Blend In for Safety & Comfort

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NOTE: This message is based in a large part on a message entitled "Camouflage Christianity" by Pastor Zeke Moore and can be read in it's original state at http://www.christianteacher.com/sermons/amos1.html

Blend In for Safety & Comfort

Amos 2:6-12

Rev. Charles S. Mims

6 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;

7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name:

8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.

9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.

11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD.

12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

Introduction:

Many times we do our best to just 'fit in'. It's dangerous to expose ourselves to others, and many times we keep ourselves out of trouble by letting people here what they expect to hear, or even let them hear what we think they want to hear.

At a wedding a pastor recently performed, the little boy who was the ring bearer marched deliberately down the aisle, letting out a loud "Grrr" with each step. As he passed, everyone smiled and wondered what the boy was doing. After the ceremony, curiosity got the better of our pastor, who asked him, "Why were you making those loud 'Grrs' as you came down the aisle?" "Oh, those were growls," the boy answered. "I wanted people to know I was the ring bear."

Theresa J. Cleary, Cincinnati, OH. Today's Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart."

This little boy knew that he was the ring bearer, and thought about what all that meant so he set about to convince others that he was indeed the ring bearer. We as Christians have to decide who we want the world to think we are. Then we need to take actions to insure that there is no doubt about us. To understand our background a little, let's look for a moment at the prophet Amos.

Amos was writing in an attempt to speak out against God's people because they were blending in to society, and were not taking a stand for their faith. Now, Amos was a herdsman and farmer. He was called by God to deliver a prophetic message to his own countrymen. He wasn't called to go to the foreign mission field, but rather to work for the home mission board.

The time that Amos was ministering in could be called a golden age for Israel. They were prosperous, respected, and economically sound. Does this sound familiar to you? We just heard on the news last week a young man saying that all was well because he had a little bit of money in his pocket, a new job, and a new car, so what difference did morality make? Israel was in a state where they realized their grandeur and felt invincible. They were not making the best of their blessings however. Israel had blessed beyond measure, yet they were committing grievous acts of injustice against those 'less fortunate' than themselves. The system of justice in the country had been perverted, the government was corrupted, and the people put more stock in the rituals and traditions of religion than they did in actually doing God's will.

Again I ask, does this sound familiar? Amos had a message for the people of Israel, and it wasn't a message they wanted to hear. They were all for Amos 'sticking it' to their neighbors, but their ideas changed when Amos began to criticize them for their injustices. Amos had been pronouncing God's judgement upon Israel's neighbors in message after message, and if that weren't good enough, he took on the kingdom of Judah! Imagine how pleased the Israelite leaders must have been to hear the prophet denounce their enemy! Amos' own countrymen were under fire. Surely he was about to commend Israel for her greatness. Or was he?

Israel had to realize that they weren't blameless. In fact, they had a greater responsibility because of their position as God's children. They tried very hard to fit in. To blend in to the society around them. They tried so hard to fit in, that they had hidden their true beliefs. To be sure, they said the right words, mouthed the right sentences, attended the right services, but their outward appearance was no different than those around them. They were attempting to blend in for safety. It was economically prudent for the children of Israel to keep their mouth shut, and let things roll on regardless of their personal beliefs.

I can just hear our cheers as we listen to Amos chastise Israel. In our hearts we are saying "You tell 'em preacher" "Hit 'em again, that'll teach 'em" And we sit on our carefully padded pews, decked out in carefully selected clothes, enjoying a precisely regulated temperature, worshipping in a carefully orchestrated service, not realizing for a single minute that Amos is talking to us. We as God's children are as guilty as Israel of hiding our faith. If you are tired of living for Jesus, if you just want to blend in, and not stand out, if you want to take the easy way out, if you want to hide and let others do the work, I'm going to give you some tips to do just that. Follow the Israelites example, and you will succeed.

Don't get concerned about others---It causes you to stand out. (6-7)

The first step in your quest to live like the world should be never to be concerned about others. When you care about the welfare of those around you, people might mistake you for a Christian. In our text this morning, the Israelites had ceased to care. They were taking advantage of the disadvantaged, much like the surrounding nations were doing. Now, not all of the people were doing such horrible things, but many of the ones that were not oppressing or cheating the poor were tacitly allowing others to do it without comment. This is where we might find our selves today. It seems as if the motto today "Do Not Get Involved" Hideous crimes take place on our streets, and people stand by and watch. Dealers sell drugs to children on school playgrounds and we watch it happen. Our elected leaders live immoral lifestyles and we wink and nod, and say everything is going to be all right. Children are starving on our streets, families are struggling to pay their rent, or to buy food for the table, burglars rob our neighbors and we refuse to get involved. Sometimes we are brought face to face with the reality just how blessed we are, as in this following story:

They huddled inside the storm door - two children in ragged outgrown coat" Any old papers, lady?" I was busy. I wanted to say no - until I looked down at their feet. Thin little sandals, sopped with sleet. "Come in and I'll make you a cup of hot cocoa." There was no conversation. Their soggy sandals left marks upon the hearthstone. served them cocoa and toast with jam to fortify against the chill outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started again on my household budget...The silence in the front room struck through to me. I looked in The girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking at it. The boy asked me in a flat voice, "Lady...are you rich?" "Am I rich? Mercy, no!" I looked at my shabby slip covers. The girl put her cup back in its saucer - carefully. "Your cups match your saucers." Her voice was old, with a hunger that was not of the stomach. They left then, holding their bundles of papers against the wind. They hadn't said thank you. They didn't need to. They had done more than that. Plain blue pottery cups and saucers. But they matched. I tested the potatoes and stirred the gravy. Potatoes and brown gravy, a roof over our heads, my man with a good steady job - these things matched, too.I moved the chairs back from the fire and tidied the living room. The muddy prints of small sandals were still wet upon my hearth. I let them be. I want them there in case I ever forget again how very rich I am.

