INVINCIBLE CHURCH 1-21-24

Invincible Church Sermon Notes
1/21/2024
Discerning Spiritual Condition – Part 2
The Book of Amos
Remember, the truth behind the real reason we exist is because God wants us to be in an unconditional love relationship with Him. We only have life because God created us and made us in His image, which is all for His glory and pleasure… and it’s all based on relationships.
By His design we’re triune beings. We operate in a physical realm, which is our body driven by our brain… An emotional realm, which is our soul driven by our mind… And a supernatural realm, which is our spirit driven by our connection to or separation from God!
So, God is love and God is a God of order and structure. He has a master plan for all His creation and wants us to be a part of the process for getting it done! He doesn’t demand or expect us to get it done on our own, He’s given us His Word of truth in the Holy Bible!
Also, He gives us His truth individually through divine revelation sometimes as He sees fit! All of this only happens through the power of the Holy Spirit, who’s sent by Jesus to reside in us as soon as we’re submitted to Him in a salvation relationship as our Lord and Savior!
So, God will share almost everything with us…His creation, truth, power, plan and even His son Jesus! But the one thing He will not share with us is His glory. And why would anybody expect Him to? But somebody did and that somebody is Lucifer a.k.a. Satan!
God created Lucifer as an angel in heaven who got to be in charge of worship. But Lucifer was selfish and he couldn’t find a way to be obedient and thankful for that. He was jealous of God and he wanted to receive God’s glory through being worshipped by the other angels.
This angered God, so God cast Lucifer out of heaven, giving him access to the earth! This made Lucifer angry and he somehow convinced 1/3 of the other angels to go with him (becoming demons). But even now, Lucifer a.k.a. Satan still thinks he can be God!
So, Satan has a strategy too! He’s always trying to counterfeit, disrupt and destroy everything God has created! That’s why Satan went to the Garden of Eden, disguised as a serpent to tempt Adam and Eve to disobey God. He lied to them, convincing them they could be like God!
They believed the “fake news” and they made the decision to sin against God! Once Adam and Eve sinned against God, they became spiritually separated from God… and because all mankind are descendants of Adam and Eve, we’re all born with a sin nature.
But because God is also a God of grace, mercy and patience, He made a way for us to choose Him… and have our sin eradicated by the power of the blood of Jesus! It’s our choice! We can choose Jesus, who is love, truth, light and righteousness or…
We can reject Jesus, which leads us towards hate, lies, darkness and wickedness! Sin separates us from God… Satan knows it… and is continually trying to deceive, tempt, mislead, influence and manipulate people into choosing sin.
It puts us in jeopardy of compromising a right spiritual condition with God! It’s the content of the spiritual battel of good vs evil – right vs wrong – truth vs lies – light vs dark – liberty vs restraint – freedom vs suppression – and capitalism vs communism!
So, the reality is this life is only about Jesus vs Satan and we “get to” choose who we’ll align with and serve! Choosing to submit to Jesus puts us on His team! If we don’t submit to Jesus, then by default, we reject Him which puts us on Satan’s team!
Sin and Satan are the 2 primary factors that have us in a spiritual battle! If our focus in life only consists of comfort, convenience, pleasure and wealth… instead of Christ and Him crucified, then we’ll always be in a spiritually compromised condition!
We take ourselves out of position to be in the ultimate use of God, which means we won’t have the greatest impact we could have on God’s Kingdom for His glory and pleasure! It’s the only way we have to show Jesus we love Him… by doing what He says.
It’s why a true follower of Jesus always needs to be able to discern the spiritual condition of ourselves, others, families, churches, communities, nations and the world in relation with the Holy God of the Bible! Starting in the book of Amos last week, we see the different…
Spiritual Conditions of Men and Nations
1) “PAGAN” - Enemy of God! Depraved, Wicked, Evil; Completely Rejecting Anything to do with Jesus!
2) “LOST” – Religious Enemy of God! Not Submitted to Jesus in a True Salvation Relationship and Possibly Involved in One of The False Religions of The World!
3) “SAVED” – Professes Faith in Jesus as being Submitted to Him as Lord and Savior, But is Out of Alignment with God’s Word, Will, and Ways!
4) “DISCIPLE” – A Faithful Follower of Jesus, Obediently Working “The Process” of God’s Plan in Order to Know Him Better and Advance His Kingdom!
