This is the first Sunday in December, which means we are fully into the world’s most globally celebrated tradition—Christmas!  There is no bigger tradition in the world!  People participate in it who don’t even believe in Jesus.  There are even some Muslim nations that celebrate it; it’s obviously nothing more than a commercial holiday, but it’s nonetheless celebrated.

Here is a link to a Wikipedia map showing the number of official days of rest recognized in each country around the world.   I was shocked to see that there are Muslim countries on the list!

Click here for the map 

Ironically, for Christians, Sudan is one of the most dangerous places in the world to live; however, the government actually provides two official days for Christmas.  Islam believes Jesus was a prophet, even though it disregards the most fundamental things Jesus taught—i.e., that He is the eternal Son of God who died to pay the entire penalty of our sins, then rose from the grave, ascended to heaven, and is coming back to eternally bless and dwell with all who have repented and believed in Him!  There is, however, a caveat.  Christians must get a permit to get together and celebrate Christmas, which in turn places an official mark on them as Christians!  It kind of feels like the pile of corn deer hunters place 30 to 50 yards from their deer stand.  The deer see it as incredible generosity, while the hunter sees it as an opportunity!

Nonetheless, whether it’s a “Christian” culture or not, at minimum, for the non-believer, Christmas celebrations, music, decorations, food, and even smells are fun ways to connect with family and friends and experience comforting nostalgia.   It's hard not to enjoy the feeling of being in your house on a cold December night, with a cup of hot chocolate in your hand, sitting by a warm fireplace in a room lit by a beautiful Christmas tree.  Christian or not, as a child, there isn’t much that compares to the climactic event of getting up on Christmas morning and finally getting to tear into the presents under the tree that you’ve been trying to figure out what’s in them for days, if not weeks.  As a parent, few things are more fun than seeing your kids light up as they do on Christmas morning, and now that we have a kid in college, having your kids together under one roof!

For me, I’m not a big “tradition” guy, but I am with Christmas!  People who want to have metallic Christmas trees or ruin a beautiful Fraser fir with lights that look like jalapeño peppers have the right to ruin Christmas if they wish to, just don’t ask me to ruin it with you! I’m pretty sure the judgment seat of Christ will be a long, hard day for people who mess up Christmas traditions (and of course, I’m joking!)

So, all joking aside, and not in any way to defend my refusal to compromise the well-established Christmas traditions that have been popularized over the last few centuries, there is nonetheless nothing inherently wrong or sinful with traditions, including religious traditions.  It’s essential for us to understand that, Biblically speaking, as long as the practice of a tradition doesn’t require me to do something unethical, immoral, or outright state that I worship a god other than Yahweh, then, Biblically, there is nothing wrong with participating in them OR not participating in them!  Paul wrote,

5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. (Romans 14:5)

Now we will come back to what Paul is saying here after we dig into what Amos was confronting, so for now, the reason why I’m bringing this up is that the subject we are talking about today is often confused as an attack on traditions themselves rather than on how those traditions are understood and valued.  So let me be clear: traditions are nothing more than methods to connect people to common values across generations.  There is nothing innately wrong or right about something being a tradition.

However, for Old Testament believers, and even more obviously for New Testament believers, when the tradition itself becomes the value—whether it’s about God or not —then that tradition has become an idol.  Furthermore, for those living in the New Covenant in Christ, it is even more idolatrous and an outright rejection of entire chapters and even books in the New Testament when the practice of a tradition is believed to be a means of transferring the forgiveness of sins or blessings/favor from God.  Books like Galatians and Hebrews, as well as chapters in the Bible like Romans 1-8, Ephesians 1-3, and Colossians 1-3, were written to destroy the idea that the practice of any tradition rightly aligns me with God, yields God’s forgiveness, or gives me the right to have His blessings/favor.  God’s favor and blessings are only earned through the work of Christ on the cross and, as such, are only bestowed by God’s Grace through faith alone.  The idea that I could eat or drink something given to me by a priest, or give a certain amount of money to the church, or be placed in water in a certain way, or practice public worship on a particular day, in a special place, and in a special way, somehow transfers the righteousness and favor of Christ to my life, is an offense to everything Jesus and His Apostles taught!

