Whose Line is it Anyway?
There are many times in our lives when we must make decisions/choices. We choose what type of friend we are going to hang around, and we choose the type of food we are going to eat. We make decisions about daycare and schools and jobs. We choose what to wear each day and what type of attitude we are going to have every moment of our lives. We choose whether we are going to do drugs, stay up late, or harm others or ourselves. We choose whether to make a mess or to make a difference. We choose whether to be a follower or a leader. We choose to be one who tears down with gossip or one who builds up with encouragement. We choose to be a hindrance or a help.
There is no doubt that each day of our lives, we have the opportunity to choose how we are going to respond to the many situations that face us at work, at home and even in the church. But one thing remains clear…as believers in the body of Christ; we are never without the guidance of God in our decision-making. Whether we take heed to the wisdom of the God is the question.
Our text this morning finds Amos, a shepherd from Tekoa, a harsh wilderness area from south Judah, called to speak God’s prophetic word to the people of northern Israel. Amos was a blue-collar worker coming to a white-collar society. He was use to getting down and dirty and he knew that going into northern Israel was going to be a challenge. You see during this time the people of Israel were out of order. The people were living under the rule of King Jeroboam who the Bible tells us in 2 Kings 14:24 “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord…” Jeroboam sought to build his kingdom and he was quite successful. Under his 41-year reign, northern Israel expanded and brought major prosperity to Israel, particularly to the major cities. A new class of wealthy people derived from the boom in agriculture and trade that took place. On the other hand, as the rich got richer, the poor got poorer. The social and economic abuses, together with a continuation of Baal worship, provoked sharp judgment from the prophet Amos. Although the country was prosperous, the country was out of order. Sound familiar?
Throughout the book of Amos, God shows Amos the ills of his people. God tells of the judgment of the people who do not turn from their sin. In chapter 5, God says to the house of Israel, God’s chosen people, “seek me and live; do not seek Bethel…for Bethel will be reduced to nothing”.
In Bethel…Baal worship was prominent and the people prayed to a golden calf. Jeroboam set up Bethel as a national shrine. After the split of the northern and southern kingdoms, Jeroboam established a religion that would appease his people. Baal worship became popular. It allowed for perverse acts and arrogance of nature. It did not call for people to be accountable to anyone but themselves. It said by any means necessary without consciousness. It was accepting of all, it lacked conviction; therefore, it was what was popular choice.
The Israelites had chosen to forget about God and to choose their own standards for living. They chose their own measure of what success was and how to attain it.
God called Amos into a prosperous situation to speak a convicting message. God called Amos to prophesy to a people who were comfortable being conceited and proud of being pompous. God called Amos to prophesy to people who were setting their own measure of righteousness. The Israelites were setting their own plumb line.
By whose line do you measure yourself today? Is it the world’s plumb line or God’s plumb line?
You see a plumb line is a cord tied onto a weight that ancient construction workers used as a tool to build a truly vertical wall. To see if it was straight, built correctly, without flaw. In Amos 7, we see God holding His plumb line next to the spiritual condition of Israel.
Walk with me through 2 points that God would have me lift from our text this morning.
POINT 1: Crooked walls
Every now and then, I am able to catch an episode of the improvisational show Whose Line Is It Anyway, hosted by Drew Carey. Audience members are able to participate in several instances and the actors easily play off the scenarios or the actions of the audience members. The show offers a half hour of sheer enjoyment and it shows us just how quickly people are able to conform to any given situation.
I realized that every day we are actors conforming to situations. We go from one situation in our lives to the next creating a number of impromptu characters. The persons that we create may be harmless people. They are the mother, sister, and daughter; the son, brother, uncle and father…the pastor, the wife, and the teenager struggling to be an individual; the steward, the caregiver, the employee, the teacher, and the trustee; the student…the housekeeper, the cook, and the chauffeur. We are Wonder Woman and Superman to all who look at us from the outside, but are we “plumb” with God on the inside. The popular slogan WWJD has taken the world by storm. It reminds us that it is our struggle each day to ask ourselves “What Would Jesus Do” with every situation in our lives. We struggle constantly to be the men and women that God calls us to be.
But what is God’s plumb line? It is nothing less than Gods’ holiness. When we are next to the holiness of God, we all fall short. We have so many skeletons in our closets that they are starting to complain about overcrowding. Isaiah said it like this, “Woe to me!” I cried. I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5) When Isaiah came in to contact with God, he was able to see all of his weaknesses, all of his sins, all of the broken places and the crooked places in his life. Isaiah experienced something that few men or women ever had during their time on earth; he was ushered into the presence of God. What he saw was something so awesome that it could never be adequately described in words. While he saw a vision of the holiness of God, he saw himself measure against that holiness. He was close to the presence of God, but was close to the plumb line as well!
There is nothing comfortable about God’s plumb line. It is easier to avoid than to face. In growing to Gods’ plumb line, we have to come face to face with our sinfulness. That is why some people don’t make time for church.
don’t make time for bible study.
don’t make time for personal devotional…to risky to spend time with God by ourselves
won’t forgive their mommas and their daddies for the pain they caused them when they were little
won’t apologize for their transgressions
won’t acknowledge Jesus as Lord of their lives because it conflicts with the Bethel life that that they want to live.
won’t get on their knees and pray to God
won’t open their mouths and worship God
won’t acknowledge their calling
won’t face their prejudices
won’t look at the man or woman in the mirror
…because it’s not comfortable.
