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Good morning.
Welcome to worship this morning. We thank the bells for beautiful
prelude and I'm sure we'll be hearing them again as our day goes on or
as our morning goes on.
We begin with the invocation and the reading.
We worship in the name of the Father,
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our reading is from Amos chapter five verses eleven through fifteen.
You trample on the poor
and force him to give you grain.
Therefore, though you've built stone mansions
you will not live in them.
Though you've planted lush vineyards
you'll not drink their wine.
For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. You opress the
righteous and take bribes. You deprive the poor of justice in the courts. Therefore
the prudent man keeps quiet in such times
for the times are evil.
Seek good,
not evil,
that you may live.
Then the Lord Almighty will be with you just as you say he is.
Hate evil,
love good,
maintain justice in the courts
perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy
on the remnant of Joseph."
Here ends our reading.
Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text is that Amos portion of chapter five
Here again verses eleven and fourteen
"You trample on the poor and force him to give you grain. Therefore though you
have built strong mansions you will not live in them. Though you plant vineyards you'll
not drink their wine.
Rather seek good, and not evil
that you may live and the Lord God Almighty will be with you just as you say he is.
Hate evil,
love good."
Dear Christian friends,
this is my seven o'clock dream.
I think some of you have it too.
Now some of you when you hear my seven o'clock dream if your nineteen you'll
think
this is dull beyond words.
Your day is coming,
you'll be just like me.
It'll happen.
When I say seven o'clock dream this is what I'm talking about, this is a dream
I hold out for myself at the end of the day, all day.
Whether it's working here, or it's back home I mean you're working and working
and you've got this, this is your reward, this is the dream.
Seven o'clock comes.
I put on my comfy clothes, I didn't bring them here
but you can just imagine the world's oldest sweat-suit
and the world's oldest, been washed forty seven thousand times, soft as can
get sweatshirt. Doesn't that feel good?
And then I head towards the kitchen and I get my diet coke.
Isn't that a lovely sound.
And I get the cherry cake
that I didn't eat for dessert
and I'd been saving it and there it is.
And with joy in my heart I head towards the green lazy boy recliner.
And I plunk myself down and I put these on the table to my left
and on that same table I have
a great book, Michael Creighton. I've got motorcycle magazine. What more do I want?
Ooo one thing,
the remote.
I've got the remote.
Now yes so many posibilities,
depends on the day of course, could be seven o'clock and watch a little football.
Could be a little bit later I could watch Hawaii five O.
I like that show.
Or the ultimate seven o'clock dream,
history channel is having the swamp people marathon.
I'm all over that.
And so with cake
and the remote
I settle in.
And it's going to be great.
And I wake up an hour later
the Coke
is warm now
and flat.
The cake has mysteriously disappeared, gone, the whole thing, nowhere in sight.
The book has fallen on the floor and the bookmark is lost.
And the remote, gone.
At our house the rule is if you fall asleep you lose the remote.
My wife can slip it out of my hands so slick
and there she is sitting on a couch. She's got it and I look at the screen.
What do you think are we watching swamp people?
No. I look up and I'm awakened to
Nancy Grace saying "unleash the lawyers".
That's a national court by the way, if you don't know that literally happens.
I missed it all.
There's our text.
Did you hear the text saying essentially that?
Our text, that first verse is a warning
to seven o'clock dreams.
You'll fall asleep before they come true.
You set your heart on that and you're going to miss it all.
What you thought was life is not life if it's only set apart for that time that it
might not ever come.
Now to these people look he said in verse eleven "you've built stone mansion you
won't live in them
you planted vineyards you won't drink their wine."
In other words you've got this dream
it won't happen.
Now we could say well to them that's because they're unjust.
They've built their houses on the backs of others.
There are thieves.
That's all true.
But that's not us we'd say. I just have dreams.
Don't you have bigger dreams than my poor little seven o'clock dreams?
You've got big dreams, the ultimate seven o'clock dreams. Some day we'll have that house.
Someday we'll have that car.
Someday we'll take that vacation.
Someday all those will be paid for.
