For a few generations now, western society has been plagued by a continual effort to live in a fictional reality, and by that I mean we imagine the universe to be different than what it actually is and then, with nothing but vaulted foolish arrogance, attempt to live in that fictional space, thinking that we have manifested it to be reality. It is truly insane, not in a sarcastic way, but in every fundamental way. The core definition of insanity is the inability to understand, accept, and constructively engage with reality.

An obvious example of this condition would be a person who insists they are the first president of the United States, George Washington. A person who believes they can fly as the fictional character Superman does is, by definition, insane, and likely soon to die!

However, there are also temporary forms of insanity. For instance, when I was at Virginia Tech, every week, some drunk frat boy who liked to go to the gym and watch action movies confused himself into being somebody he wasn’t. The insanity typically manifested itself when they initiated a fight and punched one of my teammates. Starting a fight with a Division 1 College Football player isn’t found on a list of potentially wise life decisions, but what made it worse was that they hardly ever instigated a fight with a player like me, who played Wide Receiver, but rather one of our Defensive Ends. The athletic ability of an NCAA Power 4 college athlete is noticeably greater than 99% of the human population. When you add that to the 1% level of elite combination of size, power, and quickness necessary to compete as a Defensive End at that level, then what you have is one of the most physically dangerous individuals on the planet.

So the drunk frat boy who likes to work out and watch action movies, who confidently thinks he can impress his girlfriend by picking a fight with the human version of a Lion or a Bear and win, is fundamentally insane! Their beer-infused logic left them unable to understand, accept, or constructively engage with reality. For those who wonder how those fights ended, let’s just say the frat boys always swiftly and decisively lost these fights in extreme and obvious ways.

Now, some might think the examples I’ve provided are the most severe examples of insanity. What could be more insane than thinking you are the first president of the United States, can fly like Superman, or even as a committed bodybuilder, that you can now physically dominate a man who is earning his paycheck because he’s one of the most talented people on the entire planet at physically dominating men? Could there possibly be anything more fundamentally insane than those examples? Actually, yes. Let me explain.

If I have no mental ability within myself to understand that I’m not the first president of the United States, nor that I’m unable to jump out of my window and soar through the air like Superman, or even in a self-inflicted state of drunkenness (which is of itself a level of insanity) I’m unable to truly grasp my physical limitations, I can at least say, even if for temporary reasons, I was unable to make a sane decision. In those instances, I would at least have a logically sane reason for my insanity. However, if I fully possess the mental and emotional ability to understand, accept, and constructively engage with reality, but choose not to, I might actually be considered more insane than one who can’t help but think himself to be George Washington or Superman! Think about it, what’s more insane, a man who doesn’t have the ability to understand he’s not Superman, or one who does but still insists he is? Clearly, on a functional level, the one who does and chooses not to do so is far more insane than the one who can’t, and it’s why current trends in our culture are so alarming!

For instance, I recently spoke with a Public School teacher who told me they are no longer allowed to give a “zero.” That is, if a student fails to turn in an assignment or answers every question on a test incorrectly, they are not given a grade of “0.00%,” but rather a grade of “50%”. A student now gets credit for doing 50% of something correctly, even if they never even bother to actually do the assignment! We are literally teaching an entire generation that they can willfully choose to do absolutely nothing and get credit for it. Think about this for a minute. A child who works their butt off but only gets 6 out of 10 questions correct will get a grade of 60%; however, a child who decides to play games on their phone and does nothing at all gets a grade of 50%! Public School teachers are being forced to teach an entire generation to incorrectly understand, accept, and constructively engage with reality—insanity!

Therefore, as our society raises yet another generation of people that we affirm the idea that life is a video game that you can just hit reset and get a brand new start with no lasting consequence of our failures; that negative actions or inaction when action is required doesn’t have negative consequences; that I can live a self-absorbed life that blames all my problems on everybody else and yet still have the same quality of life and relationships as those who don’t; that I can live an entitled life that says the difficulties I face in life are the job of everyone else to fix; that I can choose not to prepare, not work hard, not be disciplined, and not be responsible for my actions, words, and attitude and yet somehow deserve and receive the same benefits from society and relationships as those who do … that I can live how I want and in doing so only experience the outcomes I desire is totally and completely insane! It is a willful choice to incorrectly understand, accept, and constructively engage with reality, and as such, I propose it is substantially more insane than a person who has no ability to truly understand that they are indeed not the first president of the United States or too drunk to realize they are picking a fight with the human version of a bear! However, it is also not a new phenomenon in human society and history!

