In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old
Amos 9:11
Repair, Raise Up, Rebuild
I love all the home fixup shows. They pretty much are all the same though–there is a project which looks simple but it turns out to be a lot bigger than planned. Kinda feels like our lives; we all want things to move forward and be restored, but it is a bigger job than we thought. There is some good news in there though. As we have been studying the prophets there has been a common theme: change is needed but restoration is coming.
How do we get to a place where we live in a time of repair, raising up and rebuilding? How do we get to a place where those words apply to us personally, to our families and our lives?
Two generations–that is what the experts say it takes to totally change a people. In two generations you can transform lives and futures, or destroy them. I believe we are seeing God do something in this generation. Something that looks like repair, raising up and rebuilding. Sunday we will open our Bibles to Amos 9, Acts 3 and 1 Samuel 3 and read about what the prophets were pointing to. We will hear stories of how that is happening now and how it can happen for us.
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Grace Fellowship Church
Randy Rainwater
Series: True
November 9, 2014
Restoration Generation
Amos 9; Acts 3; 1 Samuel 3
Open up your Bibles if you would to Amos, chapter 9. We’re going to talk a little bit about restoration this morning. You know, Jon has been teaching about Amos and about stewardship. By the way, thank you, church. You have responded so incredibly. I think we’ve had the biggest offerings of the year consecutively. Thank you for doing that. Keep doing that. We have a goal by the end of the year, and we want to get there. Thank you so much.
Restoration by its nature and justice by its nature are not complete just in process. You have to get to a place of wholeness. I am a big fan of the home restoration shows. Do we have any home restoration show fans out there? I mean, here’s the great thing. There are like a thousand of them, aren’t there? They’re all the same exact show. It’s the same show!
It’s like they have this little project, and it’s going to cost like a thousand dollars. Then they start sanding the wood, but it’s termite-infested. The pipes are broken, and it turns into a $50,000 project. This is the thing about these flipping-the-house people. If they were making that much money flipping houses, they wouldn’t be telling us how to do it. Right? There must be more money in TV than in flipping houses.
I love those shows. I was reading in USA Today this weekend. It said this about the reality shows. It says it may be billed as reality TV, but what’s missing from home improvement programming is the true reality of how we live. There’s something pretty profound in that that it’s missing the reality of how we live. You can’t just fix it all in an hour or in 30 minutes.
You can’t fix it all in 35 minutes here today. There’s a process of restoration, and we’re going to get into that and talk about that today starting in the book of Amos, jumping over to the book of Acts, which Amos is quoted in, and then going back to one of my favorite Old Testament stories, the story of Samuel and Hannah.
In Amos, chapter 9, what is happening is God has been saying to this people in a time of great prosperity that there is going to be a judgment. They are entering into a time where there is going to be a judgment. This judgment is going to be incredibly intense. In Amos, chapter 9, starting at verse 9, it says this: “For behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations…” (Amos 9:9)
Now the Assyrians were the ones who came in and took over Israel. This is what the Assyrians would do. The Assyrians would take the best and the brightest, and they would spread them out. They would assimilate them into the culture. If you’re a Star Trek fan, there was a movie about the Borg. If you are a Star Trek fan, don’t acknowledge that right now. It was all about assimilating, about taking people and assimilating them into a culture.
That’s what the Assyrians would do. They would assimilate. This is what anthropologists tell us about a culture. You can completely wipe a culture away in two generations. Generation number one comes in, and they will accept some things. At the end of the second generation, they’ve taken on the holidays. They’ve taken on the traditions. They’ve taken on the music of the culture they have moved into.
They become associated not with who they were but who they are now in two generations. That’s what anthropologists tell us. This is what it says in Amos. He says, “…among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve…” Now a sieve is a screen. Some of you know how to do this with flour. You shake it out, and the heavy stuff stays in the sieve, and the wider things go out. It says, “…but no pebble shall fall to the earth.” (Amos 9:9)
So nothing is going to escape this judgment. “All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.'” (Amos 9:10) They’re in this time of incredible blessing. They’re in a time when everything is working politically, power-wise. Everything is good, but they have something that is coming toward them that is going to be very, very harsh. Judgment is coming, but judgment is not the goal. Restoration is the goal.
