Transcription
Praise the Lord and God bless you. Welcome to another exciting episode of the Doers of the Word ministry broadcast, brought to you by the Marketplace Network. Amen.
My name is Bishop Reginald Given, and I am the senior pastor of the Word of Truth Community Worship Center. Our mailing address is West 75 New Road, in the city of Paris, California, Sweet E342, 92571. And I have a word of the Lord to share with you on today.
Before we get started, let's just bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to share your word. Father, your word will not return unto you void, but it will accomplish the very thing that it is sent out to do. And so, God, I pray, Lord, that you'll in tune the people's ears, that you will anoint my delivery. And God, that you will be glorified through this message. We ask these blessings in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.
I would ask that you get your Bibles and go with me to the book of Amos. Amen. The book of Amos. Amos chapter 5. And we're going to get, we're going to read 15 verses. All right. And I need to read these 15 verses so that I can mainly keep you in the context of what is being spoken. Amos chapter 5, beginning at verse one, and it reads, "Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel. The virgin of Israel is fallen. She shall no more arise. She is forsaken upon her land. There is none to raise her up. For thus saith the Lord God, the city that went out by a thousand shall leave a hundred, and that which went forth by a hundred shall leave ten to the house of Israel. But thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live. But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba. For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come, shall live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth. Verse eight, 'Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night, that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth. The Lord is his name. That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.' Verse 10. So that they they hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and you take from him burdens of wheat. You have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine of them. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins. They afflict the just. They take a bribe and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time. Pay attention to verse 14. Seek good and not evil, that you may live. And so the Lord the God of hosts shall be with you as ye have spoken. Hate the evil and love the good and establish judgment in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph." May the Lord add a blessing to the reading as well as the hearing of his holy word. Amos 5:1-15.
The title of my message today is "Seek God and Live," taken from the 14th verse and the sixth verse. Seek God and live.
Now, recently, I read a story in a certain devotional that I, I was reading. I read a story of a man who lived in eastern Iowa, and he lived there for decades, pretty much, uh, good portion of his life. He would recount that every Wednesday, without fail, every Wednesday, a tornado warning siren would sound out over the air. He said that he learned that after hearing this familiar sound for weeks, for months, and for years, that it signified that it was only a drill. That's all it was. It was only a drill. And because of that, he grew to ignore the sound of the siren. But every now and then, the siren would sound on a day that was not Wednesday, signifying that this is not a drill, and that this was the time to scramble to the basement for safety and get there in a hurry because an actual tornado was approaching this time. And if immediate action was not taken, loss of life could possibly occur.
Well, this is what is called sounding the alarm. The Bible speaks of the importance as well as the significance of God's prophets sounding the alarm. Now, here is an example of sounding an alarm. If you look at Isaiah 58:1, it says, "Cry aloud and spare not. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins." This is what God had called Amos to do, to sound the alarm, simply because Israel was not living according to the covenant that God has set up between He and them.
Now, a covenant is a formal, binding, and solemn agreement or a promise between two or more participants to perform or refrain from a specific action. While similar to a contract, a covenant is often considered more personal and more relational, like the covenant of marriage. Let me give you an illustration of a covenant. 2 Chronicles 7:14. This is what I call an "if and then" proposal. It says, "If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then" – and we know "then" simply means soon after that – "then will I hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land." This is an example of a covenant that God gave his people. And I, I could give you many, many more out of the scriptures, but I believe you get the point.
Another problem we now have in our churches today is this. The prophets of today, amen. The prophets of today no longer prophesy like the prophets of yesterday. Often times today, you will hear more of prophecies beginning with words like, "God is getting ready to do," or "You survived the worst part, and the worst part is over." Or you might hear them say, "God is bringing you out and moving you to a new season," or "God is turning it around." Amen. Now, I'm not against any of those approaches, because God can do all that and then some. And I've seen him do it with my own eyes and my own experience. All I'm doing is, I'm just letting you know that prophecies came forth a lot differently back in biblical times. The prophets of Israel that I read about were often characterized proclaiming messages from God that exemplified judgment and exemplified destruction. Amen.