Someday you'll be out of school. Your debts will be done.
Someday... don't we have seven o'clock dreams?
Absolutely.
Is there anything wrong with seven o'clock dreams?
Little or big?
No. God is not against you having a house or a car or taking that vacation or finally
paying off your school loans.
But what if thats all we live for?
What if everything is loaded to the end to seven o'clock? What if we're trudging along at
nine forty in the morning with only a seven o'clock dream.
Then can't you hear this warning of our text?
You might fall asleep before that dream ever happens.
And what would life be them.
How empty.
How pointless.
Here's the good news:
God
says
live today.
Instead of that
look what he says to these people instead of simply throwing in the door shut on their
seven o'clock dream and saying it's not going to happen for you just forget it.
Look what he does instead.
He opens up the door
to today.
To right now. And you listen to these last two verses fourteen and fifteen.
Seek good,
not evil. That you may live that then the Lord God Almighty will be with you just
as you say he is. Hate evil, love good, maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps
the Lord our God Almighty will have mercy on the remnants of Joseph.
Did you hear the difference?
He suddenly throws open the door to the moment that we're in.
And he says don't just live for a future that might not happen.
You might fall asleep before those days come.
But do this
and do it now. I know these are big words, they are broad.
Seek good, not evil.
Hate evil, love good.
What does that actually mean?
I mean how do you do that?
Let me take you back to the green recliner.
The only way I have any hope of making it through swamp people for an hour
is to get out of their recliner
at the first commercial
while consciousness is still working. Get out of that recliner.
That's right I haven't heard the sump pump which kind of goes with swamp people
doesn't it? It just the association, it should make you think of it.
I haven't heard the sump pump
kick in lately and I haven't checked the dehumidifier, I better go do that. So you get up
you go down the basement you take care of that, it'll just be two or three minutes. You
won't miss much.
Come on back.
Settle back down.
Have a little more cake.
Seven-thirty comes along you better get out of that recliner again. I got up and
I go and Isaid I was going to put away the dishes
after supper. They're dry now. I'll go do that
and I was gonna make sandwiches for lunch. I'll get those knocked off.
I won't miss much. I can still hear it.
And I'll get back.
Quarter to eight.
I'm starting to get a little shaky again. I could lose it. No, no. One more commercial.
I was going to go and put gas in Holly's car because she leaves so early in the morning.
I forgot to do that when I first came home. I'll do it now. It's just a half
mile down the street.
I won't miss more than three or four minutes.
Get it done. And if I do that, I'll watch
ninety percent of swamp people.
But if I'm all about me
and I just settle into the goodness of "I deserve it"
I'll miss it all.
Do you think thats maybe in part what God is suggesting to us?
If life is all about me
and how comfy I am and deserving I am,
I might miss all of it.
But if it's
do good, not evil,
maintain justice
love good and hate evil.
Or in the words of Paul simply have a mind
that's focused on others.
Have the concerns of someone else not yourself.
Maybe we'll get more of life
and miss less.
I'll leave you and God to have a conversation of what that might look
like
and when he might wanna pry you out of the recliner in the middle of a seven
o'clock dream.
But wait a minute, what about one more word on those dreams just in case you're worried about
it
and in case you still have a nagging but shouldn't we think about the future,
shouldn't we plan a little bit
beyond today?
Good news.
He's got you covered.
Did you hear this at the end?
"And the Lord God Almighty
will be with you just as you say he is."
And he will be.
Now this is a God who said at the end of Matthew I'm with you always to the end
of the age
in your seven o'clock dream, the ultimate dreams you need.
I've got them covered. I've got a house built for you by the master carpenter.
I've got a body ready for you not made with human hands, I'll raise you from the
dead to fill it.
I've got a roll call
and your name is on it.
I've got the world divided already sheep and goats. Good news.
You're one of my sheep.
I've got your seven o'clock dream.
Don't worry about it.
But today
live today.
Live at nine forty five not just seven o'clock.
Live with something other than just our own comfort in mind.
Love good, hate evil.
That the Lord God Almighty and he is with us
just as we say he is. Amen.