(Eph 4: 12-13, Amos 7:7,8)
Last week we started a series of
teaching called, “Breaking Free: (Moving towards Wholeness), We looked into what
has gone wrong, under which we covered the Origin of Man, the fall of Man, and
the consequences of sin. In Eph 4:12-13, we read “to prepare God’s people for
works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach
unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become
mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
We all yearn for the fullness of
God in our lives don’t we? But tragically we realize that there is something
hindering us from receiving that fullness. Today we will see that “Something’s out
of Line” we will cover, God’s Measuring Standard, and one of life’s most basic questions.
SOMETHING’S OUT OF
LINE:
The Bible likens humans to a wall, a
house, or a building. Remember the Sunday school song “the wise man built his
house on the rock and the foolish man built his house on the sand”? In that story Jesus talked about the
difference between those who practice the Word of God and those who don’t. There are other passages in the Bible that
talk about building or building materials in the shaping of our lives, we will
look at one of those today.
I. GOD’S MEASURING
STANDARD:
In the 8th century B.C;
during the reign of Uzziah, the kingdom
of Judah , the nation of Israel
were enjoying great prosperity and had reached new political and military
heights. It was the super power of that time. But along with this affluence
came a rapid decline in morals. There was idolatry, extravagant indulgence in
luxurious living, immorality, corruption of judicial procedures and oppression
of the poor.
Into this challenging climate God
called Amos, a shepherd and dresser of fig trees with a stern warning and a
message of judgment and recovery. Where are the Amos’ of today who will step up
to the call and denounce the social corruption of our time? With Moses God
chose a rod to demonstrate His truth and values, but with Amos He chose a plumb
line. Amos 7:7,8.
A plumb line is an instrument used
by builders to ascertain the precise vertical direction of a wall. Construction
workers have found this simple yet profound instrument of inestimable value.
They realize that if their building is to be stable and stand, its studs and walls
must line up with the plumb line. If not, the building could topple down. What applies to walls and buildings apply to
individuals, families, churches, societies and nations.
In this passage God saw the moral
decay underneath Israel ’s
affluence. God depicts the nation as a wall that is out of line and about to
topple down. To let his intentions be known to the people of Israel he dropped down the plumb
line of His law alongside His people. His message was clear: His tolerance
level reached it’s peak, He was not going to spare them any longer, and the
nation of Israel could fall any day and be scattered by its enemies as blocks
of a wall.
God has never ceased to extend the
plumb line of His word alongside the lives of those He has called to be His
people. He continues to do this with us, the people of 21st century
so that we might find the truth, along with that, experience freedom so that we
will be stable and lead a secure life. This leads us to the first basic
question, what life is and how should we live it?
II. WHAT LIFE IS AND
HOW SHOULD WE LIVE IT?
We live at a time where many
people no longer know or think about God, let alone His plumb line of His word.
Yet many are greatly concerned with the question, “What is life and how should
we live it? People search for answers to this question in Psychology (the
science of human and animal behavior), new consciousness, drug trips, Atheism
(no god at all it is only a figment of the imagination of man himself),
Occultism (jumping into the unseen, non-sensory world to discover his
identity), Existentialism, (that stresses the individual’s unique position as a
self determining agent responsible for the authenticity of his or her actions).[1]
The quest to make meaning out of
life is a right motivation but this whole cycle is designed to seduce man out
of the gentle hands of a loving God and into the bondage of being a slave of
Satan. In order to find true answers to what life is and how we should live it,
we need to ask ourselves the basic question: Who AM I? This is an identity question.
III. WHO AM I?
If we care to admit, most of us
struggle with our identity at some point or the other. Who am I? In order to
bring focus and definition to our answer let’s look at several
characterizations of different personalities. Two types, the passive and the
aggressive and how they respond to identity crisis in their lives.
The passive response is shown by a
(man in the armor) and the aggressive is shown by a (woman with a bow and
arrow).When you look at the man (figure2) what impressions come to mind? The
following is a list of actual responses people have given while viewing figure
2: defensive, fearful, lonely, apathetic, insecure, blind, helpless,
vulnerable, passive, deaf and dumb, depressed and hopeless.
The person in the armor is in an
identity crisis, evading the “Who AM I” question. It looks like his past attempts to deal with
it have probably failed, so rather than face this question and the pain it
brings, the man hides behind his armor retreating from any threat to his
identity. What impressions come to your mind by viewing the woman with a bow
and arrow?(figure 3) Aggressive, negative, resentful, lonely, critical, defensive,
insecure and fearful. Holding her bow and arrow, this woman demonstrates
another approach to handling an identity crisis. Instead of the passive
defensive mode, she adopts the more aggressive stance.
Individuals approaching her may be
warned either to keep a distance or be wounded. The fact that the arrow is not
drawn up in the bow indicates she does not really want to be aggressive, but
will be if necessary. If we put these
two together they could relate compatibility. The woman could shoot her arrows
whenever she wanted, and at least he would know someone was around to ease his
loneliness.
Their communication system would
be the ping of arrows hitting armor without either party being hurt. All too
often, this illustration sadly reflects the level to which many marriages and
relationships deteriorate.
Throughout this series we will
talk more about these two personality types.
Of course these two personalities are stereotypes and they are many
nuances. This is not to say all men are passive and all women are aggressive
when it comes to handling identity crisis.
These two profiles are examples of
individuals who have not succeeded in coming to know who they are. How do you
try to answer this important question?
In order to resolve our own personal identity and answer the “Who am I
question”? We need to go back to our own origin
Last week we learned that in the beginning was God, and he created
everything….he created man and woman in his own image and his likeness. The
bible further unfolds the origin when Moses asked God to identify himself for
the sake of the nation of Israel
this is what God said in Exodus 3:13-14, “I
AM WHO I AM AND I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.”
In the New Testament Jesus, the
son of God identified himself and the role which he came to fulfill on the
earth by saying, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the
Father except by Me” John 14:6 Take a look at what is being said in these two
scriptures. First, God is stating that all identity begins in Him.
If we are to understand who we are
then we must begin by coming to understand who He is. Second, Jesus is
describing Himself as the Way to knowing God. He is God’s Son and is therefore
in a position to introduce us to His Father.
Once we brush aside, “the great I AM” we loose touch with
the source of truth about “WHO I AM.” This is what exactly what happened to Israel in the
time of the prophet Amos. Israel
chose not to have God as the source of their lives. God called Amos to the
scene to bring them back to the place where Jehovah was their God and His truth
was their plumb line.
The nation of Israel had
wandered so far away from God that he described them as a tottering wall out of
line which could tumble down at any time. This image of a tottering wall and a
plumb line held at perfect vertical powerfully illustrate the difference
between a world view where God is central, compared to one where He is not.
Some of these differences are: absolutes Vs relativity, law Vs opinion, order Vs
chaos and freedom Vs slavery. Without God as our reference point we are lost to
life and all it could mean.
While God likens us to a wall,
it’s not the wall that’s the challenge. The challenge lies in changing the
heart around which the wall was constructed. God brings his plumb line
alongside the heart of a man as well as a nation. In the book of Proverbs 4:23
we are admonished to keep our hearts with all diligence, as out of it are the
issues of life. Our tendency has been rather to guard or keep our mind and intellect,
as if life’s issues were really centered in our education. But from Proverbs we
clearly see they are not. We will learn more about it next week. Amen
This teaching is based on "Divine Plumb line" by Bruce Thompson