Israel’s 2 primary sins were absence of true worship and a complete lack of true justice. This same spiritual condition of disobedience is seen today in the open boarder policy of the pagan political leaders of our nation. Anything out of alignment with God’s plan opposes God’s justice. We touched on this last week. Look at…
Deuteronomy 28:43-45 NIV - 43 The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. 44 They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail. 45 All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees He gave you! …
The world has tried this before. After the flood, God commanded humanity to increase in number and fill the earth, but people stopped seeking God and started seeking other providers, protectors, provision and resources. Humanity decided to build a great city and all congregate there.
Noah’s great grandson (Nimrod) even convinced them to build a great tower in case God decided to flood the earth again! (Which God already said He wouldn’t.) So, the spiritual condition of man became corrupt in their disobedience to God!
It’s just one of the many decisions that people make in opposition to God, His plan and the process for following Jesus. So, it will help equip us for winning the spiritual battles we fight if we know and understand these…
5 Biblical Principles Concerning The Spiritual Condition of Humanity
1) God will Punish those who Exploit The Poor!
Amos 2:6-7 NIV - 6 This is what The Lord says … “For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not relent. They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. 7 They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny Justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane My Holy Name.
The phrase, “for three sins… even for four” is a common phrase in Amos! Three sins represent fullness or completeness… four represents an overflow or a spiritual condition that’s the tipping point for God’s judgment.
2) God’s Plan for Humanity Demands Biblical Justice!
Amos 5:14-15 NIV - 14 Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then The Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say He is. 15 Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps The Lord God Almighty will have mercy on The Remnant of Joseph.
Choose to do what’s right!
3) True Worship always Includes God’s Justice and Righteousness!
Amos 5:21-24 NIV - 21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to Me. 22 Even though you bring Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. 23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 But let Justice roll on like a river, Righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Not just show and tell… or our preference!
4) Do Not become Complacent about Following God’s Plan!
Amos 6:1-7 NIV - Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come! 2 Go to Kalneh and look at it; go from there to great Hamath, and then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than your two kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours? 3 You put off the day of disaster and bring near a reign of terror. 4 You lie on beds adorned with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. 5 You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. 6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. 7 Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.
We have to believe in Him first and pursue Him first!
5) God will Restore those who Remain Faithful Followers of Jesus!
Amos 9:11-15 NIV - 11 “In that day “I will restore David’s fallen shelter … I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins … and will rebuild it as it used to be, 12 so that they may possess The Remnant of Edom and all The Nations that bear My Name,” declares The Lord, Who will do these things. 13 “The days are coming,” declares The Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, 14 and I will bring My people Israel back from exile. “They will rebuild The Ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. 15 I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from The Land I have given them,” says The Lord your God.
So, what do we take from this? Answer – the big picture plan given to use by Jesus for fighting spiritual battles… and advancing God’s Kingdom is to speak the truth of the Gospel to all people so that the good news of Jesus resonates around the world!
No matter what the rest of the world is doing, if we’re being obedient to God and working the process of following Jesus, standing strong in the spiritual battles we face, not tolerating sin and love the lost people He put in our path enough to present them the truth…
...then we can look forward to hearing, “Well done good and faithful servant” when we stand before Him in heaven! The plan goes like this…
>Preparation :> – LOVE – PRAY – and BE THANKFUL!
*Implementation :> - GO – MAKE – and TEACH!
>Strategy :> - ASK – SEEK – and KNOCK!
*The Tools and Weapons :> - WORDS – WILL – and WAYS of GOD! …
The presentation – (present the hard truths in love: right vs wrong – good vs evil – and positive vs negative! If the presentation is wrong, i.e. anger, judgmental or chastisement… the message probably won’t be heard!
Note – as a follower of Jesus, we can’t tolerate sin! But because we’re commanded to love others the way we love ourselves, then we tolerate (love) the sinner and continue speaking truth into their lives for as long as it takes to help them see the truth, turn from their sins and submit to Jesus as Lord and Savior!
Our identity is in Jesus, so the success of all this depends on how much we involve God! The key to being in the proper spiritual condition for experiencing and encountering God is to faithfully and diligently pursue Jesus with all our heart, mind, soul and strength!