It's why Paul wrote,

1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? (Galatians 3:1-6)

Paul makes it very clear in passages like Romans 4 that God has never given right standing with Himself or given His favor to anyone because of a religious action, but rather it’s always been by faith in Him; that is God has only ever positively responded to those who trust in Him, so much so that they gladly repent and submit themselves to Him in faithful obedience for He who is—God! Paul wrote,

9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, 12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. (Romans 4:9-12)

So, what does this have to do with the book of Amos?

Imagine a small town filled with Christians who felt entitled to God’s blessings because they identified themselves as Christians and participated in Christian traditions and practices, despite simultaneously ignoring and even justifying blatant sin and rebellion in their life.  Imagine a small town where churchgoers were turning a blind eye to their own sexual immorality and unethical business practices; where they were unethically manipulating the local government and justice system for their own financial gain; where they totally ignored the suffering people in their own community when it wasn’t convenient or self-glorifying to do anything about it.  Imagine a small town where the people who proclaimed to be Christians covered up their materialism by checking a box that they gave a minimum amount of money to the church and other charitable organizations.  Imagine most of that town getting up once a week to put on their best cloths, drive their best car, and pull in to the most ornate and expensive building in the entire community to worship the God they believe had given them approval to live that way because they took time out of their week to sing songs to Him, hear somebody talk about Him, and participate in whatever other traditions they believed to be essential for receiving His forgiveness and favor.  Sound familiar?  Well, it’s not new.  This is EXACTLY the thing that was going on in Israel, and it’s a significant reason why God was unleashing His judgment on them!

  Amos directly confronted two blatant examples of Israel’s religious hypocrisy.

 The first direct confrontation of their religious hypocrisy takes us back to things we have already discussed.

They publicly “worshiped” Yahweh while justifying their blatant oppression of the poor. 

 I put the word “worshipped” in parentheses because the word fundamentally means to live in submission and adoration; to be consumed with.However, the Jews were in no way living in submission, adoration, or consumed with God!

We’ve already seen the first part of this passage twice in our series.So just as a reminder, in Amos 4:1-2 we read,

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, that we may drink!’ 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. 3 And you shall go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead; and you shall be cast out into Harmon,” declares the Lord.

 As we stated last week, through much of human history, being overweight was a sign of wealth, because only the wealthy had enough money to afford enough food to be fat!Therefore, Amos begins chapter four by highlighting the fact that the rich women of Bashan were like cows.  This not only pointed to the livestock industry that brought great wealth to the region of Bashan, but also to the fact that one of the ways these women were able to get fat and lie around on expensive couches demanding their husbands bring them more wine was their husbands’ oppression of the poor.

 As I told you last week, based on the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, this was a BLATANT violation of God’s law.It wasn’t a secret that God hated oppression, nor that He would severely punish it!  To no surprise, then, Amos says God is going to send a foreign nation to conquer them and drag them off to slavery with giant fishhooks!  However, the severity of their sin and God's response to it are truly understood even more when you see that they believed their strict adherence to certain parts of the Mosaic Law gave them the right to do what they were doing!  Amos writes,

 4 "Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; 5 offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!" declares the Lord GOD.

Sacrifices refer to the various things people were required to give to the Lord as a substitute to receive the punishment they deserved for their sins. God’s wrath on sin was never satisfied by these sacrifices, but rather, they were a symbol of what Christ needed to do and fully did for us (Hebrews 9)!

Tithes were the mandated gifts of 10% of what they produced, given to the Levites (the people in charge of the religious system in Israel). The Mosaic Law required two annual tithes (Numbers 18:21-14 and Deuteronomy 14:22-27), as well as an additional tithe collected once every three years, specifically used to help the poor (Deuteronomy 14:28-29).

Freewill offeringsrefer to the numerous offerings mentioned in the Law that Jews were required to give over and above their tithes, with no defined percentage required.