Some of us live with the consequences of choices we have made. Some of us live with the consequences of choices others have made. Some of us have brought curse into our lives, and some of us have had curse put upon our lives by other people. I was talking with a dear friend this week who told me about growing up with an alcoholic father and how he would learn how to dodge the table and dodge the kitchen utensils as they were thrown.
I went home. As I was working on this sermon, I went… I have a chair up in our bedroom. I just sit there a lot of times. It’s where I pray. I was sitting there, and I just was praying for my friend. I just wept. This was nothing he had done to bring this into his life. For a lot of us, these are things that have been put on us in our lives. We have to live asking this question, “Are we going to live listening to the prophecies of the curses of our lives, or are we going to live listening to the prophecies of the God of our lives?”
We have to make that choice each and every single day. Are we going to live in those prophecies of curse, or are we going to live in the prophecies of restoration? Consequences we would have never desired. Consequences maybe we didn’t even seek. This is what it says in Amos, chapter 9, about what God’s plan is. Look at this in verse 11. “In that day I will raise up the booth of David [the house of David, the kingdom of David] that is fallen…”
Look at these words. “…and repair its breaches…” Those are the things that are broken in it. “…and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old…” Look at this. What an incredible…! I would put a box around that verse, that he’ll repair, restore, and raise up. God is going to do this incredible blessing for this people. Look at the next verse. “…that they may possess the remnant of Edom…” (Amos 9:11-12)
Now you probably know the story of Abraham and Isaac, and Abraham’s wife was rejuvenated. Whatever Sarah was using for skin cream was amazing, because at 90-something years old, two kings wanted to take her on. She must have had the Lifestyle Lift or something. She was restored physically.
Incredible restoration takes place. She has Isaac, and Isaac has two sons: Jacob and Esau. Esau was the one who was supposed to have the birthright, but he sold that birthright away. Jacob somewhat deceivingly got that birthright. The line up through David came through that line of Jacob. Jacob is the father of the 12 tribes (of Joseph, of Judah, the line all the way up through David).
As we read this story, it looks like, “…that they may possess the remnant of Edom…” But when you look more at that language and what it’s saying… “‘…and all the nations who are called by my name,’ declares the Lord who does this.” (Amos 9:12) It’s not about controlling. It’s about blessing. It’s about restoring. James, in Acts 15, echoes these words, and he talks about, “This will be the restoration.” This is a restoration for you, but it’s also a restoration for those who are around you.
Verse 13: “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when the plowman shall overtake the reaper…'” Listen to the blessing. “…and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.” (Amos 9:13-14)
This is going to be an incredible blessing, an endless cycle of blessing. I would ask you to maybe write this question down in your notes. Maybe write this down in your Bible. What would an endless cycle of blessing look like in your life? Sometimes we have to pause and ask, “What would that blessing be?” If we could ask God for anything, what would it be?
I think that answer is going to be something that becomes very apparent as we study this passage. What would that look like? What would we want God to do in our lives? Is it just about a bill that’s on the desk? Is it about a phone call we got from a doctor? Or is it something even bigger than that? Those are all important things. God is at work in those things, but I believe there’s something even bigger than that.
Look what it says here in verse 15. “I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again…” The phrase “shall never again” is an implication of eternal. “‘…be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,’ says the Lord your God.” (Amos 9:15) Now here’s the problem with that verse. There’s a big problem with that verse. If we’re talking about a nation, here’s the problem: they did get uprooted.
If this is just about a people group, the Romans came and took over. Countless people since then have taken over. Jerusalem got taken over numerous times by different people, different faiths. It still is to a great extent under the control of a different faith. This is obviously about something a lot bigger, a lot more profound than just simply about a piece of land or a city.
Flip over to Acts, chapter 3. The ultimate point of this restoration has to be something bigger, has to be something a lot bigger, than just this piece of land. We read about it in this story in Acts, chapter 3. It’s alluded to here back to this passage in Amos in chapter 3 and in chapter 15. You know this story because the Holy Spirit has come, and thousands come to faith.
Just as a matter of fact, Peter and John go to the temple to pray in the next couple of days. It was time to pray. They’d go to the temple. Big, big revival going on, but they’re going to do the consistent things they know to do. They’re on their way in there, and there’s this lame man. He says, “Can I have some alms? Can I have some money?”