And when we talk about names, let's, let's talk about names. Names back then were given that, that had meaning to people, had meaning. Uh, names given were often times prophetic, reflecting on a person's character or their destiny. In some cases, you would be named according to what you would become. The name Amos means burdensome. The word burden means something that is difficult to bear. Amen. Hallelujah. These were the kind of prophecies that God had Amos to speak. Prophecies that were difficult to bear, which probably describes why verse 10 tells us that they hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
Now, isn't it funny how that if you are speaking nice things to people, and you are flattering them on how pretty they are, or how smart they are, or how great they operate in a certain gift, or how many members they have at their church, or how successful they are, or how successful they will become? Isn't it funny how that they are now revered and loved and considered highly credible in the eyes of people? How many people will come to you to hear what you have to say because you speak nice things? But when God is using you as his warning siren, and you start telling people the truth, and especially the truth about themselves, and about their shortcomings, and about areas that they, they need to make some changes in. When you start talking to people like that, isn't it funny how you now become a burden, and now people want to avoid you, and they do not invite you into their presence? Well, now you find yourself fulfilling verse 10, as Amos did. "They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly."
Nevertheless, God is still saying to his people, "Seek me and live." And yet, people will go to a church and they will hear a message just like this one and say within themselves, "Oh, I've heard that kind of message before. Ain't no big deal to it." And then they end up walking away and paying the message no mind.
Well, I want to let you know that this is not a drill anymore. Amen. The signs of the times are saying something is coming. Amen. And you need to heed the warning. In 2 Peter 3:3 and 4, it says, "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lust, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." But I say to you today, who ought you to obey and who ought you to listen to? God or man? Amen.
In Matthew chapter 24, verse 36-39, it says, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." And sad to say, people are still out there playing games while being in the church, still not heeding the word of God. Verse 37 says, "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating, they were drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be."
Seek God and live. And not only that, but do not seek after Bethel either. Let me explain. Bethel was an infamous city in Israel. Generations before, a king by the name of Jeroboam built a temple to a false god in Bethel. As a result, he led the entire nation into idolatrous worship, taking their attention away from the Lord. Other cities like Gilgal and Beer-sheba were also associated with this kind of wickedness.
The alarm is being sounded, saints. Don't let anything capture your attention more than God. Listen, being rich is not worth dying and going to hell for. Being famous is not worth dying and going to hell for. Doing anything to get likes on social media is not worth dying and going to hell for. It is time for the church to change its ways while there is still time.
In Mark 8:36 and 37, it says, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world?" Yes. "And lose his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Listen, eventually, based on biblical history, as longsuffering as God is, eventually God will lose patience and send judgment upon the people for their continued idolatry and disobedience. But you and I, praise God, you and I have a chance to escape this punishment. In 1 Thessalonians 5:9 and 10, it tells us, "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." And listen, if you have not obtained it yet, I am here to sound the alarm because this is no longer a drill. Verse 10 says, "Who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him."
All we have to do, saints, is seek God. Seek God and live. And pray that God will help us to let our light so shine before men, that this world will begin to see our good works and then glorify our Father which is in heaven. And how can this world know that we are of God, like Amos was? Well, you'll find that in John 13:35. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." It's about how we love each other. This never did make any sense to me. And, and I see it and I hear it happening in churches all over the country. People who go to the same church, get fed the same spiritual food from the same pastor called to be their shepherd, receive messages that are preached from the same Bible, and they still can't get along with each other. And that never did make any sense to me. Let's make sure that that doesn't happen to us.
I believe that the more we seek after God, and the more we seek after His will for our lives, I believe that the more we endeavor to walk in His ways in a spirit of humility, I believe that God will use us too. Wow. Just like He used Amos, He used him to sound the alarm so that others will come running, crying out, "What must I do to be saved?" It will happen, saints, if we seek God and live.
God bless you. That's my message for today. Seek God and live. Well, I hope that you got something out of that word. I hope that it sparked some urgency into your heart. We have got to line up with the word of God, because something is coming, and if we're not prepared for it, we will be left behind.
Once again, my name is Bishop Reginald Given, and I am the senior pastor of the Word of Truth Community Worship Center. Our mailing address is West 75 New Road, Sweet E342, in the city of Paris, California, 92571. I pray that if the Lord has laid it upon your heart that you might send in an offering or donation to help us stay on the air, whether it's $10, $20, $30, or $50, whatever the Lord may lay on your heart. The address to where you can send it to is at the bottom of the screen. We would greatly appreciate anything that you would send in to help us stay on this network.
So, as we get ready to sign off, thank you to the Marketplace Network for having me, and let's look forward to the next exciting episode of Doers of the Word Ministries broadcast. Till then, may God richly bless you. Amen.