Week 1| “Open Your Eyes to Injustice”

We are the first men's savings group and I am the third in the community. We are grateful to the savings group because that is where we have been learning to discipline them to save for a purpose. With the help of the savings group, we have been able to build this room for my children. As I was saying, they already have their privacy because they are teenagers. My name is Vanessa. The savings came from our pastor, Johnny. He told us that we wanted to be a part of the savings. Only 12 people wanted to. And from those 12, it has been growing. Last year, we saved $4,000. And now we are saving more than we did last year. And when my daughter saw me, she told me, Mommy, I want to do it to save. And that is when she went to the Bible school and told the teacher that she could do it. Thank God, since the pastor came here, the community has been more united with the church. We look for God, and God has been guiding us to this day. That is what it is about. To support each other. I want to believe in myself because I can do anything for the grace of God. Thank you. Good morning. Hey, welcome to Willow. Great to have you here. I want to welcome those of you joining us online at one of our Willow locations. And a big shout out to our friends who joined us at the Jefferson City Correctional Center. Great to have you here this weekend. We have a special service. Let's talk about last week. Last week was an amazing weekend that we got to celebrate Good Friday and Easter together. And we know that many of you have been celebrating Easter with us for a lot of years.

For some of you, maybe last weekend was your first weekend with us. And if that's true, welcome back. We're glad you're back with us. If you are newer to Willow, you're here at a great time at this experience that we call Celebration of Hope. And for us, Celebration of Hope wasn't just an initiative or a program. It's this deep conviction of what we believe Scripture teaches, that the kingdom of God has no borders. And so today we're going to look at the work that God is doing, particularly through our Latin American partners. And so it's why we have a bilingual service. We'll welcome in our Willow English, in our Willow Spanish-speaking communities to worship together today. And so some of you might know me. My name is Sean, and I am joined by my favorite Spanish-speaking pastor on planet Earth, Pastor Fabian. I can't translate that. I just wanted to watch him try to translate that. I was going to say my best-looking Spanish-speaking pastor on planet Earth. Okay, I can say that. I agree with that. I agree. But Celebration of Hope begins with this deep conviction that the kingdom of God has no borders. That God calls His people to serve people wherever the need might be. That God calls His people to serve people wherever the need might be. And so we have a very special three weeks in store for us as a church. But before we get there, I want to anchor us in really what Scripture teaches, and we're going to go back to the Old Testament prophetic book called Amos. We're going to be reviewing this tremendous book of the prophet in the Old Testament called Amos. Now, candidly, I've been in ministry over 20 years. I've never preached a single message in the book of Amos. We've been pastors for 20 years, Pastor Chalmers, and we've never preached about Amos. You're like, where is the book of Amos?

It is in the Old Testament of the Bible. And some of you are asking, where is Amos? It's in the Old Testament. And I found the book of Amos to be incredibly challenging to us, and I hope it's challenging to you as well. And so, if you've got a Bible, you can turn to the book of Amos, and what you'll find is, like most Old Testament prophets, he really helps us recognize that something's off. When we go to the book of Amos, if you can look it up in your Bible, you'll see that it's going to start like all the prophets of the Old Testament. There's something that's not right. And what's interesting is you don't need to be an expert to recognize that something's off in our world. We don't need to be experts to recognize that something's not right. That really just your everyday people, your moms, your business people, your teenagers, we recognize that this world is not as it should be. As moms, as teenagers, as people who work, we recognize that something's not right in this world. And Amos recognizes that and speaks to that, particularly to God's people. And so, here's how the book of Amos starts. Amos chapter one, verse one, it says this. The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa, the vision he saw concerning Israel

two years before the earthquake when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, was the king of Israel. Now, notice what it says about Amos, that Amos was a shepherd. Notemos lo que dice acerca de Amos, Amos era un pastor. Basically, Amos was just a common person with no real experience or expertise as a prophet. Era una persona común, no tenía experiencia de nada, era cualquier persona. And so, prophets in the ancient world, they were a voice box from God, they were messengers from God to God's people. Los profetas en el Antiguo Testamento eran estos mensajeros, esta voz de Dios para el pueblo de Dios. But Amos didn't go to prophet school, he didn't have the expertise, he would have been recognized as a prophet, he was a simple shepherd. Amos no fue a la escuela de profetas, no estuvo entrenado con eso, simplemente se presentó desde su pastoreo. And the reason why that matters is this principle that you and I need to lean into, that God doesn't just use the qualified, God uses the available. Y es lo que tú y yo tenemos que inclinarnos al día de hoy para escuchar esta verdad de parte de Dios, que Dios no solo usa los que están calificados,

