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Call to worship: Psalm 139:7-16

Text: Amos 5:6-15

Summary:

Forsaking their assignment, God's people have sided with the world in perverting justice. Reminding them that He is the Creator, and that He cares about the morality of His image-bearers, and that He knows the full-measure of our sins, and that He will administer infallible justice, and that they are under His judgment, He calls on them to seek Him and live. In effect, He calls on them to love good and seek it, to hate evil and banish it. He calls on them to establish Heaven's notion of justice on earth. We will explore this with particular application to the protection of the neediest among us: children in the womb.

Sermon Outline:

1. Injustice thrives where souls are dead. (5:6a, 7)
2. Might does not make right. (5:9-12, 13b)
3. But the Almighty does and will. (5:6b-12)
4. Like Him, act to establish justice in the gate. (5:13a, 14-15)

Prepare

Discussion Questions:

1. Read Amos 8:11-12 in light of Amos on the whole. The entire book will take about 30 minutes to read, give or take a few. Consider it in light of the other passages for Scripture reading.
2. Spend some time this week perusing Abort73.com. It has a lot of information on our subject.
3. What's implied about God's people, Israel, in the exhortation, 'Seek the Lord and live'? To whom does God address this exhortation more specifically (5:7)? What's the relationship between spiritual death and the perversion of justice?
4. In the end, one of the tenets of injustice is 'might makes right.' If you're in the more powerful position, you may leverage that position to win against the weaker party. Righteousness is relative to who holds the power, not definitive (or universally and authoritatively defined) by the highest Power, our Creator. How does this passage show this idea, then correct it? Who defines justice? Who holds judgment? What does knowing God as Creator have to do with the right treatment of all persons, as well as the particular protection of the neediest among us?
5. What exhortations does God give His wayward people (5:13a, 14-15)? What does the Gospel have to do with it? Or what does spiritual life have to do with it? What motives exist for obedience? You may have heard that silence is agreement with the status quo. How does God disagree in 5:13? What might be the benefit of such silence? How might this silence be a point about the priority of taking action to establish justice? Spend time this week thinking how you/we might take action to establish justice for children in the womb.