Now, understand, God was so angry at the Israelites’ religious hypocrisy that he taunted them to continue giving these sacrifices, tithes, and freewill offerings!Why?  Well, God made it very clear in the Law that He would punish those who oppressed the poor, but these “cows of Bashan” somehow thought that their religious practices excused them from what God had said He would do to people who oppressed the poor! Their self-perceived “faithful” participation in things God commanded them to do gave them a sense of entitlement to do whatever they wanted to the poor, and as we said last week, even see the poor as people God created for their glory and benefit!

Therefore, in verses 4-5, God is taunting them to keep it up!God was saying, “Since your faith is in your religious practices rather than Me, go ahead and multiply your transgression with this religious hypocrisy!”  It’s as if God were saying, “I’ve already declared my judgment on your oppression of the poor, so keep multiplying my judgment on you by making more and more sacrifices, offerings, and free will offerings that you believe give you the right to disobey me!”

Now, it’s essential to understand that God is not telling them it's ok not to tithe, offer sacrifices, or give free-will offerings.They were commanded to do these things, and as such, God is no way saying these things don’t matter.   What Amos is delivering from God is the truth that obeying God’s commandments in these matters didn’t entitle them to do what He told them NOT to do in other matters!

The truth of the matter is that they weren’t giving their tithes, sacrifices, and free will offerings out of a love for God, His work, and gratefulness for all He had blessed them with. Instead, they were doing it to be praised by men!He writes, “… proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!" declares the Lord GOD.”

Now, it’s important to understand that tithes, sacrifices, and free-will offerings were given publicly as part of public worship.There was no other way to do it, but more importantly, doing these things publicly was intended to testify to others of God’s worthiness to receive them and to bring integrity with what was being given.  Similarly, in the book of Acts, people brought their financial gifts to the Apostles and publicly laid them at their feet.  However, a certain couple lied about giving all they had made from the sale of a particular property; it got exposed, and then they both dropped dead from the judgment of God for lying (Acts 5:1-11)!

The point I’m making is that Amos wasn’t criticizing the fact that they were publicly offering sacrifices to the Lord, as well as publicly giving their tithes and free will offerings, but that they loved telling people the amount of their free will offerings so that people would admire and praise them for the large sums of money they freely chose to donate.The sin was not in giving them publicly, but in WHY they were doing it!  They wanted people to see how rich and powerful they were.  They wanted people to believe they loved God even though they had no love for God at all!  They were blatantly disregarding God’s law in how they were oppressing the poor to increase their wealth, then presenting offerings of that sinfully earned wealth to God as if it made it right!

For these people, it wasn’t a response to the glory of God; it wasn’t about being faithful to the Lord and glorifying Him, but for people to glorify them!Herein lies the essence of religious hypocrisy.At the end of the day, religious hypocrisy is about gratifying yourself that you are righteous enough to deserve God’s blessings and/or righteous enough to be justified in your blatant sinful rebellion in other areas.

I do not receive the grace of God by attending a church service, taking communion, getting baptized, or donating money, just as much as receiving God’s grace is never an entitlement to live in sin (Romans 6:1, Galatians 2:17-19).To justify either is blatant religious hypocrisy.

 The second direct confrontation of their religious hypocrisy is so obvious that it’s almost hard to believe it was happening!

 They publicly “worshiped” Yahweh and other gods at the same time! 

Again, I put “worshiped” in parentheses because technically, you can’t worship God and false gods at the same time.You can’t be submissive to, truly adore, and be consumed with two different gods, because to be a god means you are worthy of ALL worship!  In this way, not every god is truly worshiped in pagan religions, because the moment they begin to worship one god, they are, by definition, no longer worshiping the other gods! However, in the Bible, to worship any god but Yahweh is not just a logical fallacy, but it's also the most blatant and obvious sin you could ever commit!