usa los que están dispuestos. And so Amos recognized that something was off in his world and he didn't wait for the expert to respond, he as a shepherd person chose to respond. Amos, Dios no está esperando a ver si los expertos responden, él elige Amos para ser esta voz de parte suya. And I hope that encourages you and I hope it gives you courage because the mom on the third row, the teenager in the back, the business person that feels like they don't have any time to add something on, this is for you. Espero que esto te anime, la mamá que está en la tercera fila, el adolescente que está sentado allá atrás, el hombre de negocios, que esto nos anime a ver lo que Dios quiere que veamos. Because when you recognize that something's off in our world, God often uses the available to respond to his needs. Porque cuando sabemos que Dios mira lo que está mal, Dios usa a cualquiera que esté dispuesto. Now in Amos' day, Israel was doing pretty well from the outside looking in. En los días de Amos, el pueblo israelí estaba siendo muy bien. It was politically stable, it was militarily strong, it was growing economically. From the outside looking in,

Israel looked great. Políticamente estable, militarmente bien, socialmente increíble. Desde afuera parecía que todo estaba bien. But underneath the surface, something was off. Pero debajo de la superficie, algo no estaba bien. And Amos recognized it. He recognized that even though people were comfortable, there was something that was a problem underneath the surface. Amos vio eso y reconoció que aunque la gente estaba cómoda arriba, algo no estaba bien debajo de ella. Then he recognized that the rich were getting rich at the expense of the poor. Los ricos estaban siendo más ricos a expensas de los pobres. And the powerful were getting more powerful at the expense of the powerless. Y los poderosos estaban siendo más poderosos a expensas de los que no tenían poder. And Amos recognized something about God, that God is close to the broken hearted. God cares deeply for those who are vulnerable. And so he calls out the injustice that he saw in his own world. Y Amos mira eso y reconoce que Dios tiene un corazón para aquellos que están quebrantados y levanta su voz para una justicia social. And so Amos would say. A, something's off, but I think he'd also say this, that God is not looking away.

Look what he says in the very next verse. He says this. He says, the Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem. The pastors of shepherds dry up, that the top of Carmel withers. And so notice how he says, he says, the Lord what? Roars. The Lord roars. I mean, that sounds way better in Spanish. That the Lord roars. In other words, God doesn't turn a blind eye, God responds. God's not just quietly disappointed. God is deeply moved to action. Again, because when God sees those who are living in poverty or living marginalized or living in a vulnerable situation, God always responds. And he calls his people to respond with him. The challenge was, that was not happening in the day of Amos. And so Amos' strategy was pretty fascinating. What he decided to do is to call out the sins of all the neighboring nations. Because it's easy to see the faults in others, right? And so Amos gets the nation to see that, look at all the wrong things all the nations are doing around us. And he uses this refrain in verse three, it says, for three sins, even four, I will not relent. In that refrain, he uses actually six different times

calling out the sins of all the nations that were around Israel. So I brought a map so you can kind of picture what Amos is doing here. You'll see Israel at the middle, that's his audience, that's who he's tooken to, that's God's people. And he starts calling out the sins of everybody around them. And so he calls out the sins of Damascus because they were exploiting people. And he calls out Gaza because they were taking advantage of others. He calls out sexual abuse, because they were exploiting people. Sexual exploitation and slave trade and violence against the unborn, because our God is a God that supports life. And so all these different types of things, God calls out the sins of these neighboring nations. And so I could imagine Israel being like, that's right, Amos, tell them. And you can imagine Israel saying to Amos, yes, that's right, God. Because isn't it great, like when God calls out the sins of everybody else, you're like, yeah, go get them, God. And so five different times these nations are called out, but then Amos turns the mirror on Israel. And uses the same refrain to call out where they're missing the mark. Now the difference is that Israel was given commands