The world that Amos was confronting as a prophet of God was doing the exact same thing. Although the pagan nations that surrounded Israel didn’t have the level of clarity of who God is and what He expects that the Jews had, the Bible tells us the invisible attributes of the creator of the Universe are clearly seen in creation. Every culture in human history has had some level of understanding that there is a creator, a universal moral law that the creator expects mankind to live by, and consequences from that creator for failing to live by it. Paul wrote,

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1:19-20)

Mankind knows there is a moral law and a creator of that law that will judge them for violating it, yet chooses to violate it anyway—insanity!

However, in Amos’ day, the Jewish people took the insanity of disregarding what has “been clearly perceived” about God, His expectations, and the consequences to an entirely different level of insanity. More than 800 years later, in speaking of how God had given the Jewish people WAY more understanding and clarity than the Gentiles, Paul wrote,

1 Then what advantage has the Jew? … 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. (Romans 3:1-2)

Yet, Paul also said of the Jewish people,

23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. (Romans 2:23)

The Jewish people had been chosen by God and by the time Amos came along, they had a thousand-plus years of history, as well as a written Covenant from God that God had frequently proven He meant to keep, all of which should have removed any doubt or misunderstanding of who God is, what He expects, and the consequences of not submitting to those expectations! Yet, they were doing what Paul said the Jews were still doing 800 years after Amos,

23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. (Romans 2:23)

Paul was saying, “You who know better than anybody on the planet who God is and what He expects of you, as well as the consequences for choosing not to do it, are not choosing to do it!”

Now, here’s where things become incredibly unfortunate for the people in Amos’ day. God didn’t raise up Amos to give the pagan nations nor the Jewish people an opportunity to be rescued from the consequences of their sin. God raised up Amos to make it crystal clear just how severe the consequences of their sin would be. They all knew God’s wrath on sin was indescribably terrifying, but they had insanely chosen to disregard that knowledge and rebel against God anyway. Therefore, God sent Amos to clearly pronounce the consequences of their willful rebellion, and in so doing, help ensure that we, who live two millennia later, fully understand just how insane it is to disregard the knowledge of God’s terrifying wrath on sin!

There are three main groups of people that Amos prophesied about concerning God’s wrath on sin, and in each, we see just how terrifying it is.

The first group is the pagan nations.

God’s terrifying wrath on pagan nations.

Amos pronounced the following punishment of God on the Syrians for how they sadistically slaughtered the Jewish citizens of Gilead:

“4 So I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad. 5 I will break the gate-bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden; and the people of Syria shall go into exile to Kir," says the LORD.” (1:4-5)

Notice the words Amos used that are intended to horrify the listener—"fire,” “devour,” “break,” and “cut off” are all words of an extreme nature.

“The house (dynasty) of Hazael would be terminated, and the Arameans would be exiled (cf. 1:15) back to their place of origin, a Mesopotamian site called Kir. In essence, this punishment would be a complete reversal of Aram’s proud history. God, who had originally brought them out of Kir (9:7), would send them back, after obliterating all they had achieved. This judgment was carried out by the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pileser III in 732 b.c. (cf. 2 Kings 16:7–9).”¹Sunukjian, D. R. (1985). Amos. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1429). Victor Books.

Amos pronounced the following punishment of God on the Philistines, who had captured and sold entire towns into slavery for nothing but profit:

“7 So I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour her strongholds. 8 I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod, and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; I will turn my hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish," says the Lord GOD.” (1:7-8)

Again, we see the words “fire,” “devour,” and “cut off,” but now we see another terrifying description. Going back to my drunk frat boy illustration. When the drunk frat boy punched one of my teammates, he was turning his hand against him, which then caused my teammate to turn his hand against the drunk frat boy, a hand that came with tremendously greater force, frequency, and accuracy than the drunk frat boy was in any way capable of! With that in mind, the “hand” that is coming against the Philistines is the “hand” of the almighty God! What a terrifying image! Finally, to “perish” is the ultimate in terror. There is a promise that they will not survive!