What did Peter and John say? You know the song, don’t you? “Silver and gold have I none.” Help me out. “But…” Come on. Some of you grew up in Sunday school. All right. “In the name of Jesus Christ…” Okay. “They went…” We could stand up and do it if we wanted to. If we did, we would be like LUG, although they’ve told us we can’t jump in here anymore.
Honestly, if you’ve never been in this room on a Wednesday night, you owe it to yourself to come and be in here at LUG on a Wednesday night and watch the kids. Then walk into that room and watch KidzLife. You will love Jesus more if you come here on a Wednesday night, because they leap. They leap, and they praise God with all of their hearts.
He went walking and leaping and praising God. That’s the story. Peter and John go into Solomon’s portico or Solomon’s porch, and they start teaching. They’re doing a little history lesson. They’re talking about what has happened and that there is going to be this restoration. This restoration is going to be great. This is the restoration, people. Look at this. Verse 18 of chapter 3.
“But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out…” Now look at these words. “…that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” (Acts 3:18-21)
There is this promise of restoration that’s coming. This promise of restoration is not a land. It’s not a city. It’s not a piece of dirt. It’s not a building. It’s not the temple. It’s Jesus. This is the promise of restoration. It was so much more than this piece of land. This promise was going to be a person. This restoration comes through Christ.
Look at verse 24. “And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.” (Acts 3:24) The ones they’re in now. It’s a present tense. These days, right now. They prophesied these days. Now look at this. “You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your father, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.” (Acts 3:25-26)
There is this sense that this is the time. It’s not just that it’s Jesus. Look what he says. “You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant…” (Acts 3:25) You’re the children of the covenant. You are a part of this process that you get to be a part of this. This is the secret to a life of power and blessing. To understand that blessing God is going to do for the entire earth, for the people of Edom, for every nation, is going to come through us. We are the children of this promise.
So how do we take that promise and apply that promise into our lives? Well, there’s a huge hint right here because this is what he says. He says, “And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel…” (Acts 3:24) Let’s flip back over to 1 Samuel, chapter 3. You probably know this story too. There’s a woman. Her name is Hannah, and she is barren. In those days, to be barren… There was no Social Security. There might not be for us either, but that’s a different subject. Sorry.
Hannah wants a child. She wants a future. She goes to the temple, and she is praying every year. The chief priest, the high priest, Eli, does not get what’s going on in her. Big hint there as you look at the life of Eli. She is praying in her spirit. She is praying. Her mouth is moving. No words are coming out. He thinks she is drunk. He accuses her of being drunk.
She is like, “No, I’m not drunk. I’m desperate. I’m on my knees before God, and I’m praying God would do something. If I can have a child, I will commit that child to the Lord. If I can have a child, I will commit that child to the Lord, and I will be thankful. I’m not asking for more than that. I want God to use my life through my children.”
We know that story. Hannah has a child. She has many children actually, but that first one, Samuel, as a young boy she brings to the temple. I love this story. It says every year she makes him sets of clothes, and she brings them every year a little bit bigger. She brings those clothes to the temple, and she sees him on these times of sacrifice.
Samuel becomes now an adolescent. It says in chapter 3, “…Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli.” Look at this. “And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.” (1 Samuel 3:1) Those phrases “word of the Lord” and “frequent vision” are somewhat saying the same thing twice. There is no word of the Lord. People are not sensing what God is wanting in their lives. It says in verse 2, “At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see…” (1 Samuel 3:2)
If we had time to dig into that passage, here’s what we know about Eli. Eli was not understanding the word of the Lord or the vision of the Lord. The reason the word of the Lord was rare may have had a lot to do with Eli. His sons were not following God. His sons were profiting off of the people of God, but they were not proclaiming the word of the Lord. “…he could not see, was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out…”
Whether that’s figurative about there was still hope or whether that’s about the time of day I’m not sure. “…and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.” Samuel was in the place he was supposed to be. “Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, ‘Here I am!’ and ran to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call; lie down again.’ So he went and lay down.” (1 Samuel 3:2-5) You know the rest of the story. It happens three more times.