By Marion Doolan from A 3rd Serving of Chicken Soup for the Soul

Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

However, if we want to blend in for safety, we must not ever allow our hearts to show any compassion. We must never allow people to matter more than money, we must never allow people to mean more to us than our possessions. If we begin to show compassion, or if we start to care, then the world might think we are Christians, and that would blow our cover.

Don’t be committed to purity--People will know you're different. (7 & 8)

Don't allow yourself to be committed to purity either. If we set too high of a moral standard, we will stick out like a sore thumb, and people will know that something about us is different. The Israelites were no different from the surrounding pagan nations when it came to personal purity. If we wish to blend in, we must not take any kind of moral stance, or draw any lines when it comes to behavior. After all, if we object too much, someone might notice that we are a Christian.

In the forests of northern Europe, and Asia a little animal called the ermine lives. He is mostly known among us by his snow-white fur, a thing than which there is nothing more beautiful on the fur markets of the world. In some countries the state robes of judges are lined with it, the white being emblematic of purity and honor. The ermine has a peculiar pride in his white fur coat. At all hazards he protects it against anything that would spoil it.

It is said that the fur hunters take cruel advantage of the ermine's care to keep his coat clean. They do not set a snare to catch him at some unwary moment, but instead find his home, a cleft in the rock or the hollow of a decaying tree, and daub the entrance and interior with filth. Then their dogs start the chase. Frightened, the ermine flees toward his home, his only place of refuge. He finds it daubed with uncleanness, and he will not spoil his pure white coat. Rather than go into the unclean place, he faces the yelping dogs and preserves the purity of his fur at the price of his life. It is better that he be stained by blood than spoiled by uncleanness.

This is the kind of purity that we must not show if we are to blend in for safety's sake. Verses 7 & 8 deal with two types of purity, and the way that Israel was handling them. In the second half of verse seven we find personal, private indiscretions. Mr. Clinton stood before us telling us that his sexual life was none of our business, and this is exactly what Amos is condemning Israel for. If we are to blend in, we must have these same kind of perverse activities in order not to stand out. We must not make a distinction between normal relations between a husband and his wife and other forms of relationships. We cannot take a stand against adultery, premarital relations, or even homosexuality if we are going to blend in.

It's a sign of our times when the topic of a popular talk show was "I'm married to my sister and it's ok." When we allow that sort of situation to be acceptable, we have successfully blended in. We have achieved our goal when healthy normal family oriented lifestyles break down. We have blended in successfully when we accept immorality as inevitable. We cannot take a stand on God's word if we are to blend in and avoid being branded as a Christian.

The second part of this passage deals with the business practices of Israel. Israel was using its position of wealth to legally rob from those less fortunate. They were supposed to champion the cause of the poor, but instead followed the practices of pagan cultures and made their money off the backs of the poor. We must follow this example if we are to blend in with our society. We cannot allow others to see us helping someone out, or giving someone the benefit of the doubt. The Bible teaches us that we are to be set apart, to be made holy, and to be different from others. How many of us miss that standard of being set apart? How many of us act no different in our business dealings than an unbeliever would? When we transact business with someone, according to scripture, we should be a better risk for our client, no matter what our business is. If a shop owner is a Christian, he should stand out among his peers as trustworthy, full of integrity, and honest to a fault. If a politician calls himself a Christian, he or she should have these same characteristics. If a company head is a Christian, the same applies. Honesty it seems is relative however, since many of us change our stripes. Bill Clinton said in 1974 during the Watergate Scandal "If a President of the United States ever lied to the American people he should resign." During his campaign he declared that his administration would be "a model of integrity." In January Hillary Clinton came on the Today show and said "If this (the allegations that Mr. Clinton had relations with Monica Lewinski) is proven true, it would be very serious indeed……but they won't be proven true." It seems our highest leaders have no problems blending in with the world, so perhaps if that is our goal, we can take lessons from the Clinton administration. They seem to be doing a great job of it. Don't let puritanical values drive your life if you want to blend in for safety.

Don’t Chain yourself to God's Plans--you have your own agenda to worry about. (10-12)

Finally, don't led God's plans cramp your style. After all, you are an American, footloose and fancy free. You have your own things to do, don't let an irritation like coming to church slow you down. God won't mind much if you forget about Him this week, He understands just how busy you are. If we truly want to blend in, we must not allow any authority figure, least of all God to interfere with OUR plans. We don't need to follow His laws, or adopt His standards of decency. After all, if we do follow God's laws, someone might notice we are a Christian Also, whatever you do, don't listen to God's prophets. If God-fearing men and women try to take positions of leadership in the church, oppose them at all costs. Don't let God's word fall upon the ears of those who might not be so well practiced in ignoring it. Don't commit yourself to acts of service within the church or in the community. Don't follow god's leadership or his Word. If you can do these things, you will be safely blended in. No own will ever need know that you are a Christian.

Conclusion

However, if you want to follow Christ's example. If you want to do the will of God. If you want to live a full and bountiful life, then you cannot follow Israel's example. You must follow the example of many men and women who went ahead of you, blazing the trail. Men and women who endured, and even today continue to endure, terrible hardships to stand up Christ. Men and women who dared to make a difference. Will you accept God's call today and stand up? Will you make a difference? Or will you simply blend in with the rest of the world and play it safe?