“This judgment was partially fulfilled in the subjugation of the Philistines to the Assyrians later in the eighth century b.c., and more completely during the Maccabean period (168–134 b.c.).”²Sunukjian, D. R. (1985). Amos. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1429). Victor Books.

Amos pronounced the following punishment of God on the Phoenicians, who were not only doing precisely what the Philistines were doing in capturing entire towns and selling them into slavery for nothing but profit, but more ostensibly, towns in Israel that were in a brotherly covenantal trade partnership with the Phoenicians:

“10 So I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour her strongholds." (1:10)

“Alexander the Great overran the city of Tyre in 332 b.c. after besieging it for seven months. Six thousand people were slain outright, 2,000 were crucified, and 30,000 were sold as slaves.”³Sunukjian, D. R. (1985). Amos. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1429). Victor Books.

Amos pronounced the following punishment of God on Edom because of their intentionally horrific atrocities against defenseless women:

“12 So I will send a fire upon Teman, and it shall devour the strongholds of Bozrah." (1:12)

“Edom was subjugated by the Assyrians in the eighth century b.c., turned into a desolate wasteland by the fifth century b.c. (Mal. 1:3), and overtaken by the Nabateans, an Arabian tribe, around 400–300 b.c.”⁴Sunukjian, D. R. (1985). Amos. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1430). Victor Books.

Amos pronounced the following punishment of God on the Ammonites because, like the Edomites, they had intentionally committed horrific atrocities against defenseless women:

“14 So I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour her strongholds, with shouting on the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind; 15 and their king shall go into exile, he and his princes together," says the LORD.” (1:14-15)

To the Ammonites, Amos adds three more words of terror. God’s judgment will come with “shouting on the day of battle” and “a tempest” (a huge, violent storm like a hurricane) during a day described as a “whirlwind” (tornado). These are all verbal images of total terror! The screams of the attacking enemy mixed with the screams of those being slaughtered in a scene so violent it will resemble a massive hurricane spinning up a violent tornado that sends people and buildings flying through the air in utter destructive chaos.

“This judgment was fulfilled through the Assyrian conquest under Tiglath-Pileser III in 734 b.c.”⁵Sunukjian, D. R. (1985). Amos. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1430). Victor Books.

Amos pronounced the following punishment of God on the Moabites for unjustly attacking and brutally dehumanizing a neighboring nation:

“2 So I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth, and Moab shall die amid uproar, amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet; 3 I will cut off the ruler from its midst, and will kill all its princes with him," says the LORD.” (2:2-3)

Among the similar phrases of terror in this passage are the words “die” and “kill.” They are the same kind of terror as the previously mentioned “perish” with the Philistines. “Uproar” and “shouting” evoke similar images to those in the previous judgments on the Ammonites as well. But here, Amos adds the “sound of the trumpet,” which amplifies the reality of the terror of an invader. Every good horror movie uses music to heighten the terror! In this case, the sounds of the trumpet signaling instructions to the invader, as well as the sounds of the trumpet ordered by your own military leaders to signal their soldiers, would be a terrifying reality that people are being killed. As the sounds of your trumpets decreased and the sounds of the enemies' trumpets increased, the horror would as well!

Finally, even the sons of the Kings, no matter their age, would be killed.

“Moab, like Ammon, fell to the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pileser III.”⁶Sunukjian, D. R. (1985). Amos. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1430). Victor Books.

The second group isn’t mentioned as often by Amos, but he doesn’t exclude them.

God’s terrifying wrath on the Kingdom of Judah.

As a reminder for those new to the Bible, the Jewish tribes split into two kingdoms. Ten Jewish tribes formed the northern Kingdom of Israel, and Judah and Benjamin united to form the southern Kingdom of Judah.