Finally Eli senses this must be God. Even though Eli should have sensed that immediately… This was the temple! They were priests! He was training this young man up to be a priest. Finally he gets the point, and this is what it says. “Therefore Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”‘ So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant hears.'” (1 Samuel 3:9-10)
Look at the message he says. “Then the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.'” (1 Samuel 3:11) Isn’t that a cool verse? I’m going to read it again. “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.” (1 Samuel 3:11) God is going to do something substantial.
The word of the Lord is going to return, but the word of the Lord is not going to return through the line of Eli. It’s going to return through this young boy who had a praying mama who wanted something in her life that was bigger than an outward blessing. It was the blessing of knowing your children would be used by God. Amen! It would cause the ears to tingle.
Last night we had a music and arts festival over here. We had 19 acts (music and dance and all kinds of different things, artwork). One of them was a poem Jaslyn read. It caused my ears to tingle. I just wanted her to share that with you. All right. This is Jaslyn. Can you guys welcome Jaslyn? All right.
Jaslyn: My poem is called “Culture Today.”
Cameras are constantly flashing,
Depicting how they think we should be,
Creeping into our minds,
Taking over our every thought and action.
TV showing us how we should act:
Wild, raunchy, and carefree,
Disrespecting adults,
Throwing caution to the wind.
Music telling young men,
“Disrespect each other.
Disrespect young women.”
Constantly looking for trouble.
The attacks tear down young girls.
They disrespect each other,
Disrespect young men,
But media disrespects them.
It shows gorgeous women.
It shows handsome men.
They say we should strive to be like them.
Girls going crazy about diets.
They go ballistic about their style,
Piling on the pounds of makeup,
Causing bodily destruction.
Young men kill over shoes.
They want the latest clothes.
They strive to be swoll.
They do anything to achieve that goal.
Girls, you are beautiful.
No one is ever perfect.
Clothe yourself with respect.
You deserve respect.
Boys, you are handsome.
Those pictures and expectations?
They are nothing but lies.
Carry yourself with respect.
So, men, pick your pants up off the ground.
Girls, clothe yourselves.
Know that you are amazing.
Know that you are worth something.
No more disrespecting women.
Men, be gentlemen.
No more disrespecting men.
Girls, be ladies.
Respect each other.
Respect your elders.
Show the media how this generation will be.
Show the media how it will be.
Stand up against the craziness.
Be the light in the darkness.
The end result is worth it.
Randy: Thanks, Jaslyn. I think that causes our ears to tingle. Amen? This is what I believe the restoration is about. It’s about the generation that comes behind us will be farther in their faith than our generation, not weaker. Anthropologists say two generations. Hannah said, “No. The second generation in my life will be a generation that honors and serves God.” Eli’s sons went on to die in a pointless battle, but Hannah’s son went on to anoint a young man named David.
Through that line, 28 generations later comes Joseph. Through that line, 28 generations later comes the father of Mary. God could have had another plan, but this was his plan. Without a Samuel, there is no David. Without a David, there is no Jesus. It comes back to this mom who says, “I will pray my son into the kingdom of God. I will be faithful, and I will put that first.”
We hear a lot about generational curse. What about generational blessing? That’s the amazing thing we get to see here. That’s the incredible thing we get to see here! We get to see generational blessing. We see it in our children. We see it in our middle schoolers. We see it in our high schoolers. We have 150 high school kids who come in here on Wednesday night and disciple middle school kids. There are like another 25 who work in KidzLife.
Our college kids at all of these campuses are doing incredible things. Anita and I had the privilege of going down to GCSU and speaking about marriage at a house church. There were 120 kids in this house. I mean, I felt like Paul. It was unbelievable. There were kids everywhere…up the stairs, out on the porch, in the lawn. There were kids everywhere.
God is doing incredible blessings, but this is the thing we have to stop and ask ourselves for us in this room…Which prophecy are we going to believe? Are we going to believe the prophecies of curse? Are we going to believe the prophecies of blessing? Some of you have had prophecies of curse put on your life, and you still hear those words.
This summer I had two classes. They had different titles, but they were basically the same. The class was essentially this: “Pastors are as messed up as everybody else.” That was essentially the class. I had to read 4,300 pages and write 60 pages and, in the course of that, interviewing a bunch of people and talking with a bunch of people and listening to 80 hours of class lecture. It caused me to go back and examine some of the things in my life. We had to write out this timeline of our life.