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, (Exodus 20:2-5)

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. (Deuteronomy 6:4-6)

Now, before we even get to Amos 5, God has already been hinting around at their idolatry.In the passage we just studied in Amos, God said,

4 "Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; (4:4)

In 1 Kings 12:25-33, we read a very disturbing story.During the reign of Jeroboam, he realized that many Jews in the northern Kingdom were bypassing the opportunity to worship the Lord in Bethel and Dan and instead going to the southern Kingdom of Judah to worship in the temple built by Solomon.  Worried it would eventually lead people to want to reunify with the southern Kingdom and end his reign as King, Jeroboam built two golden calves for the people to worship the gods of Egypt!  He put one in Dan and the other in Bethel.  I guess he pitched the idea that you could have a more spiritual experience if you stayed in the northern Kingdom and worshiped at Dan or Bethel, since you could get more spiritual bang for your buck by going to one place to earn the forgiveness and favor of multiple gods!  No matter how it was pitched, the results were devastating.  The Jews in the northern Kingdom were told by their King that it was a good thing to worship Yahweh and false gods, and they gladly agreed!

Now, Amos 4 doesn’t directly mention this idolatry, so readers in the northern Kingdom may have thought they had gotten away with it. But when you get into Amos 5, the readers would run right into a direct confrontation of their idolatry.  The confrontation begins in verse 21, where God makes it clear He hates everything about their participation in the things He commanded them to do.  And yes, you read that right, you are about to read how God hated their obedience to practice and participate in the religious rituals, traditions, and instructions He Himself commanded them to do.  Amos writes,

 21 "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

 Note: “5:21–22. God’s burning anger was directed mostly against Israel’s religious hypocrisy. He hated, He despised (the repetition indicates vehemence and passion) their religious feasts—the three pilgrimage festivals of Unleavened Bread, Harvest (Weeks), and Ingathering (Tabernacles) which were celebrated annually at the sanctuary (Ex. 23:14–17; 34:18–24; Lev. 23; Deut. 16:1–17). He could not stand (lit., “smell”) the offerings of their assemblies. Though they continually brought Him burnt offerings (Lev. 1) and grain offerings (Lev. 2), He would not accept them as legitimate sacrifices. Though they brought choice fellowship offerings (Lev. 3), He would have no regard for or awareness of them. He loathed every part of their religious worship (see comments on Amos 4:4–5).”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. 1441). Victor Books.

 Skipping ahead to verse 26, he writes,

26 You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god--your images that you made for yourselves, 27 and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. (5:21-27)

 “5:26 Sikkuth, your king, and Kaiwan, your images, the star of your gods The rare Hebrew words used here—sikkuth and kiyyun—may have been names for Babylonian deities. Sikkuth (Sakkuth) may refer to the obscure Babylonian god, Sakkut. Kiyyun (Kaiwan; Chiun) is a Babylonian name for the planet Saturn, which was worshiped as a god. Some translations read these names as common nouns related to idolatry. The verse is probably denouncing the worship of heavenly bodies like the sun, stars, and the planets (known as astral worship; see note on Jer 8:2). 5:27 I will deport you beyond Damascus Israel was deported by Assyria and resettled in Mesopotamia. See 2 Kgs 17:6.”²Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Am 5:26–27). Lexham Press.

“5:26. Since then their worship had further degenerated as they began to honor “heavenly bodies” (Acts 7:42; 2 Kings 21:3–5; 23:4–5; Jer. 8:2; 19:13; Zeph. 1:5), in violation of their covenant Law (Deut. 4:19; 17:3). They lifted up the shrine of their false deity (their king), raised the pedestal on which their idols perched, and held high the star symbol of their god. The words “shrine” and “pedestal” could be translated as “Sakkuth” and “Kaiwan” (cf. niv marg.), foreign deities associated with the starry heavens, especially the Planet Saturn. … 5:27. Because of this idolatry and hypocrisy in their worship, God said He would send Israel into exile beyond Damascus, toward the direction of Assyria (cf. 4:3). The horror of “exile” was more than the ruin of defeat and the shame of capture. For Israel, it meant being removed from the land of promise, the land of God’s presence. Exile, in effect, was excommunication. Yet this was the judgment of their sovereign Lord, the mighty Suzerain whose covenant they had spurned (see 3:13 for comments on God Almighty).”³Sunukjian, D. R. (1985). Amos. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, pp. 1441–1442). Victor Books.

