Opportunity or Hindrance?
Audio Recording
Sermon Outline
Speaker: Rev. Scott Strickman
Sermon Series: Sabbath
Amos 8:1-14 (ESV)
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!”
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy
and bring the poor of the land to an end,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over,
that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great
and deal deceitfully with false balances,
6 that we may buy the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
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.”
Sermon Outline
Is sabbath an opportunity or is it limiting?
1. End of Relationship
vv1-2 “a basket of summer fruit” “the end has come…”
v5 “when will the sabbath be over?”
v3 “the songs of the temple... wailing”
v2 “never again pass by them”
v11 “famine of the word of God”
2. End of Corruption
v5 “make the ephah small and shekel great, deal deceitfully with false balances”
v4 “bring the poor to an end” (v6 “buy the poor”)
3. End of Misery
v12 “seek and not find”
v9 “I will make the sun go down at noon”
v10 “…make it like the mourning for an only son”
v13 “young men… faint for thirst”
v14 “your god… shall fall… and never rise”
Prayer of Confession
Our Father, like children we depend on you for all things. We admit our sin. We have looked to you for what you can give us, failing to appreciate you, the giver. We have looked to the world thinking it can give us something better. We have experienced your ways as burdensome; we have resented your protective restraints. In greed, we have crossed lines for personal gain, causing damage and dishonoring others. We have ignored your word. We have misunderstood your patience. Through Christ, cleanse us from all sin. Open our ears to hear your gospel of grace so that everything in our lives is renewed and aligned with you. Amen.
Questions for Reflection
Do you look forward to Sunday? What is your favorite part of the day?
What kinds of things will you miss church for? How do you decide (what priorities do you have and how do you weigh them)?
Are you eager for your work week to end (most weeks)? Why? Do you have a time you are committed to each week where you will not do any work?
What would be your response to a prophet announcing a “famine of God’s word”? How would this effect you? What would you be concerned about?
Where do you see greed at work in your life? How does greed effect you?
Why does greed within us prohibit connecting deeply with God?
Is there any area of your life where you are cheating, manipulating, fudging the truth or taking advantage of others? Why? What are you gaining?
How can God’s generosity change your heart? What is so striking about Jesus giving himself so sacrificially for us?
Since you can now seek and find, what are you doing to seek God?
How can you make the most of a day for worship? What things can you do? What should you not do on that one day?
How can a day of worship refresh you for the work of the other 6 days?