You may be seated. The sermon this evening comes from Amos chapter 4. Please join me there. Amos chapter 4 starting with verse 1. Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, bring now that we may drink. The Lord God has sworn by His holiness, behold the days are coming upon you when they will take you away with meat hooks and the last of you with fish hooks. You will go out through breaches in the walls each one straight before her and you will be cast to harm and declares the Lord. Enter Bethel and transgress and Gilgal multiply transgression. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. Offer a thank-offering also from that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings. Make them known. For so you love to do, you sons of Israel, declares the Lord God. But I gave you also cleanness of teeth, and all your cities, and lack of bread in your palaces. Yet you have not returned to Me, declares the Lord. Furthermore, I withheld the rain from you while there were still three months until harvest. And I would send rain on one city, and on another city I would not send rain. One part would be rained on, while the part not rained on would dry up. So two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink water, but you would not be satisfied. Yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. I smote you with scorching wind and mildew, and the caterpillar was devouring your many gardens and vineyards, fig trees and olive trees. Yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. I sent a plague among you after the men of Egypt. I slew your young men by the sword along with your captured horses, and I made the stench of your camp rise up into your nostrils. Yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. Therefore, thus I will do to you, O Israel, because I will do this to you prepared to meet your God, O Israel. For behold, he who forms mountains and creates the wind and declares to man what are his thoughts, he who makes dawn into darkness and treads on the high places of the earth, The Lord God of hosts is His name. Pray with me. Our Father, help us now. Help us now and do a great work in our hearts that we will think correctly about You, Father, and respond correctly to You. loving you and serving you from the heart. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. As we look at what has gone on with the Northern Kingdom, the Kingdom of Israel, and broken off and they had split from the southern kingdom and their king, Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, he did a wicked thing. He set up golden calves for the people to worship in the north so that they would not go down to Jerusalem and so that their hearts would not be turned back to the house of David as it's described in Scripture. We look at the hearts of the people and we see what had been taking place there We see a people whose attitude was towards worship, or a form of worship. We see that God tells them, He says, enter Bethel and transgress, and Gilgal, multiply transgressions. That's Amos 4.4. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. Offer a thank offering also from that which is leavened. Proclaim free will offerings. make them known, for so you love to do, you sons of Israel." So we see a service taking place, some form of worship actually taking place, but none of it is in accordance with what God has directed them to do. They're in the wrong place. They're doing the wrong thing. They're offering the wrong sacrifices. They're demonstrating an affection, but the affection is not an affection towards God. The affection is whatever they desire to do, and they're making themselves happy, or they're making themselves comfortable, or they're finding a joy in doing whatever they want to do. He says, so you love to do. Even the offerings that they're bringing has leaven in it. that specifically told them, don't put leaven in your sacrifices. Don't do it. This isn't that. This isn't about that. And we've been told from Scripture that the way that we display love for God is doing what He says to do. Now, this doesn't make love for God, this doesn't necessarily make affection for God, but it is that expression that if we do have affection for Him, we will want to give Him specifically what He asks for. If we do trust Him, we will know that what He asks for is what is right, what is best, what is holy, Now, as we looked at in our discussions of Psalm 84, the worship is a special assembly. The worship is a holy assembly. This is a time unlike other times in our week. Although God is always present in our lives, although He is everywhere and He is everyone, when we come together here, something specific and special is going on. which makes a different standard and different criteria for what we would do and what we would not do. So, with God, in accordance with His truth, calling upon you to give your hearts to worship, to give your hearts to worshiping Him, specifically as He describes. find peace there, and find joy there. So, our first step is to find peace in worship. For that, I will read verses 4 and 5. He says, enter Bethel and transgress in Gilgal. Bethel, again, was that place where the golden calves were set up. In Gilgal, multiply transgression. He says, go ahead, even make it worse Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. Offer a thank-offering also from that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings. Make them known, for so you love to do, you sons of Israel, declares the Lord." Leviticus 2.11 says, No grain offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven. And yet, We see people adding to the sacrifice of God. It's not as if, oops, some leaven entered into my bread, or, oh wow, I don't know how that happened. But they specifically added to the worship service. They specifically, intentionally, decided that they were giving something better to God, better than what He had ever described, better than what He had ever said, or they just simply liked leaven in their bread. You see, we are in a place, and we recognize the truth, we recognize the reality, that we can't make anything better than God can make. We cannot create anything deeper. We cannot create anything more meaningful. As we discussed earlier, something brighter, or flashier, or louder, doesn't mean better in the eternal realm. What makes something meaningful? What makes something powerful? What gives something honor or glory? What makes something worthwhile? It's being attached to God. Being attached to His Word. And this is what we give. This is what we offer. So, the alternative is something empty. The alternative is something less. And so often, and I've looked at the traditions of churches and so often it looks as if their traditions would be meaningful. It looks as if their traditions would be helpful in spurring people on or getting them to a closer place to God. But ultimately they don't. Ultimately, they move people further and further away. I've heard about the ways that missionaries had worked in China and other places over in the East, and when they're telling the story of Christ, they love the idea of the Virgin Mary. love the idea. Think, that is beautiful, and that is wonderful, and that is great, and that is exalted, and they exalt that idea, but when it gets to the sacrifice of Christ, we don't like that so much. So, they'll just stick with Mary, and they'll enjoy Mary, and completely miss the atonement. See, even the idea of the emphasis of what we do, the focus of what we do. The emphasis and the focus of what we don't do. He's given us what to do and what to say. We get ourselves off track. We get our worship off of track. We get our affections off of track when we add to God's Word and we add to His worship. So, what do we give Him? We