“There was no point in their offering these other sacrifices if they were not totally consecrated to God, and they failed to look upwards to the Lord and outwards to other people. If they had looked into their history—when they had brought ‘sacrifices and offerings for forty years in the desert’—they would have discovered that these offerings were not enough. Perhaps in an effort to pacify their potential invader (Assyria) they had incorporated some of the Assyrian gods into their worship (v. 26). In verses 25 and 26, ‘Amos is contrasting the true religion of the nation in the wilderness with the false worship of his day’. These gods (Sakkuth and Kaiwan—NIV footnotes) refer to Saturn, the supreme light in the sky after the sun and the moon. So now they were not only failing to worship the Lord with purity of heart, they were also incorporating false gods into their adoration. The outcome of all this would be that God would send them into exile, ‘beyond Damascus’—i.e. into Assyria.”⁴Bentley, M. (2006). Opening up Amos (pp. 73–75). Day One Publications.

Nothing could be more hypocritical than to claim you are worshiping Yahweh, the God who made it abundantly clear you can’t worship Him if you worship any other God, while worshiping other gods!You are a walking billboard of hypocrisy with flashing lights and horns sounding if you claim to love and serve God and simultaneously worship other gods!  But somehow, the people of Israel thought it was totally acceptable!  As such, God promised to remove them from the land He promised to bless them with if they did such a thing, and that’s exactly what He’s telling the northern Kingdom He’s getting ready to do and why He’s doing it.

With that, let’s take a look at two New Testament passages that confront religious hypocrisy head-on as well.  Specifically, let’s look at two of the occasions when Jesus Himself confronted it and what they teach us.

The first teaching of Jesus I want us to look at shows us that,

Religious hypocrisy doesn’t fool God! 

 23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

 Note: This passage is used out of context ALL the time. People suggest that Jesus downplayed the importance of tithing or even said it didn’t matter at all.  Both are gross misinterpretations of the passage.  Jesus in NO way whatsoever criticized them for paying careful attention to the tithe.  In fact, he reinforced that they should have paid that much attention to it; they should have ensured they tithed off of EVERYTHING God provided them.  With that SAME dedication and intensity, they should have ALSO prioritized the matters of justice, mercy, and faithfulness!  God made his will in those matters just as clear as he did with tithing!  But like the people in the northern Kingdom, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were only concerned about how they were seen by others, rather than how they really were.  Jesus then said,

25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:23-28)

 He wasn’t saying, “Don’t clean the outside of the cup.”He was saying that there is no point in cleaning the outside if you are not going to clean the inside as well!  Both matter!  A dirty is a dirty cup no matter where it’s dirty!

Jesus was saying, “You got all these people fooled, but you don’t have me fooled!”You can’t fool God!  It’s why David said to his son that he was going to give his throne to,

9 “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought.” (1 Chronicles 28:9)

The second teaching of Jesus I want us to look at shows us that,

Traditions don’t matter to God. 

 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

 She wanted Jesus to weigh in on the argument between the Samaritans and Jews concerning which place is more holy to worship, that is, which place was more important to God!

This conversation took place near the town of Sychar, in the valley below Mt. Gerizim, the general place where Abraham first offered sacrifices to the Lord after entering the Promised Land (Gen 12:6-7) and also where Jacob built his first altar to the Lord (Genesis 33:18-20).The Samaritan argument was that God clearly valued this place more than Jerusalem; therefore, Mt. Gerizim, not Jerusalem, was the most holy place for worshiping the Lord.

The woman likely felt he would side with the Samaritan view, since he was clearly not shy about sitting and speaking with her, but had to also wonder if a Jew could ever deny Jerusalem as being God’s favored city. However, Jesus answered the question in a way she likely didn’t see coming at all!

 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

 Jesus was getting at two things. First, in 70 AD, the Romans would destroy the Temple in Jerusalem and run the Jews out of the Promised Land, and as such, there were essentially no Jews left in the area to worship God in either place.

But second, at the death and resurrection of Christ, the Old Testament and all its rituals and traditions that pointed to Christ were replaced with Christ, not new and better traditions!Jesus didn’t die to create a new holy place, with holy rituals, festivals, and traditions, but to create a holy PEOPLE!  The HOLY place is His people, and the only method to experience what He created is faith!  The rituals and traditions were shadows of what was to come, and what was to come wasn’t another system of shadows and images but God Himself in us!  He didn’t die to give us a shadow; He died to give us HIMSELF!  So, Jesus said,

22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:19-24)

 The phrase “spirit and truth” is a way of saying from a sincere heart that is truly postured before Him in true surrender and adoration; a heart truly consumed with HIM!

