worth Having. I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to be able to share God’s word with you and today we’re going to be in Amos chapter 6.

We just finished studying Amos chapter 5 and I’ve entitled the message today, What God Expects from Us. We need to know what God expects. We need to understand, to be clear, what is he expecting from us.

So let’s get into God’s word this day and try to learn more about what he expects of us. You have your Bibles this morning. I want you to join me in the book of Amos. We’re going to continue our study in this book of Amos which the prophet Amos is sending out warnings to God’s people.

And this morning as we come to this text, the thought that is before us is what does God expect from us? What exactly is God expecting from us? According to the Road Information Program in the United States, traffic fatalities occur on the nation’s rural roads at a rate two and a half times higher than all other roads.

Even though rural roads carry less than half of America’s traffic. And one of the reasons is that the drivers on rural roads fail to recognize the danger that is on the road. road. The lack of the apparent danger and less traffic on the rural roads seems to be a factor in the increase of fatalities.

It is because people have become more relaxed and they take higher risks on a rural road than a well -traveled road like an interstate or a highway. Drivers in large cities tend to be more alert because of the potential dangers of other vehicles and road construction.

Drivers on country roads often allow the peaceful settings and the beautiful scenery and the rural life to dull their senses to take risks on the road. The problem is that the drivers often become complacent.

Webster Dictionary says that complacency is self -satisfaction, especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies. In Amos chapter 6, Amos is describing a people who had become dangerously complacent in their day.

Israel’s own self -satisfaction and arrogance led to the disbelief of actual impending danger and unaware of their deficiencies in their own lives and their own nation that would lead to the eventual captivity by the Assyrians.

This passage describes for us a warning for all believers to remember that just as Israel became complacent, how easy it is for us as believers to become complacent in our faith. It is showing us how complacency can become a genuine threat to our spiritual vitality as the people of God.

The unifying message in this chapter of Amos chapter 6 is Israel’s false security. They became complacent because they thought they were safe. They thought they were safe because of their military successes, as well as their material possessions.

May all of us remember that none of us should be so pleased with our achievements that all of a sudden, we are not. we think that we can rest on our laurels. That somehow it’s okay for us to be at ease.

Jesus sent this warning out to the churches. I want you to take your Bible to Revelation chapter three. Don’t lose Amos, we’re coming back. But Jesus sent this warning out to the churches in Revelation chapter three, the last book in the Bible.

And in verse 14, Jesus said, to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, right. These things says the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot.

I could wish you were colder hot. So then because you are lukewarm. and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with I self that you may see.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chase. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me.

To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Jesus is reminding us that we need to be spiritually attuned to what he is saying to us.

And that as God is speaking into our life, let us watch out that we do not become lukewarm Christians. In no way in this passage, and I know sometimes you’ve heard it and I’m sorry, is this passage teaching us in the book of Revelation that God would rather you to be a hot on fire Christian or he’d rather you to be a cold Christian.

No, that’s not what he’s teaching. In the city of Laodicea from the city of Ephesus was piped water into Laodicea. And the hot water was believed to have healing power. And so they would pump that hot water from the springs into the city of Laodicea, and they would use it to help bring healing to their body.

They also pumped in cold, refreshing water. The city of Laodicea had no access to water, and so Ephesus had to pump in cold water so that it would be refreshing and renewing and to lift the spirits of the people and that they could be nourished and strengthened through the water.

What God is saying is that I don’t want you to be like that lukewarm water that sometimes gets piped and it’s either cooling down or it is becoming tepid. And it nauseates the stomach. And Jesus says, this causes me to regurgitate.

That’s just a nice way of me saying, it causes Jesus to vomit. He is disgusted with lukewarm, complacent Christians who are kind of just going through the motions, doing what they want, kind of just going through whatever they gotta do to get done with whatever they feel like God expects of them.

But God is calling us to be those hot, healing, on fire Christians, or those cold, not in the sense of a negative way, but cold, refreshing, renewing, providing nutrition for other believers and encouraging other believers.