“5 So I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem." (2:5)

We will talk more about the sins of Judah in part three of Amos, but in short, they knowingly broke the laws of the covenant God made with them! What’s striking is that in verse four, Amos tells us that they are knowingly lying to themselves in their rebellion, which is what we are talking about at the beginning of this sermon! The only thing more insane than being insane is living like you’re insane when you’re not! They are knowingly lying to themselves about God and the consequences of breaking His Law, and God is sending a fire on them that will devour them! Imagine being in a house that is completely engulfed in flames, or being surrounded by a forest fire in a dense forest with nowhere to run! Terrifying!

“The punishment for this faithlessness would be the destruction of the nation, fulfilled in 586 b.c. when Nebuchadnezzar, after a lengthy siege, broke through Jerusalem’s defenses, slaughtered the royal family, burned the temple, the palace, and all houses in the city, and deported almost the entire population to Babylon (2 Kings 25:1–12).”⁷Sunukjian, D. R. (1985). Amos. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1431). Victor Books.

The third group is the primary recipient of the Word God called Amos to preach.

God’s terrifying wrath on the Kingdom of Israel.

This is the northern kingdom, comprising ten Jewish tribes. The terror of God’s impending wrath on their sin is explicitly horrifying on an epic scale. Let me take you through a sampling of passages in Amos in which he declares God’s wrath against them.

“The history of the Northern Kingdom came to an end only a few decades later with the Assyrian Captivity in 722 b.c. (2 Kings 17:1–23).”⁸Sunukjian, D. R. (1985). Amos. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1432). Victor Books.

13 "Behold, I will press you down in your place, as a cart full of sheaves presses down. 14 Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not retain his strength, nor shall the mighty save his life; 15 he who handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself, nor shall he who rides the horse save his life; 16 and he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day," declares the LORD. (2:13-16)

11 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:  "An adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered." 12 Thus says the LORD: "As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed. (3:11-12)

Note: Those who escape death will only escape with a corner of their couch and part of their bed, meaning all their possessions and wealth are going to be lost!

2 The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks. (4:2)

18 Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light, 19 as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. 20 Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? (5:18-20)

1 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, "The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them. 3 The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day," declares the Lord GOD. "So many dead bodies!" "They are thrown everywhere!" "Silence!" 7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: "Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. 8 Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who dwells in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?" 9 "And on that day," declares the Lord GOD, "I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day. 11 "Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land-- not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. 12 They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it. 13 "In that day the lovely virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst. 14 Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria, and say, 'As your god lives, O Dan,' and, 'As the Way of Beersheba lives,' they shall fall, and never rise again."(8:1-14)

1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said:  "Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away; not one of them shall escape. 2 "If they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. 3 If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search them out and take them; and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them. 4 And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good." … 8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob," declares the LORD. 9 "For behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth. 10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, 'Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.' (9:1-4; 8-10)

The final verse takes us back to the insanity in all this! Of all people, the Israelites fully knew just how terrifying the wrath of God is and how inevitable it was if they continued in sin, yet, in their blatant rebellion, they said, “Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.” INSANE!

Now, people who are familiar with the Bible aren’t entirely shocked by the terrifying images of God’s wrath on sin in the Old Testament, after all, it’s the same half of the Bible where we see the Flood that destroyed every living thing that wasn’t with Noah on the Ark! However, what a shocking number of people don’t realize is that some of the most, if not THE most, terrifying statements of God’s wrath on sin were made by none other than Jesus Christ Himself! Listen to a sampling of the kinds of things Jesus said,

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)

Note: He’s speaking of GOD being the one who can destroy both soul and body in Hell! It is God who condemns man to the eternal state of being destroyed!

50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know 51 and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:50-51)

22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ (Luke 16:22-26)

6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. (John 15:6)

However, these statements of Jesus are actually still not the most terrifying picture of God’s wrath on sin, but rather what Jesus Himself came to do! A perfect loving Jesus on a cross suffering the eternal wrath of God on sin is the most terrifying picture of God’s wrath on sin possible! The eternal Son of God who had no fear in the storm, who had been punched, beat with a whip that ripped flesh from bone, who had carried His cross that He was then nailed to and hung naked on for all to see Him struggle to hold Himself up to breath until He couldn’t do it anymore, had something more horrifying than that to endure. He didn’t cry out under any of the horrific physical abuse, but when the price of our sin was entirely placed on Jesus, when the weight of the eternal separation from God that sin creates was fully experienced by the bloodied embodiment of love, peace, and strength, this is what happened:

45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.  46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. (Matthew 27:45-51)

The one who was perfectly calm in a storm that by every reasonable observation would drown all in the boat, the one who faced demons and they fled from Him, the one who had not flinched under anything man could throw at Him, finally cried out with a loud voice of complete and utter agony as the weight of the eternal loneliness, hopeless, emptiness and absolute hell of being eternally separated from God was completely and fully placed on The One who had never tasted even a micro fragment of that consequence.

