you Well, good morning to you. Today I'd like to encourage you from Amos chapter 5 in our time together. Before I get into what Amos has to say, what I read and thinking about from this chapter reminds me of a book that I just finished reading. It's a secular book. The author has gone through quite a journey in his spiritual journey. He hasn't come out where I am by any stretch of the imagination. What's interesting about this book is it talks about how we go through these different phases or stages of life, and particularly he talks about the difference between the first half of our life, if you will, say up to around age 50, in our 40s, a lot of our skills and abilities and so forth that have been used to bring about whatever measure of success we might have at that point in life, those things tend to decline in the 50s, 40s, and then in the 50s. And some of us, we just want to hang on to what we've always been doing in the way we've always been doing it. but we don't have the capability of keeping that up and doing so successfully. But this is how we get satisfaction. This is how we find happiness, we think. This is my life. I've got to keep doing this. And they keep seeking after these things that they've been doing in life to try to find satisfaction that is so elusive and to find joy and happiness and success, but it's all so elusive. And the argument of his book is that we need to transition to a different way of approaching life and so forth. And he does make the point in the latter half of that book that the answer is to develop a spiritual appetite. Again, he doesn't go where I would go with that, But I found that to be a fascinating observation, because in Amos 5, God's people have been seeking all kinds of things for satisfaction, for meaning, for happiness, for joy, for success, militarily, economically, agriculturally, or whatever, and they haven't been finding it. And the Lord comes to them in verse 4, and he says, seek me and live." He goes on to say, but do not seek Bethel, nor Gilgal, nor pass over to Beersheba. What is he talking about there, these different cities? These are places where God's people had set up idols, false gods. He says, don't go to those false gods to find satisfaction in life, seek me and live. He says in verse 6, seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it with no one to quench it in Bethel. You who turn justice to wormwood and lay righteousness to rest in the earth. You say, listen, you're wayward, you've strayed from me, you've gone after these other idols, all in an attempt to find some measure of satisfaction, some degree of success, or some hope for joy in life. Those will all lead you to doom. This is what he warns. He says, Bethel shall come to nothing. There's a fire that's going to break out in the house of Joseph and devour it. You're not going to find satisfaction in these idols and these false gods and turning away from the Lord. The Lord says, seek me and live. Well, let's take that challenge in the 21st century. What is it that we're seeking for satisfaction, for happiness, for joy? Are we seeking the Lord and thereby finding life? Or are we looking elsewhere, where we're only going to find disillusionment and sorrow and failure? No. Seek the Lord and live. And so, our Father and our God, may we seek you with all of our heart. You said, if we will seek, we will find. We thank you for that promise today. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your day. I do trust the Lord will bless you in this day.