to protect the poor and to the widow and the orphan. And so they were being disobedient to what God had asked them to do. And so here's what it says, verse six, it says, this is what the Lord says, for three sins of Israel, even four, I will not relent. And then it says this, they sell the innocent for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as dusts on the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and profane my holy name. They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge and in the house of their God, they drink wine taken as fines. And so he begins to call out where Israel had missed the mark. And so he calls out four things in particular. First, he says, you're selling people for profit. That you're trampling the vulnerable. Again, there was sexual exploitation happening. And the fourth one's fascinating. There was this law in the ancient world that you could take someone's garment if they owed you a debt. But you had to give the garment back before sundown because it was used as a blanket to help people stay warm in a cold desert climate. And so again, it's God looking after those who are vulnerable. And so instead of returning the garment, they were keeping the garment, taking it into the place of worship, and it was on that garment that they would bow down or lie down to worship God. And so what they were taking from the vulnerable, they were using to worship God.

And God says, not on my watch. So he challenges Israel to begin to see their own sin. Maybe I would say it this way, how God's people treat the vulnerable is a direct statement about what they believe God to be. Let me just say that again, how God's people treat the vulnerable is a direct statement about who they believe God to be. The truth is when people of God get some form of power or influence, that's not a bad thing, but it has to be used for the sake of those who are vulnerable, not in spite of those who are vulnerable. So I think that through Amos, we would recognize that something's off, that God's not turning a blind eye to it, but I think there's a positive message that we get the sense that we can actually do something about it. And God is actually looking for ordinary people to join him in doing something about it. There's a great theologian of our time, a guy by the name of Tim Keller, maybe you've heard of him. Tim led a church in New York City for a lot of years before he recently passed away. And one of the things that Pastor Keller was known for was this statement. He said this, ministry to the poor is a crucial sign that we believe the gospel. Here's what he meant by that, that if you and I really understand the gospel, we will understand that at one time we were spiritually bankrupt. In other words, we were spiritually poor. And in our spiritual poverty, God moved toward us. God changed us when we needed it most. And so because God moved toward us in our poverty, the people of God moved toward others who were often overlooked or pushed aside by others. You might say it this way, grace experienced is grace extended. And Keller would say, that's the true understanding of the gospel. We don't serve the poor to earn God's favor. We serve the poor because God has already given us his favor and we extend that favor to others.

Again, it changes everything. If the good news is not just good news for eternity, the good news can actually mean good news right now. And one of the things that I've really been shaped by is what we've learned from the Latin American church. Again, we have an amazing Willow Español ministry here at Willow. Our Willow Español ministry is made up of people representing over 20 Latin American countries. But truly, it's this beautiful cross section from all over Latin America. And there's so many. much to learn from our Latin American brothers and sisters. Let me rewind the clock for you a little bit. Back in the 1960s and 70s, there were Latin American pastors that recognized there was a disconnect in how they were presenting the gospel message, the good news. Let me rewind the clock for you a little bit. Back in the 1960s and 70s, there were Latin American pastors that recognized that the good news of Jesus was not being presented the way it should be. What they recognized is their message was almost exclusively about helping people get into heaven. Now, certainly, that's a big part of the good news, that the God has saved us for all eternity. But what they were recognizing is their message was exclusively about eternity, all the while ignoring the suffering that was all around them. That in many of their countries, there was political instability, there were military dictatorships, there were economic poverty that was everywhere you looked. And they started asking the question, what if the gospel, the good news, was not just about eternity?

What if the gospel, the good news, was also about addressing the suffering right in front of us? And so they developed a term, I'm going to try this in Spanish. They called it Mision Integral. Si, good. Well, you did it. Not bad. Yeah. Now, you're speaking Spanish now. Well, it's close to English. That's why I was good at it, right? Mision Integral, basically, it's an integrated mission. What they meant by that is that evangelism and justice were actually two sides of the same coin. Certainly, we need to care about the spiritual needs of people that will echo into eternity, but we also need to care about the physical, the social, the emotional, the physical realities that people have here and now. It is about helping people have security of heaven, but it's also about bringing as much heaven to earth as they possibly can. It was an integrated mission, a two-handed type of mission. And so many Latin American churches all across the world have lived this integrated mission for now decades, and it's changing lives every day. Throughout our global partnerships, we work with a lot of churches in Latin America. Let me tell you one story from a small community in Guatemala. It's a small community where in the school in particular, it was a large school, that they only had access to water one time every 15 days. Now, imagine that for a moment, because a lot of us, we take for granted that we have access to clean water every day. And they had access one day every 15 days to gather up as much as they could that