He doesn’t want you to be that lukewarm Christian. And that’s exactly the warning that Amos has given to the people of God. I want you to join me in Amos chapter six and verse one and listen to the warning that Amos gives.

He says, woe to you who are at ease in Zion. And trust in Mount Samaria, notable persons in the chief nation to whom the house of Israel comes. What does God expect from us? Now in life, there are certain people that you can look up and you can say to your children, emulate them.

Try to be like them. They’re passionate, they’re on fire for God. They have a zeal, they are faithful to the cause of God. They are continuing to promote the gospel of Christ. There are those people that we can hold up before family and friends and even ourselves and say, I wanna emulate them.

I wanna be an example. I wanna imitate them. There are other people we say, don’t do it like them. Learn from their mistakes. Be smart enough to not fail. follow the path that they took because it is a path of destruction.

The Bible says there is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. This morning the book of Amos holds up before us the nation of Israel and all of its leaders and says, I’m warning you, don’t go down that path.

Don’t go down that path. So what does God expect from us? Two things this morning, not too demanding, but a lot of content in between those two. Number one is that God expects us to keep moving forward in our faith.

God doesn’t want you to be neutral in your faith. God doesn’t want you to decline in your faith. He doesn’t want you to go backwards in your faith. He doesn’t want you to remain an infant in your faith.

He wants you to be thriving and growing and to be nourished and to be passionate and to be zealous for those things that God desires. that we learn from the people of Israel, and we’re kind of gonna back up into this verse, verse one.

But the first thing that we learn is that complacency always leads to overconfidence in our life. Look at verse one again. As we back up, he says at the end of the verse, to whom the house of Israel comes.

He’s speaking directly to Israel’s leaders. And why is he speaking to the leaders? Because everything rises and falls on leadership. If the home is a mess, it is because the leadership of the home is a mess.

If the church is a mess, it’s because the leadership is a mess. If the nation is a mess, it’s because the leadership is a mess. And here’s what he’s saying to them. The people, the leaders whom the people come to, they come for wisdom, they come for guidance, they come for direction.

These people that God had set up to be the national leaders of the nation of Israel, he is addressing them and he is warning them because they have become complacent and their complacency has led to overconfidence in their life.

You will note again in verse one that he says notable persons in the chief nation. Again, just affirming that these are the leaders that he is addressing. What are the concerns that he is addressing?

You see again in verse one, woe to those who are at ease, that’s the complacency, and who are trusting in Mount Samaria. Verse one is embodying a perfect balance between Zion and Samaria. These are two locations in the nation of Israel.

Remember that Israel at this time has been divided into a northern kingdom and into a southern kingdom. Remember that Jerusalem is the city of God. It is often referred to as the Mount of Zion. It is the place where God called David to build the temple of God.

The temple of God was where the people of God came to not only confess their sins to God and to offer their sacrifices to God, but to commit and consecrate their life to the cause of God. So Mount Zion was essential into the life of a Jewish person.

And this was important, but also Amos is critical of this place called Samaria, which became the capital of the Northern Kingdom. Mount Zion refers to the spiritual side of the nation of Israel. Samaria refers to the material, the financial side.

Samaria was the place that had become like the financial center of Israel. It was the place where the deals were going down. It was the place that had become populated with many, many people. And they had believed that they were invincible.

They felt safe, that there would be no harm, and that they believed that they were able to be secure. Note again, the scripture says that they’re at ease in Zion, they are complacent in their spiritual life, and they are trusting in Mount Samaria.

They’re trusting in their finances, they’re trusting in their military strength. They’re trusting in places, rather than a person, God himself, who is the one who provides all that we need. Now here’s a question for us to consider this morning.

In our own spiritual life, are we trusting in the material things that God has given us for our security? Or is our faith centered upon the Lord? God himself. Think about that for a second. So many times we get wrapped up in the place, and we forget the person.

You remember in the Gospel of John chapter four that the woman at Samaria, that she said, no, this is the place where we need to worship. And Jesus said, there’s coming a time where you won’t worship in that place or this place, but you will worship the one and true and only God, because God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

And what God is calling us is to focus our heart, and to focus our heart on him, and to pursue God, and to make it about God, and not just a particular place. The second thing I want you to learn is that complacency leads to self -righteousness.

