I've got some good news for you today. Who's ready for it?

My talk today is part 9 in a series. The series is called A Maverick Spirit. We come to meet with God, every week. And the way we meet with God is by opening our Bibles together. God meets with his people in the pages of Scripture. Amen?

So we have been meeting with God week after week in a book in the Bible called Amos. Amos was a prophet. He preached in the open air markets and the town squares of Israel.

These chapters are his sermons.

Today, we are going to start in Amos chapter 8. I would like to read the first paragraph of that chapter, and then we'll get into it.

"Then the Sovereign LORD showed me another vision. In it I saw a basket filled with ripe fruit. 'What do you see, Amos?' he asked. I replied, 'A basket full of ripe fruit.' Then the LORD said, 'Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again. In that day the singing in the temple will turn to wailing. Dead bodies will be scattered everywhere. They will be carried out of the city in silence. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!'" (Amos 8:1-3)

Yes, so far this is bad news, but we'll get to the good news, I promise.

The title of my talk today is:

 

So let me back up and set up some context so we can know what God is telling us.

There are three countdown clocks running over every person. They're right above your head, if you have eyes to see them. They are counting down to zero, and every person has them.

When those clocks tick down to zero, two things are true of these countdown clocks.

They are UNPREDICTABLE.

You don't really know when either clock will tick down to zero.

Very few people know the day and hour of their death, and nobody knows the day when Jesus will return.

These countdown clocks are also IRREVERSIBLE.

Once you die, or once Jesus comes back, whatever your spiritual condition is in that moment gets locked in forever.

If you are saved, you will stay saved forever... and that means eternal life.
If you are not saved, you will stay unsaved forever... and that means eternal condemnation.

You can't reverse your eternal destiny.

"It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27)

So, one way or another, you're going to meet Jesus. You're going to meet your Maker. Either through death, or through the Second Coming, you're going to face your Judgment Day.

So here's the gamble. Will you make your decision for Jesus before one of those clocks runs out?

Anybody putting off salvation is making a really big gamble... the consequences last forever.

Speaking of consequences, there's a third countdown clock running over every person's life. This is the one I want to focus on, because this is the one Amos is pointing us to.

That is what the vision of the ripe fruit means. Amos sees a basket of ripe fruit. Summer fruit... so the crop is finished. There will be no more harvest. This is it. This is the end. The clock has counted down to zero. Time is up.

God says so: "Like his fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again."

Then he goes on and describes devastation and destruction for the whole nation. It's the end.

It will literally be the end. Because not long after this, the nation is destroyed, the capital city is plundered, and the people are either killed or exiled all over the known world.

That is what Amos was warning about. Every single message. Every single conversation. Every single chapter in this book.

It was a warning.

But why did this destruction happen? Why was there a countdown clock on the nation anyway?

I don't care how young you are. I don't care how old you are. Here is some mental programming that needs to be the core code that runs your life:

If you don't walk in God's design, you can't walk in God's blessing.

There is a way of life that comes from heaven. This way of life is designed by God.

This way of life is the ONLY way of life that brings out your truest, deepest, most authentic self.

And this way of life is the ONLY way of life where you're not bashing yourself against the solid rock of God's truth over and over again.

You don't get to design the world; God did that. And when he did that, he designed the most beautiful, life-giving paradise imaginable. He designed an abundant life for you. He designed beauty, majesty, joy, honor, grace. It's so awesome, it's described as a feast, as a Promised land, as liberty, and as love.

That's the blessing.

That's the goodness.

That's the design of God.

So it's just a fact of life: If you don't walk in God's design, you can't walk in God's blessing.

That's the law. That's the rule. That's the physics of the spiritual realm.