This Week\’s Sunday School Lesson, \”Being A Christian Is Not Easy Street\”, 6/21/2015

BEING  A CHRISTIAN IS NOT EASY STREET

 

Amos 6:4-8, 11-14

 

BLESSINGS ARE GIVEN TO PASS ON

V:4. \” You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves.\”

1. Apparently doing this time, there were some well to do Jews.
2. They were pampering themselves rather than promoting God\’s commands.
3. God allows us to gain wealth and acquire possessions.
4. He did say that He would give us our hearts desire. Ps 20:4.
5. The Word does say that the blessing of the Lord brings wealth and He adds no

trouble to it.   Prob 10:22

1. God did not give us what we have, to hoard it at expense of the needs of others.
2. God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others in need.
3. God made a promise to us that we will reap what we sow.

 

V:5. \” You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments.\”

1. Men have become lovers of all kinds of music.
2. The wrong music can dull the senses to the praise and worship of the Lord.
3. We have to be careful  what we listen to.
4. Music can be suggestive of all kinds of evil.
5. As Christians, we have a responsibility to heighten our love for the Lord

with music that is a testimony to the goodness of Him.

1. God commands us to give Him praise in song. Ps 28.7
2. We are encouraged to use musical instruments and songs to praise the Lord.

Ps 81:2, 92:1-3

1. We must be careful to lend our voices and musical talents to the praise of

the Lord.

1. If we are not praising the Lord, we are praising the devil.

 

V:6. \” You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.\”

1. There is nothing wrong with drinking wine as long as we do it in moderation. Ph 4:5
2. We are commanded not to get drunk with wine. Eph 5:18
3. In the New Testament days, wine was used as medicine for the stomach

and other illnesses.   1 Tim 5:23

1. Wine was also used as antiseptic. Luke 10:24
2. Wine was the everyday drink of the Jews. Luke 5:37
3. Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding celebration. John 4:46
4. At the last supper with His disciples, Jesus used wine to represent the

blood that He would shed on the cross for our sins.

1. We are commanded to drink wine in communion to remind us of the

saving power of the Blood of Jesus.

1. We should be grieved when our brothers and sisters in Christ are

insensitive to their sins against God.

1. The Israelites were commanded to do everything written in the Book of the Law

to prosper.   Jos 1:8

1. The more we pleasure ourselves, the more we become prideful and

insensitive to our walk with Jesus.

1. Wine and pleasure can easily be the tools of the devil to influence

us into the ways of the world.

 

AN INACTIVE MINISTRY HAS CONSEQUENCES

V:7. \” Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.\”

1. We cannot be satisfied with saying that we are saved by our faith in Christ.
2. When we first believed, we were saved, sanctified, justified and redeemed from our

sins.

1. We became babes in Christ with the ability to grow in the spirit.
2. Faith without works is dead. James 2:26
3. We were made ministers for Christ to labor for the sake of the Gospel.
4. It was Jesus who said, the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.
5. God did not intend for us to be on easy street in our salvation.
6. Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me.
7. He never said sit on your cross and enjoy the music.
8. Jesus promised that we will face trials and tribulations following Him.
9. We have to learn to see trouble as a way to our joy. James 1:2.
10. Struggling through our troubles perfects us in Jesus. James 1:4

 

GOD HATES THE PROUD

V:8. \” The Sovereign Lord has sworn by himself — the Lord God Almighty declares: \”I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I will deliver up the city and everything in it.\”

1. God hates the proud. Prob 16:5
2. It was pride that cause Lucifer, better known as Satan , an angel of the Lord

to sin against God and be cast out of heaven.

1. Satan was cast out of heaven and became the lord of the flies, Beelzebub.

Mat 10:25

1. Satan is the father of lies and the king of darkness. John 8:44
2. We have to check our pride at the door of righteousness and take on humbleness.
3. The Lord will not tolerate our prideful behavior.
4. The Lord brings down the proud and lifts up the humble.
5. We have nothing to be prideful of, because everything we have comes from the Lord.
6. In all that we have and in all that we are, we must give honor to the Lord.
7. Pride is the road to destruction.
8. Pride focuses on the individual. Humbleness focuses on the Lord.
9. Pride sees us as important. Humbleness sees us as nothing and others as more

than us.