Not only does complacency lead to overconfidence in my life, that I start trusting in the wrong things, but it leads to self -righteousness in my life. Look at verse two, he says, go over. to Calnae and see and from there go to Hamath the great and then go down to Gath of the Philistines.

Let’s stop there because these are surrounding cities and the prophet is saying to the leaders of Israel, look around, look at these other places, these other cities. And he asked them a question and here it is.

Are you better? Are you better than these kingdoms or is that territory greater than your territory? The question before the Jewish people is simply this. Do you think you’re better than others? Do you think that you’re better than others?

Yes, you have been chosen by God. You are a people, a nation that was called out to bring about the Word of God to us. God would use the Jewish people to bring about His truth. He would use the Jewish people to bring our Lord and Savior into this world and it would be through.

It would be through the heritage of the Jews that Jesus Christ would bless all nations in that we could come to Christ by faith. Remember the promise that was given to Abraham is that God would bless the nations that bless Abraham and his people.

And remember that we are promised that God would send a Messiah and that he would bless all the nations. And yes, all that is true, but that was never designed to cause the people of Israel to think that somehow they’re above others or better than others.

The Bible reminds us that the ground is level at the foot of the cross, amen. And we must remember that even though we have been touched by the hand of God and that the grace of God has awakened our hearts and that we now can see the truth of God and the blindness has been lifted from us, that it’s not in any way make us better than any person on this planet.

The people of God had built a sense of superiority. They had looked around and they thought, look at what we’ve accomplished and look at our achievements and look at what we have as their sense of superiority was growing and increasing.

Their concern for others was decreasing. Yeah, it was decreasing. If we’re not careful as believers, we can begin to think that we’re better than others. But we must remember that apart from Christ, we are no better than anyone else.

The apostle Paul said that I can do all things through who? Christ. Jesus said without me, you can do nothing. You cannot do anything without Christ, my friends, I want you to know that it is only through Christ that we are what we are.

The apostle Paul said that it was by the grace of God who he was, who he was. And friends, if it were not for the grace of God touching your heart and awakening your heart, then you and I, as we look out into some of the craziness of the world, and we see so many lives that are made a mess, there go I if it was not for the grace of God.

Yeah. What happens in your spirituality is that when you become complacent, you not only become overconfident, but you become self -righteous. The third thing I want you to learn about complacency is that complacency leads us to indulgence.

We come down to verse three and here the prophet begins to give another woe or another warning to the people of God. Listen to what he says, woe to you. who put far off the day of doom, who cause the seed of violence to come near, who lie on beds of ivory, stretch out on your couches, eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the midst of the stall, who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, and invent for yourselves musical instruments like David, who drink wine from bowls and anoint yourselves with the best ointments, but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

Friends, I want to stop right there because it’s not that God is upset that they’re enjoying all things richly as the Scriptures teach us. It’s their attitude, it’s their heart. And in verse 6, he says, you’re doing all these things, and you’re just indulging in all the blessings that I have bestowed upon you, and in the midst of it, verse 6, but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

When the Israelites heard that, they remembered the story in the Bible when Joseph’s brothers threw him into the pit, only because his father favored him, only because they were upset with Joseph, because Joseph liked to tell his brothers about his dreams.

And you know what was even worse is that when they threw their brother into the pit, they sold him into slavery, and then they acted like nothing happened. They went on with their lives, and they kind of just put it in the back of their mind, and they created this new narrative to their father, and they literally lied to their dad about what possibly could have happened to his son, Joseph.

And what are you saying is that in a comparative sense, that the people of God have just kind of forgotten those who are afflicted and forgotten forgotten those who are poor and forgotten those who are suffering and they have kind of just moved on with their life and they’re enjoying the blessings of God and they don’t realize that God has blessed them to be a blessing.

Do you understand that everything that you have, all that God has entrusted to you is not really about you? And I know that’s hard because you’ve got many voices and you’ve got the entire world telling you day after day, moment after moment, that it’s all about you.