This isn’t to say that can’t be done through traditions and rituals, but rather that God doesn’t care about them.It’s ok if you like them and practice them, if in the practice of those things, they are not what you are consumed with but rather they are things that help you sincerely point your heart and mind to totally surrender to Him; if they help you to truly adore WHO He is; if they help your heart and mind be consumed with Him so that you love Him with all your heart and soul!  It’s all good if your traditions help you do that, just know that God doesn’t care about your traditions!  He doesn’t say, “ok, you’re good now, you took communion, recited the right scripture, said the prayer, and sang the songs on the right day, in the right place, in the right way.”  God is not impressed with, or concerned with, the methods we use to help our hearts and minds focus on Him; He’s only concerned with our hearts and minds being focused on HIM!  Jesus didn’t die to create new methods; He died that we could abide in Him and Him in us (John 15)!

Our sincere obedience to His moral standards and expectations does not earn us anything; they testify that we have Him.Tithing is a clear minimum expectation of God for man that appears LONG before the Mosaic Law, but as universal as that expectation is, we still don’t tithe to our local church to earn God’s favor, but because we have His favor.  Therefore, you can obey the moral standards and commandments of God because you have Him, or you can try and obey them in order to convince yourself or others you deserve to have Him, but only one of those motives is a right response to the Gospel.  One of those is a “spirit and truth” response to Jesus that He loves, and one of those is at best foolish and at worst total religious hypocrisy, but worthless either way.

 Challenge

Why are you listening to this sermon?  Are you trying to impress God, or know God? Are you trying to justify your sin or be set free from sin?  Are you longing to know His love for you, or are you trying to convince others you do?

Discussion Guide 

Traditions are nothing more than methods to connect people to common values across generations.

 Is there something that you see/hear/smell that always takes you back to the past?

What’s a tradition you grew up with that you would like to carry on or have carried on and   why?

Is there a religious activity (church tradition) that has truly been beneficial to your walk with Christ over the years?

Have you ever noticed (be specific) a religious activity (church tradition) that has negatively impacted your (or others) walk with Christ?  Explain

 Amos directly confronted two blatant examples of Israel’s religious hypocrisy.

They publicly “worshiped” Yahweh while justifying their blatant oppression of the poor. (4:1-5)

How would you be able to connect with this passage?

Consider Amos 4:4-5, how do tradition and submission work for or against each other?

Have you faced a specific time where you had to let go of a religious tradition in order to grow in Christ, know Christ better, worship Christ more fully or obey Him better?  Please be willing to share to help others.

They publicly “worshiped” Yahweh and other gods at the same time! (5:21-23, 26-27)

How do traditions lend to hypocrisy in Christians?

Before reading Amos 5, read Deuteronomy 6:4-6 and discuss what Worship is?

(Read Amos 5:21-26). In Austin’s online manuscript, there is lots of content related to the false gods mentioned in Amos 5:26.  Find it under Main Point #2, letter “E”.

What would have to be present for us to admit to ourselves that we worship something/someone more than God?  We defined worship above.

What could we honestly say are “gods” in our lives that we allow to sit in higher places than God?

Knowing Amos 5:27 was fulfilled through the Assyrian takeover of Northern Israel into captivity, what are similar “promises”, to bless or to curse, given to the church?

New Testament Application

Religious hypocrisy doesn’t fool God! (Matthew 23:23-28)

What are some blatant sins that the American church has allowed to exist with little to no confrontation?  Even approved of

Traditions don’t matter to God. (John 4:19-24)

 What is something good that distracts you from worship?

What is something that helps you worship, in spirit and in truth?

Challenge

Why are you listening to this sermon?  Are you trying to impress God, or know God? Are you trying to justify your sin or be set free from sin?  Are you longing to know His love for you, or are you trying to convince others you do?

Discuss possible group goals, or progress, for the Global Missions Offering