As I did, I went back. There was this voice in my life, this prophecy in my life. It started when I was about 11 years old. It was a relative, and he spoke these words…hateful, racist, evil words…about races, about women, about me, about my family. Because he was a distant relative, I would see him seven or eight times a year, and he always managed to find me when I was alone and speak these words into me.
I didn’t know what to do with it. I was about 10 or 11 years old. I had no context for the things he was saying to me. I didn’t fully understand it. I never told anybody until about three months ago. I hadn’t even told Anita. I didn’t tell my dad. My dad would have stopped it. But I didn’t know what to say, so I listened to those words, and I believed those words.
Even though I had parents who loved me and cared for me and spoke blessing into my life and taught me God’s Word, these other words dominated who I felt like I was. I’ve been trying to unpack those things and talk with people about those words and how to deal with those things and how to go back and repair some things I allowed to build off of that curse. By its nature, restoration implies brokenness. By its nature, restoration implies there is something that needs to be repaired.
There was a young boy. His name was Scarboy. That was not the name he was born with, but he lived in Enchanted City. In Enchanted City, the Enchanter would come, and he would brand you when you became a young man. He would brand you with his mark, but Scarboy (whose father had died) did not want to take that mark. He hated the Enchanter. The Enchanter had killed his father, and he did not want to be associated with him so he resisted. He pulled away, and the mark was on his face.
He lived in Enchanted City, and he walked around with his hand covering the scar. When his mom died as still a young boy, there was no reason to stay in Enchanted City. She had told him there was another place, Great Park, a kingdom where there was a King, where there were Rangers who fought against the Enchanter and the Burners and the Breakers and the tools of the Enchanter.
There was a different life. If he was brave enough, he could go to that life. But he would have to go through Deepest Forest to get there. He made his way through Deepest Forest, which was not nearly as scary as the Enchanter had said it was. He made his way to Great Park, and he made his way to Inmost Circle where there was a great fire. The King was there, and all of the Rangers were there.
He came to Inmost Circle where the King was, and he walked up to the King. The King said, “I know you. I’ve been looking for you. Your mother told me about you.” The boy said, “I’ve come this way so you would take away this.” The King smiled, and he said, “In the kingdom, we don’t take the scars away, because in the kingdom, the scars are not marks of shame like they are in Enchanted City. In the kingdom, the scars are marks of honor. In the kingdom, the scars are marks that you’ve resisted the Enchanter.
So I will not take your scar away, but I will make you a Ranger, and I will change your name. You will no longer be known as Scarboy. You will be known by the name your parents picked out for you when you were a little boy, and it fit you so much better. Your name will be Hero. I will repair. I will restore. I will rebuild.”
I believe God wants to raise up a generation of Samuels. I believe it is the blessing of that next generation and that place we lay for them. They will look to us. They will look to us as to how we lived. For some of you, you’re already adults. Your kids are grown. You say, “Well, what does that mean for me?”
Well, I think it means two things. First of all, there are still a lot of people who look at your life. For some of you in this room, your scars are great. They are not marks of shame. They are marks of honor because you have been faithful to the King in some of the hardest things imaginable. He can use that for his glory.
A year after our daughter died, I was in a neonatal intensive care ward, and a lady looked at me. I walked in, and I said, “I’m a pastor. I’m here to pray with you.” She turned to me, and she said, “You have no idea what I’m going through.” I said, “Ma’am, I don’t know what you’re going through, but I know what this is.” She said, “You’ve told them they could turn off the machines on your child?” I said, “Yes, ma’am, a year, three weeks, and four days ago.” She said, “Then you can pray with me.”
In the kingdom, our scars are not marks of shame. They are marks of honor if we will allow the King to repair, to rebuild, and to restore. I believe that is what God longs to do in our lives. Through some of the most painful things we could imagine, there is a time of hope that is coming. You are the sons and daughters of that prophecy. It is through you that God intends to bring that restoration, but the first thing he wants to do is restore you.
As we conclude in worship this morning, my prayer for each and every one of you would be this: that you would let him do that. You have to go through Deepest Forest first, but it’s not as scary as the Enchanter says it is. There is a King who waits.