Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches special Monday Morning Coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right. With look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives. Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And, he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday, January the 23rd. I am Mark and I am holding a mediocre cup of coffee that got cold on me and now it's been to the microwave and that is terrible. Don't microwave coffee. It does not help, but uh, yeah, it's gonna have to do here as I get this podcast together as my Bible is open to the book of Amos. I don't have sermon notes for you because I did not preach yesterday at West Side. I was in Macallen, Texas with the Laurel Heights Church there for a meeting. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I'm actually home. I am home. So I'll be with you again on Wednesday and preaching on Sunday, but no notes from yesterday's sermon from me. Instead, we're going directly to daily Bible reading. I'm a little raspy. Do you hear a little bit of that? Yeah, that's allergies and cold and the junk and all of that stuff. Let's see if we can think about the book of Amos. Open your Bible to Amos chapter four. That's where our Bible reading begins this week. Monday's reading is Amos chapter four, verses one to six, and this is addressed to the women of the Northern kingdom and what a start, Amos begins by calling these women rich, rich women. They have all kinds of luxury going on. He calls them the cows of Behan. Behan was a region known for fertility and abundance, lots of fat cows. Amos says, I'm seeing some fat cows, and it is you. Wow, that, yeah, that's a beginning, isn't it? I'm not sure how well my preaching would be received if I began by looking at the audience and saying, I'm seeing a bunch of fat cows. But Amos is doing that to get their attention. They crush the needy, they oppress the poor. They are oblivious to their spiritual condition and their their impending judgment. They are not thinking about what the Lord says about their lives, and I'm really glad to have the podcast here because verses four and five could be confusing. Come to Beth on transgress, multiply transgressions. Why is the prophet saying, why don't you sin come and sin some more? Well, that's heavy sarcasm, very sarcastic. Why don't you just come to church and do what you do and just fill up your sinning, just sin all that you want because that's all that you care about. That's the tone here. Particularly what Amos is spotlighting, is that there isn't a lack of activity. Oh, no, no. They go to Bethel, they go to Gilgal, they offer sacrifices. There's lots of activity. The problem is there's no sincerity in what they do. One writer said, God must accept the worshiper before he can accept the worship. Think about that. God must accept the worshiper before he can accept the worship. Says something about what it means to go to church and to get ready to go to church in our reading tomorrow. Then we'll read Amos talking about what God has done to try to get these people's attention and bring them back to him. See you tomorrow on Tuesday. Amos chapter four will continue in that chapter then Welcome to Tuesday. Today we're reading the rest of Amos, the fourth chapter. I've emphasized a couple of times already, these readings are short. Don't be afraid to read the entire chapter, then come back and work on the section for the day using the questions on the back of your reading schedule to really draw closer to the Lord. But today, this section kind of begins in verse six, which we read yesterday, but continues on through where again and again. God says, I've done this and then I did this and then I did this, yet you did not return to me. Good practice when you're reading your Bible, have some kind of pencil, some kind of pen pens, kind of bleed through your Bible. Uh, watch out on a pen, but use something. I use colored pencils to underline recurring phrases, yet you did not return to me. Verse six, verse eight, verse nine, verse 10, verse 11. Get in the message here. Jump right off the page cuz in my Bible it's underlined in light blue. Think about doing that in your Bible as well, and as you read down through this, if you're thinking, wow, I have I, this is familiar. I I I've heard this before. Exactly right. We began the year reading Deuteronomy 28 and many of these things listed in Amos four are specifically called out in Deuteronomy 28 as the curses that God will put upon his people if they are in Apostacy. Maybe the thing to note here is that the king during this time is jib Beum ii, and this was a time of incredible prosperity for the Northern 10 tribes. Jib Beum II expands their land, territory. The empire gets really big. It's kind of a time of a power vacuum. There's not a whole lot going on elsewhere, so he's able to push out his borders. They really are. They're really the big dog right now or maybe the medium dog because there isn't a big dog though. They get act like the big dog. It'd be very easy to say, we are doing so well, we must be being blessed by God. Nope, nope. Did you notice that time that it didn't rain over there? Verse seven, for three months, have you not noticed that there's been some blight in mildew? Verse nine, what about that pestilence? Verse 10, have you not read Deuteronomy 28? God expects his people to know his word. These people don't know Deuteronomy. They don't know what God's doing. Make sure you pay attention, especially to verse 13. That's probably the key verse for today's reading. See, tomorrow