Andy Talks

Amos is rebuked by one of the King’s priests today. He is told, you should not be a prophet here.  Go back to your home and prophecy there. However, Amos responds that he is not a prophet. He doesn’t come from a line of prophets.  He was simply called by God to go and speak, so that is what he did. Today, you don’t have to be a preacher to speak. You just need to go where it is that God has called...

Two of the major parts of our walk with God are the notions of forgiveness and grace and of accountability.  We see both of these parts displayed in Amos 7.  We see God relent from punishing the sins of His people. But then we see God take a plumb line, a tool that shows how vertical or straight something is, and measure His people against it. Are they being faithful?  Are they being true?  Are th...

Today, in our reading, God continues His rebuke of Israel. He points to their pride, how they lay on beds of ivory and show no concern for the needs around them. They have even begun to use His call for justice as a tool to harm others. They are seeking more and more and more. They are focused on more wealth, more stuff, and more ways to inflate their pride instead of what God calls them to, more...

In our Sunday sermon from INTERSECTION from April 14, 2024, Andy shares with us from Luke 24: 28-39. In the life of Jesus, we have seen beauty, we have seen grace, mercy, and redemption.  We know it. But now, now we must show it!  

In our reading today, we see one of those famous verses from the prophets - let justice flow down like water and righteousness like an everflowing stream.  God tells us today through Amos that He does not desire the worship or the festivals, but He desires justice.  He desires for us to live out what we pray on Sundays - thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Worship matters, community mat...

Today, in Amos 5, we see the pain of lament and the hope of grace. The Lord tells the people that judgment is coming.  Because of their sin, their idolatry, and their treatment of the poor, judgment is coming, and it will not be fun. There will be great lament and cries of pain over the powerful and strong judgment of the Lord. But we also see in the same way that there is grace.  If they turn fro...

God today tells the people that He has tried, over and over again, through different methods, to call them back. To correct them from their sin. He uses the “stick and carrot” approach.  He has used the carrot of blessing and the stick of pain, all in hopes of calling His people back home. That’s what He wants, that’s what He desires, for us to return home, for us to be saved, for us to be restore...

In our April 7, 2024 sermon, Andy shares with us from John 20: 19-31. There is much to unpack and understand here. But in the end, we see here that we have a beautiful story, a story of grace, that the world needs to hear. But before the world can know it, we have to see it.

Today, Amos shares with the people what it is that God rebukes them for. They are not worshiping in the manner and in the way that God desires. They are not going to Jerusalem. They are not giving the sacrifice; they are going to the false high places in the northern kingdom. They also do not take care of the poor among them. Today, we struggle with the same things. When we worship, do we realize...

Amos continues to pronounce judgment today.  First, we see an additional nation (Moab) that will be judged. But then God turns His judgment to His people. First, Judah has not kept the covenant in the same way that their ancestors did not. And then Israel, the northern kingdom, has done so much (oppressed the poor, immorality, incorrect worship) that God rebukes. God is not trying to scare us in t...

As we dig into Amos these next few days, we are going to spend some time today first unpacking who he is. He was a shepherd. He was not trained. He was not powerful. He was not from the right place. He was a shepherd whom God laid a word upon.  God called him, and he spoke. God doesn’t just use who we think He will; God will use all of us. God can use you today for amazing things. For great things...

Joel, the prophets, and all of the scripture point us to God’s restoration.  We see in Joel that God will bring judgment against the ones who have persecuted His people. Justice will come. But for Judah, for Jerusalem, restoration will come. The streambeds will flow with water.  The Lord dwells in Zion, and He will bring forth life for all His people. Rejoice, for restoration will come. But we are...

After following Jesus during Holy Week, today we resume with Joel. When we were last here, we saw God promise a pouring out of His Spirit upon all. This is the passage that Peter used for Pentecost. In today’s passage, we see God remind the people that judgment will come. God sees how His people have been mistreated and abused; He sees how His people have been oppressed by the nations. One day, in...

In our Easter message from our Traditional service, Andy shares with us from Mark 16: 1-8. Easter is the dividing point between the old and the next. We have to imagine who God has called us to be and live remembering who that is.

Today, we see the cross and what our Lord endured for us out of His great love.  We see the ugliness, the brutality, the pain of the cross. We see sin placed upon our Lord and what He endured for our sake and for the sake of the world. Yes, Sunday is coming. But let us not be in such a rush to get to the empty grave that we do not stop and ponder what sin has done. He stretched out His arms of lov...

Jesus gives us two very hard things today.  He models for us how are are to serve. And not just generic service, but service that is hard. Service that is dehumanizing. More than holding open a door, but deeply hard service. Then He tells us how folks will know that we are HIs - that we love. To service and to love. Those are hard. Those are difficult. We can’t do them on our own, but it is only t...

Today in Holy Week, this is often called “Spy Wednesday.” This is the day that Judas begins the process of berating Jesus. But before we get to this, we see the religious leaders looking for a time and a place to arrest Jesus. We see the disciples angry at Jesus for being anointed with ointment and not selling it.  Could it be from this place of anger, this place of frustration, that the devil beg...

On Holy Tuesday, Jesus spends much time teaching.  Or perhaps you could say He spends much time correcting and speaking out against the religious leaders.  We are going to look at what is often called the “Seven Woes,” where Jesus condemns the religious leaders for their hypocrisy, for their self-righteousness, and for how they are actually keeping people from God. We see in the end that Jesus lon...

Many things happened to Jesus on Monday of Holy Week, but something that always catches my eye is His cursing of the fig tree. Why did He do that? What did that poor fig tree have to do with any of this?  We look at what happens in this moment, and in His teaching, we see something very important, something that can show us about our faith and the fruits we bear.  Join us for our daily reflections...

In our Palm Sunday message, Andy shares with us from Mark 11: 1-11.  We see that Jesus fulfilled His purpose. He was always headed to Jerusalem. The people expected earthly answers. He was offering spiritual ones.  It's the same for us today. Will we look for earthly answers to spiritual realities?

Joel had his prophecies hundreds of years before Jesus, hundreds of years before Pentecost Sunday. Today, we see the exact text that Peter preached from on Pentecost. Upon all flesh, God will pour out His Spirit on sons and daughters, young and old.  No longer is the Spirit just to fall upon the prophet, but it falls upon all persons.  Today, you have access to the Holy Spirit.  We position oursel...

Today, in Joel 2, we see the Lord’s response.  He will drive away the army, and He will do great things to restore and make all things beautiful.  He will repay for the years that the locusts have eaten.  The Lord can and will redeem and restore all things; there will be a new heaven and a new earth. God is not done with us yet. This does not mean that the pain we may have felt in the past is inva...

In Joel 2, we see that God’s day of judgment is far greater than the army of locusts we saw in Chapter 1. That is why we should always be careful when calling down for God’s great judgment; when He comes in judgment, none of us will be good enough. We see good news today, though; as great as judgment is, God’s grace is great.  God’s mercy comes running after us. He longs to forgive us. He loves us...

What is a prophet? What do they do?  What is their task?  As we begin our time together in the minor prophets, we start first with Joel.  We look to Joel, and we see great brokenness.  In the face of that, we cry out to God. There is a great plague of locusts that are destroying everything in Joel’s time, and that will bring great destruction. In the midst of that, all we can do is turn to  God ou...

Philemon is an interesting small book in the New Testament.  Normally, we see Paul appealing to his authority as an apostle, but he doesn’t do that in this letter. In fact, quite the opposite.  Paul appeals to love and relationships here as he encourages Philemon to receive Onesimus back. We talk a little about what these relationships look like, about the power of God to save and transform, and t...