Coming to God requires coming into the light, and so many people want to live in the shadows. When Isaiah met god, he realized his sin and confessed it, and God met God where he was.
See the devil wants you to believe that you have to be at a certain place before you can step to God, but God knows that we have crooked walls.
God knows that you drink, lie, steal, and covet,
…afraid to accept the vision that he has given you. Rev. Hunter, God knows that the mortgage will be tight.
…sometimes it feels like you can’t see your way to tonight let alone tomorrow.
…that when the doctor gave you the report that you just crawled up into a ball and cried.
…that you want to go to school and god knows that the road is tough and that there are times when you want just to give up.
…tired.
…that you are breaking your back to provide for your family.
…on the outside you are trying to keep it all together, but on the inside you are not only crooked, but you are crumbling and cracking and ready to fall over.
But look at verse 7, it shows us that even while God is holding the plumb line he is “standing beside us”. For the songwriter Charles Tindley wrote…
…When the storms of life are raging stand by me; when the storms of life are raging, stand by me. When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea, Thou who rulest wind and water stand by me.
He goes on to say
…In the midst of tribulations, stand by me. When the hosts of hell assails, and my strength begins to fail thou who never lost a battle stand by me.
…In the midst of faults and failures stand by me…When I do the best I can and my friends misunderstand, thou who knowest all about me, stand by me.
...When I’m growing old and feeble, stand by me. When my life becomes a burden, and I’m nearing chilly Jordan, O thou Lily of the Valley, stand by me.
POINT 2: Built God tough
One of the greatest and most complex structures ever built was completed in 1350. It stands 179 feet high but it leans some 16 ½ feet or more out of the perpendicular. The Tower of Pisa—known as the Leaning tower of Pisa—was built using a plumb line. This structure has been examined as one of the most intriguing architectural structures ever built. It seems however, that the builders did not build the foundation of the structure deeply enough in relation to the height of the building. So as the Tower got higher and higher, it began to lean more and more. Still, after 652 years, the structure is still standing and millions of people travel hundreds of miles to see it every year.
Hello, somebody. I don’t think you hear me this morning. Let me put it to you like this. Reaching God’s plumb line is a process. It is a life-long process. Everyday, we are just working on a building. Brick by brick and every day we get higher and higher and everyday that we endeavor to grow closer to God; the closer we get to the plumb line. The closer we get to the plumb line, the higher we go. The higher we go the more we lean, and the more we lean the more we see that we are built God tough.
The Bible tells me that, “Before God formed you in the womb God knew you, And before you were born God consecrated you; appointed you a prophet to the nations”. (Jeremiah 1:5) You see our foundation was established long before we had anything to do with it. Day by day from birth, God has been molding us and moving in our lives, building us brick by brick. Laying the mortar and placing the bricks in all the right places. Every day we go higher and higher and every day the foundation is tested. See studies have shown true that the foundation of the Tower of Pisa is not deep enough to support the structure; Thank God that the Master Builder built me. I wasn’t manufactured by Clonnade. I didn’t come down from an alien ship…God knew me and he knew you, before you knew yourself and God is shaping and molding you and everyday, God is forming you into the person that He would have you to be so that His name will be glorified.
In 1904 in a church service in Wales, a young man named Evan Roberts cried out, “Bend me! Bend me! Bend us!” He didn’t just desire for God to change him, he was desperate for God to change him! He was on his knees, tears flowing, desperately crying out for God to change his heart. He wasn’t an unbeliever praying, he was a Christian!
What happens when Christians get desperate for God to change them? Revival happens! It isn’t enough that Christians merely desire for God to change their lives for revival to happen, they have to get desperate! Do you desire revival in your life, in your church?
How desperate are you?
God heard Roberts’ prayer. God used this young man to send a sweeping revival throughout Wales. God eventually sent him back to his home church where he started a youth service. Meetings that started around seven lasted until midnight with young people crying out for the presence of God. Meetings eventually lasted until 3 a.m. with people crying out for revival.
People started flooding the prayer meetings. Revival broke out throughout Wales. It was such an awesome revival that the donkeys stopped working in the Welsh mines. These animals were so used to being ordered by cursing miners that they didn’t know what to do when many of these miners were saved. The revival even spread to many churches in England.
The revival started with the cry of one young man: “Bend me!” Roberts once said, “Bend the church and save the world”. What would happen if Christians got desperate to change their lives—revival would happen! There is something about being desperate. People who are desperate give priority to that which they are desperate.
Whose line are you desperate to live up to…the worlds or Gods? How desperate are you to measure up to God’s plumb line? How willing are you to take the crumbles from your cracked, crumbling, and cooked walls to God so that God can keep adding and making you even stronger in Him? How high do you want to go? When are you going to put God to the test and see just how high He is taking you?
We are built God tough. We are built on a firm foundation and Jesus is that foundation. Today if God were to hold the plumb line up to measure your life, how would you line up with the plumb line of the perfect life of Jesus Christ how would we hold up?