give Him what He calls for. give Him what He directs. And the truth and reality is we will be more moved in accordance with truth, in accordance with reality. I may have told the story when early on in mine and Leslie's marriage, we traveled to visit some friends and we went to a Sovereign Grace Church. And the church was meeting in a giant school building. And we walked into the auditorium And when I stepped in, the band kicked it up all of a sudden, and the music just raised, and I felt this tingle go off the back of my neck, and I just felt this warm feeling come over me, and I thought, now that's the Holy Spirit. There have been different times, and other times in my life, when I've been in a worship setting, and the music cuts out, and everybody looks around like, where did the Holy Spirit go? Is the idea, or is the truth, that the music brings the Holy Spirit? Is that where He comes to? Is that how He works? It's not. I may have told you also, there was another time when I was worshipping at the church in Aurora and they invited me to pray with the elders and we came together and it was just quiet. These were humble, quiet men and we prayed and then we came out for the worship service and the elder began to preach or read from the book of Isaiah And this warmth, and this affection came over me. And there was no music. There was no threat of the CD player stopping, or the sound system breaking, or the guitarist tripping, and that the effect would be gone. And I knew in that moment that if I was being moved, I was being moved by the Word of God, which endures forever. that was being moved by the Spirit of God in accordance with His Word. See, what God is calling for and constantly calls for is a heart committed to Him. A heart committed to serving Him as He is revealed in His Word. And we see that affection created and that affection continued in accordance with Psalm 84. How lovely are your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God." This brings us to our second move. Return to His arms. This is to see worship as that. Returning to His arms in worship. I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and you were like a firebrand snatched from the blaze but you have not returned to me." And God made that terrifying statement when He's talking about their false worship and He said, you know what, go ahead. Go ahead to Bethel. Go ahead to Gilgal. Go ahead and keep adding leaven to the sacrifice. Go ahead and keep bringing your tithe every three days. Go ahead and do all this stuff that you've made up. Go ahead. I haven't been in it. I'm not in it. And if that's what you love, go ahead and love it. But we're brought to a different place as we're reminded of the truth of our salvation. And we've been snatched from the fire. a place of affection, and that affection responds with an obedience and responds with a love, saying, if you have been good enough to rescue me, if you have been good enough to show me pity, if you have been good enough to bring me to your kingdom, certainly, certainly, I can listen to what you say and give what you ask for. Worship is a time for us to return to Him. As when we have the Lord's Supper, and as we take the Lord's Supper, we admit our need. Our need for Him. Our need for His truth. Our need for the sacrifice. Our need for that spiritual strengthening. Our need for spiritual nourishment. We come together with the same need. We need to be washed in the Word. We need to sing His Word. We need to hear His Word preached. We need to meet with Him. When we admit that weakness, when we admit that need, we do indeed return to Him and we come into His arms. This brings us to our third step. Give yourself to a brokenness in His arms. Psalm 51.8, as we've touched on, that the bones that you have broken rejoice. You see, as we come together, and as we render this service, and as we give Him this praise, we're saying, you've been right. You have been right all along. When we gave Him what He asked for, we're saying, You're right. You're right. You've been right all along. Your Word is right. Your Word is true. It's what I need for faith. It's what I need for life. It's exactly what I need for obedience. Now, I'm going to invite you now to remember to lead with your weakness. This is a very difficult idea for us leading with our weakness. I'm reminded of Moses when he came to the burning bush and God said, remove your sandals for the place in which you stand is holy ground. I heard a preacher speaking about this idea and he was saying that our feet being exposed shows our creature-ly-ness. That we're to the ground. We're attached to the ground. that were created beings, that were men. The same ideas with the angels who covered their feet with their wings as they, praise God, they're covering their creatureliness. As we come together and as we would lead with our weakness and we would lead and see our failures, our shortcomings, we're no longer huffing ourselves up or imagining that we're okay. I've had many family members that would deny their own weakness and deny their own pains my own great uncles, for example, we would be doing some task and I would hear them moan a horrible moan and gasp and double over and you would say, what's wrong uncle? And he would say, nothing. And look at you like you're an idiot for even asking the question. But the reality is we all moan. The reality is we all hurt. We do ourselves and we do one another a disservice and we do grace a disservice when we act like we don't need it. We don't need grace. We don't need one another. The reality is we do. And that's why we are placed together. So, in a sense, we admit our brokenness. In a sense, we give ourselves to a brokenness. In that we admit our need for grace. We admit our need for salvation. We admit our need for one another. And this takes place in the context of church family. This brings us to our first move. in the context and in the midst of our worship. Find peace and so great a salvation. Amos 4.11, I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze, yet you have not returned to me. Well, here we see ourselves once again He's a people who have been drawn out, drawn out from white hot wrath. A people rescued. A people given eternity in His presence. So a people with a reason to rejoice. A people with a reason to love deeply. What more do we need? What are the things that we run after? People run after the opportunity to feel validated. They run after the opportunity to be a part of something greater than themselves. They run after the opportunity to have someone look on them with affection. We find all of that in worship. When we think rightly about worship. We find ourselves in the most perfect affection. We find ourselves most completely embraced. We find ourselves as a part of something greater than ourselves. We find ourselves completely loved and with the opportunity to do something eternal, to give that great praise to God. So, in the midst of your pain, that we all have, in the midst of your sorrow, and your loneliness, and your isolation, which we all have, in the midst of physical decline, which we will all know, Give your hearts to worship. Return to Him and worship. See worship as it truly is, this beautiful eternal thing that you get to be in, that you get to be a part of, that you get to do. Find peace and strength there. Pray with me. Father, You have done such wonders in our midst. You have accomplished such a beautiful salvation in each of us. Now Lord, in the light of that salvation, standing on the Rock of Christ Jesus, give us hearts to think rightly about who you are and what you have done. Give us hearts to respond with deep affection and deep obedience in the worship that we give you. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.