BBC Sermon Cast

What comes to mind when you think of a respectable person? Perhaps someone who is put together, successful, healthy and influential. Even the world has all sorts of standards of respectability, but they sometimes differ from the biblical image. Scripture teaches that being respectable means ordering our lives according to the truth and adoring that truth with our lives. We consider three aspects of what it means to be respectable.

1. Respectable: According to Scripture

2. Respectable: According to the World

3. Respectable: According to Christ

In Amos, we hear God’s thunderous threatening—his roaring resolve of irrevocable judgement. God’s people, and the world, were being prepared to meet their God, to give account to him. And depending on their response to this message, they would either meet God in his wrath or in acceptable worship. The choice was theirs. The choice is ours as well.

1. A Stunning Indictment of the Women (vv. 1–3)

2. A Sarcastic Call to Worship (vv. 4–5)

3. A Stubborn Response to the Word (vv. 6–11)

4. A Sobering Warning of Wrath (vv. 12–13)

In a world filled with shallow displays of virtue and slavery to sin, true freedom and righteousness is only possible in Christ. Scripture calls us to be self-controlled—not by sheer willpower, but by yielding ourselves to the rule of Christ, who perfectly obeyed the Father and now strengthens his people by his Spirit. Together, we’ll explore “Christian Self-Control: Christ in Command” through three headings:

1. The command to grow in self-control

2. The heart of Christian self-control

3. Practical strategies for self-control

Amos 3:1–15 warns against the peril of false security before God. Israel imagined that their heritage, religious practices, and prosperity guaranteed safety, but Amos declared that privilege brings responsibility, and grace creates obligation. God’s roar through his prophets revealed that judgement was certain, for his justice is impartial and his warnings are never empty. Outward religion and cultural identity cannot save, and wealth cannot protect. Our only true refuge is found in Christ, who bore the judgement we deserve and rose to grant salvation to all who repent and trust in him. Four truths rise to the surface of the text.

1. God’s Grace Creates Godly Obligations (vv. 1–2)

2. God’s Warnings Point to Serious Consequences (vv. 3–8)

3. God’s Justice is Universally Impartial (vv. 9–12)

4. God’s Judgement is Humanly Inescapable (vv. 13–15)

Possibly more than ever, the believer in Christ needs to be vigilant and awake to the many battles that are raging for a piece of our mind. The sober-minded Christian lives with a single-minded focus on the glory of Christ, which will be revealed to us in eternity and will shape how we live each day in this world. We consider three things:

1. A Definition

2. A Contrast

3. A Circumspect Hope

After happily hearing of “Yahweh the Warrior” meting out judgement upon the surrounding nations (1:3–2:5), Amos then declares to Israel, “The same Warrior sees your sins as well. Thou art the nation!” Amos 2:6–16 instructs us that to sin against grace is even more awful than sinning against conscience. To whom much is given, much is required.

In Amos’s first message, he is called to denounce the atrocities of seven nations surrounding Israel. These nations face impending and irrevocable judgement. But while some are crying out, “Amen!” they do not realise their own guilt. The noose of judgement is tightening. Is there any escape?

God’s design for marriage from the beginning was clear: one man and one woman joined together in covenant faithfulness (Matthew 19:4–6). This is not only a standard for elders, but a call for every Christian—married or single—to reflect the purity, devotion, and integrity of Christ in relationships. To be “the husband of one wife” is ultimately to be a one-woman man or a one-man woman, faithful in body, heart, and mind. When the church lives this way, it becomes a living testimony of the gospel.

Amos is the first of the writing prophets to confront God’s people with their need to repent of self-sufficient self-righteousness. Like those to whom Amos was sent, we need to take God seriously preparing for the day we will stand before him. As we do so then his warnings of destruction can be replaced with an anticipation of hope.

Corporate fasting, distinct from individual believers simply choosing to fast at the same time, occurs when the church deliberately comes together to fast for specific purposes. Building upon Jesus's teaching in Matthew 6:16-18 that believers should fast joyfully and in secret before the Father, Scripture provides clear examples of corporate fasting. The practice demonstrates collective dependence upon God, creates space for clearer understanding of his word (not mystical revelation), and should be consecrated for specific purposes rather than used as a means to manipulate divine outcomes.