But here’s the irony. It is in this ultimate picture of God’s terrifying wrath on sin that we see the true grace of God! What Jesus suffered is the fate of every sinner, with the exception of those who repent and believe in Him!

Paul wrote,

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Peter wrote,

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)

Finally, the Apostle John wrote,

10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

The word “propitiation” means to satisfy wrath, and in this case, it’s what Christ did to fully satisfy God’s wrath on OUR sin!!! There is NO wrath of God left for all who are in Christ because CHRIST suffered all of it for us! However, Christ’s death is only effective for all who are in Christ, meaning, if you are not in Christ, your future is what Jesus suffered on the cross, with the exception of ever being able to say what Jesus said, “It is Finished!” (John 19:30)

Therefore, to all of us, no matter what your context is in relationship with Christ, the question is the same.

Challenge

Are you rightly living from the knowledge of what Christ suffered to save you from, or insanely living in what caused Christ to suffer?

Nothing could be more insane than living a life not surrendered to Christ. Knowing the horrific, terrifying reality of God’s wrath on sin, nothing could then be more insane than knowingly living a life outside of the saving grace of Jesus!

However, in the same way, nothing is more ridiculous than when we, as those who KNOW the Gospel, forget what GOD has done for us in Christ! That we have been forever given all the blessings of GOD instead of what we deserve, not because God just forgot about what we did, but because God sent His only Son to suffer His terrifying wrath on our sin for us!!!

OH, WHAT A SAVIOR!!!!!! JESUS, THANK YOU FOR THE BLOOD THAT YOU CAME TO WILLINGLY SHED FOR ME!! May my life be constantly filled with the gratefulness, obedience, and praise you are due!

Discussion Guide 

*Note to Leader:  Feel free to go through some of the ‘wrath’ sections quickly in order to spend the most time on the Challenge section.  If you choose between some of the ‘wrath’ sections, maybe focus most on the 3^rd one, Israel.  There are some longer passages that give lots of details to consider.

 Someone share your testimony in less than a minute

What was the biggest motivator in giving your life to Christ?

What bearing did the thought of spending eternity in hell have on you coming to Christ?

There are three main groups of people that Amos prophesied about concerning God’s wrath on sin, and in each, we see just how terrifying it is.

God’s terrifying wrath on pagan (1:4-5, 7-8, 10, 12, 14-15; 2:2-3)

Read some or all of the passages about God’s wrath

Have the group members describe what those outpourings of wrath might look like

What were some of the things being done that warranted that level of wrath?

God’s terrifying wrath on the Kingdom of Judah. (2:5)

What is Judah’s base sin?

What are some sins that have been normalized in American Christianity?

What might cause us to begin turning away from those sins before it’s too late?

God’s terrifying wrath on the Kingdom of Israel. (2:13-16; 3:11-12; 4:2; 5:18-20; 8:1-14; 9:1-4; 8-10)

 Choose some or all of the passages to read, Or…

Hone in on a few of the recurring topics of judgment in the passages, such as the ‘day of the Lord’

Definitely discuss Amos 9:10 and discuss how that is still lived out today

Challenge

Are you rightly living from the knowledge of what Christ suffered to save you from, or insanely living in what caused Christ to suffer? 

Other key Biblical passages mentioned in the sermon were Matthew 10:28; 24:50-51, 27:45-51, Luke 16:22-26, John 15:6, Romans 1:19-20; 2:23; 3:1-2, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 John 4:10.

Choose some of the verses above (especially the last 3) and discuss the depth of their meaning for us in Christ.

What’s 1 goal you can set today, that you can begin working on this week, that could help you live more obedient to Christ?

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