we'll be reading Amos chapter five. It's Wednesday. Lemme talk to you about Ammos, the fifth chapter. We're reading 13 verses here and this has a strong judgment. Note to it. Judgment for indifference, judgment for unrighteousness. Judge judgment coming because of social oppression, trampling the poor. Verse 11, afflicting the righteous and taking a bribe. Verse 12, we need to pay attention to how much Amos has to say about mistreating your fellow man, particularly those who are on a lower social level. I'll just run them over. I'll exploit them, I'll use them. No, God sees that and that will bring the judgment of God. Watch for the expression. Seek me and live. There's that note there where God wants his people to return. We need to hear that easy to read this and get that angry God image. We got some questions about that trying to work with that this year so that we don't come away from reading the minor prophets deciding God hates everybody, just wants to smash everybody and judge everybody. He's constantly pushing the swipe button all the time. Seek me and live God sent Amos because he wants these people to stop exploiting the poor and start doing right. There's the invitation, come to the Lord. Verse 14, part of our reading tomorrow, seek good and not evil that you may live, and so the Lord, the God of us will be with you. As you have said, you think God's with you, but you're not living in a way where I can be with you. Gotta make some corrections, God to make some corrections. Talk more about that tomorrow as we finish Amos the fifth chapter. It is Thursday and we're reading the rest of Amos five beginning in verse 14. This is important material, particularly as we start thinking about shocking material because as we get to verse 18, Amos says There, whoa to you who desire the day of the Lord. Remember how the book begins, Amos goes around looking at all the nations around Israel and announces the judgment of God upon them and the result of that is that people in northern Israel are saying, Woohoo for God, go get'em. God, we can't wait when God's gonna bring all of this judgment, but Amos says, don't get excited about God bringing judgment. Wait, wait, wait, because God is gonna bring judgment on you. God is going to deal with you Israel, you're all, oh, he can't wait till God starts dealing out some judgment. Well, when that happens, the judgment's gonna get delved out on you. The day of the Lord will not be light and brightness. It's gonna be gloom and darkness. It's gonna be a worst day you've ever had a day. Like if you are running away from a bear and you bumped into, or you're running away from a lion and you bumped into a bear and then you go into the house trying to catch your breath, put your hand on the wall and snake bite you. It's gonna be the worst day possible and the reason it's gonna be so bad is because your worship is unacceptable beginning verse 21, because you're not operating with justice in righteousness. Verse 24, remember, God must accept the worshiper before he accepts the worship. That is something we need to be thinking about as we're now starting to look forward to Sunday. Is God gonna accept your worship? Is God accepting you? You and I need to think about that out of verse 24, and instead of being excited about the day of the Lord, AMO says to these people, you need to clean your lives up. You need to get right with God by not exploiting your fellow man. That's what will make your worship meaningful. Not a bunch of religious activity, all kinds of burnt offerings and great offerings and noise of songs. No, what makes it meaningful is when the worshiper is doing what's right. More on that tomorrow as we finish the week in Amos chapter six, welcome to Friday we start, Amos chapter six today gonna read seven verses. Gonna get more of that whoa business. We started that yesterday in chapter five in verse 18. More now in six, one and six, four, woe to those six, one who are at ease in Zion. These people feel good in their fortified capital. They think everything is gonna be well. Judgment can't come to us, we're safe. No, God has dealt with verse two, other fortified cities. God will deal with you. Verse three, particularly here it is again, verse four, you live in luxury, but your luxury comes from living on the back of people you are using, exploiting, oppressing you are not treating your fellow man. Right? 4, 5, 6, 7. All of that works together in that regard. So look carefully at this material. Think more about how can we help those who are vulnerable, disenfranchised, who are being run over in society that is not emphasis, not a work of the church, but it is a work of individual Christians who have a heart for struggling people because God has a heart for struggling people. That's Amos chapter six and that that's our Bible reading for the week. Thanks so much for listening. I really appreciate it so much. If you love the Monday Morning Coffee podcast, we would certainly like it if you would subscribe, rate, give a review on iTunes or whatever app that you're listening on. Best of all, tell someone else about the podcast. That is what really helps out. So until next week, may your coffee be delightful. May your Friday be wonderful and may the Lord be with you today all day. Hope to see you Sunday at Westside. I'm excited about preaching. We'll begin the preaching theme of the year and it'll be q and a Sunday in the nine o'clock hour, but for those of you who listen to the podcast, I'll see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

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