But there is a counter -truth and that is God’s truth and it is the truth that it’s not about you and me, it’s about Jesus Christ, amen. And that we are called as the people of God, not to indulge in our blessings, but we are called to understand our blessings, enjoy our blessings, but we are called to share our blessings with others.

When the apostle Paul was warning the church in Rome about those who might infiltrate into the family of God and that they might try to lead them astray, he begins to describe who those people are. And he says in Romans 16 verse 18, for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites.

By smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. It’s so sad to see good people, godly people, lead astray in their immaturity, in the faith, led astray by those who are only in it for themselves, who are only interested in serving in the kingdom of God for what they can get out of it, so that they can just revel in all the indulges of this world.

When God has called his people to remember that we are servants and that we’re to take up our child and we’re to serve others and we’re to care for the poor and we’re to reach out to the hurting and we’re to minister to the suffering.

The great antidote. Doesn’t matter if it’s your children, your grandchildren or your own self. The great antidote for those who have everything and have been blessed immensely, our children, we think about how blessed they are.

What is the answer, pastor? How do we help these kids who have so much when it comes to means and provisions? Hear me, hear me. It is servanthood. Jesus said to whom much is given, much is required. And if you want your children to be balanced, if you want your grandchildren to be balanced with the blessings that they have been bestowed with by God Almighty, then you help them to realize that God has put them in this position.

He has given them this platform. He has bestowed his blessings on them for one purpose that they might bless others, that they might serve others, that they might help others, that they might minister to others.

others, that they would make an impact for God Almighty. The children of Israel had come to a point where they were just reveling in all that they had, forgetting about others, moving on. And the Bible sends a warning to them.

I want you to jump back to chapter 5 and verse 27. It’s right there before chapter 6, so you shouldn’t have too far to go. But remember what the Bible warned, what Amos said to them. Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

We jump over to verse 7 of chapter 6. Therefore they shall now go to captive as the first of the captives. All those who recline at banquets shall be removed. He’s talking to the leaders of Israel, and here is what he’s saying.

The party is over, and the end has come. They serve as a warning to you and to me. A warning that we would not follow this path. Church, I want to say to you this morning that complacency in your spiritual life will choke and strangle your spiritual life.

If you have lost that fervor, if you have lost that zeal, if you have lost that passion for God, and for his truth and his gospel, if you have lost that passion to see soul saved, if you have lost that passion for the glory of God to be exalted in the nations and in your community and in your home and in your life, you have to look at yourself this morning and say, God, is there any area in my life that I am becoming complacent?

And is it reflected in my indulgence or my self -righteousness or my overconfidence? What God expects from me is for me to keep moving forward in my faith, no matter what trials I faith, no matter what detours I encounter, no matter what struggles are before me, no matter what speed bumps are in front of me.

God wants me to keep moving forward. Here’s what I’m fearful of as a pastor, is that many of God’s people in this post -COVID times that we live in, that they have adapted habits that have caused them to become complacent in their faith, in their spiritual vitality, and now they’re at ease in Zion, and they don’t wanna step out anymore, and they don’t wanna step up anymore, and they don’t wanna speak up for God anymore.

They just wanna get along so they can go along and just be at ease in this world. God didn’t call us to be like that. [“Private God”] Well, learning the expectations of God, well, that’s gonna help us to live a life that’s obedient, pleasing, and honorable to God.

And so we encourage you that as you’re learning and growing and you are studying God, in Amos chapter six, that you’re letting the spirit of God speak to your heart. And you might be asking yourself, are there any changes that God wants me to make?

Are there any commitments that he wants me to make? Perhaps God wants you to confess sin in your life. Just be real with God and be honest with him. And here’s the promise we have. If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness.

Now, I want you to know that we also have a website and that website is designed to help you to continue your walk in Christ, to help you to grow. And so I want you to check out our website, HopeworthHaving .com.

You can not only learn more about Hopeworth having ministries, but you can also be equipped and strengthened in your faith. And that’s what we desire, that you would be a Christian who is complete in the Lord and faithfully following him.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.