1. Pride gives us the glory. Humbleness gives God the Glory.

 

 

V:9. If ten men are left in one house, they too will die.\”

1. The pride of Israel led them to ignore God\’s commands and take on the habits

of the world.

1. The pride of Israel led them to denounce God in their hearts and to take idols made

with their hands as their gods.

1. God is longsuffering.
2. He gave Israel hundreds of years of warnings about the consequences of their

disobedience, before He destroyed all but a remnant of them. (700 years)

1. He destroyed their cities, and the temple in Jerusalem.
2. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
3. We can\’t afford to get comfortable with ourselves.
4. We must continue to grow in the knowledge and the wisdom of the Lord.
5. We should continue to seek the high calling of Jesus Christ. Phil 3:14

 

LISTEN TO GOD

V:10. \” And if a relative who is to burn the bodies comes to carry them out of the house and asks anyone still hiding there, \”Is anyone with you?\” and he says, \”No,\” then he will say, \”Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.\”

1. Israel was so caught up in their idol worship and their unrighteousness that they

could not hear the voice of the Lord.

1. They knew the Word.
2. They had God\’s prophets among them.
3. But they refused to listen.
4. You can\’t willfully ignore God\’s Word and prosper.
5. You know you are headed down hill when your conscience want convict you of your

sins.

1. You know you are on the wrong road when you listen to everyone but God.

 

V:11. \” For the Lord has given the command, and he will smash the great house into pieces and the small house into bits.\”

1. You must know without a shadow of a doubt, that God will do exactly what He

said He will do.  God cannot lie.

1. We are all work in progress.
2. God gives us time to get right with Him.
3. The blood Jesus shed on the cross atoned for our sins, past, present and future.
4. It is only by Grace that God has not destroyed us.
5. Justice demands our death, mercy gives us eternal life.
6. God will chastise those that He loves.
7. Our chastisement is not unto death, but to prefect us in the Lord.

 

DON\’T MAKE LIFE DIFFICULT

V:12. \” Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness.\”

1. Sin make this journey in life rough.
2. Hardships follow sin.
3. I remember a song, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry

everything to God in prayer (What A Friend We Have In Jesus).

1. A faithless Christian is a troubled individual.
2. A faithless Christian is lost in the sea of sin.
3. A faithless Christian lives without the power of God.
4. A disobedient Christian, lives in the bitterness of life without the joy of the Lord.
5. A disobedient Christian poison his/her own life.
6. A disobedient Christian believes the lie that since God loves him, there is no

punishment for his/her  sins.

1. Life can be a bitter pill without Jesus as your hope.

 

GIVE GOD THE CREDIT

V:13.  You who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar  and say, \”Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?\”

1. One way of dishonoring God is to claim for yourself the credit that is do God.
2. If you say, I woke myself up this morning, you lie.
3. If God withholds His breath from you, death is certain.
4. The Word says, I can do all thing through Christ who strengthen me.
5. The truth is, we can do nothing and accomplish nothing without Christ.
6. Man can make plans, but God gives the increase. 1 Cor 3:6-7

 

STIR UP YOUR LOVE FOR GOD

V:14. \” For the Lord God Almighty declares, \”I will stir up a nation against you, O house of Israel, that will oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.\”

1. A fool says in his heart; there is no God. Psalms 14:1
2. If you decide not to obey God, He can give you over to your own evil desires.
3. When God takes His hand off you, Satan will have his way. Rom 1:28
4. God can stir up your enemies against you.
5. I realize that in spite of my sinfulness, it is God that keeps me alive.
6. We are not here on our own, but because God has a purpose for our lives. Ph 1:6
7. The Church should be stirring up the gifts that God has giving us,

to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   2 Tim 1:6

1. We should stir up the gift of love.
2. We should stir up the gift of compassion,
3. We should stir up the gift of God\’s grace.
4. We should stir up the gift of God\’s mercy.
5. We should stir up the spirit of unity.
6. We should stir up peace.
7. We should stir up joy.
8. We should stir up the desire to be God\’s servants.
9. We should stir up good stewardship.
10. We should stir up the excitement of Bible study.

 

STIR UP YOUR LIFE IN GOOD WORKS

 

Rev. M. Mitchell,    Asst Pastor of Greater Macedonia Baptist Church.