they would need really for the better part of the next two weeks. The challenge was the water wasn't often clean, and so there's no clean water to drink, there's no clean water to wash your hands. A lot of the kids at the school, they had stomach problems that were ongoing. And so, I want you to meet an amazing woman named Zuela. Zuela was a teacher at the school, but she's also a member of a local church that we're partnered with. And so, this integrated mission compels her to say that we as a local church need to do something about this need. And so, working in conjunction with our partners of Living Water International and TIR Fund, they provided the community with the expertise to build a clean water reality in their community. And so, Zuela, in partnership with our partners at Living Water International and TIR Fund, with a pastor, rallied a whole group of people to build this system largely by hand. provided the community with the expertise to build a clean water reality in their community. They were unskilled, untrained, but received the training from our partners. So it was an incredible system with a cistern, with underwater storage, lots of piping. It could hold 16,000 liters of clean water. So this is the pastor standing right next to the system that was eventually constructed that ended up serving the whole community. And now in the same community, those same school children have access to clean water, to drink, to wash their hands, and really the stomach problems they've experienced largely have all gone away. I mean, I love the heartbeat of it because just this picture of what integrated mission could and should look like, that we don't just care about the spiritual needs of people, certainly we do, but we also care about the physical needs of people. It's part of living the integrated mission. Now, what I love about Zuela is that similar to Amos, she was just a common everyday teacher. She didn't have any experience or training. She wasn't the expert on how to bring clean water.

Again, she was somebody not necessarily qualified, but she made herself available. And I love that God chooses to use those who are available. And I think the same can be true for you and us. The question becomes not, are you qualified to be a part of this kind of work around the world? The question becomes, are you available to be a part of this kind of work around the world? So I want to call us or even challenge us to take a next step over the next three weeks. I actually want to challenge you to take three next steps. And I want you to take all of these steps. Okay, so here's the first step. Sorry, I confused you there. I want you to explore the lobby at your Willow campus. In Spanish, come on, you can do it. Explora el lobby. There you go. I do want you to explore the lobby at your campus. And the reason I want you to do that is that in our lobbies, you're going to get just a taste of what God is doing in different regions all over the world. You'll get just a little taste of what God is doing to integrate the mission, both spiritually and physically, in very different regions, meeting very different needs. So spend time, get your kids, interact with the lobby exhibits. I think it will be a very informing time, but I would also encourage you to pay attention to what God does in your heart with it. Because he's not just looking for the qualified, he's looking for those who are available to respond. So, explora el lobby.

Good. Here's the second next step. I want you to sign up to pack seeds. Now, we've been seed packing for well over 10 years here at Willow. It's become a tradition for us annually and such a powerful tradition. And if you're newer to Willow, here's what we do. We literally have envelopes that we pack seeds and we send to our partners in Africa. And I remember when I got here, I'm like, why do we do that? Why don't we just send money for our partners to buy the seeds in Africa? And there's actually a couple... of reasons why we do it the way we do it. First, believe it or not, it's actually less expensive to purchase the seeds here, to pack them, and to ship them than it would be to purchase them there. But the second reason is more important. The seeds that are purchased here actually produce crops that produce more seeds so they can be replanted over and over again producing more and more food. Seeds purchased in that part of the world oftentimes are altered so that they don't produce more seeds, meaning people have to come back to buy more every single year. So we pack seeds and we send them. What happens is that with some agricultural training, it actually allows people to grow food for their own family, but also grow more food that can be shared that actually has the ability to lift families and communities out of poverty. And I'm really excited, in week three, we're going to share with you our collective impact of seed packing over the last 10 plus years. I can't wait to share it with you. It's amazing. But in the meantime, sign up to pack seeds. We need about 9,000 volunteers to help us pack seeds. But it is an integrated mission. It is a world-changing type of work. All right, so check out the lobby, pack some seeds. Here's the third step for us. I want us to be people who give. In week three of Celebration of Hope, we always take up a special offering. It's an above and beyond offering that supports God's work all over the globe. And I want to encourage you to begin praying about how God might prompt you to give in week three of this series. All of the dollars are given. They don't stay here. They actually go to fund the global work that we're partnered

with. And so I want to encourage us to think about it maybe in a new way. And so I'm calling it One Day to Change the World. And so here's what I want us to consider, that you would consider giving away one day's of your wages to be one day to change the world. So I want you to consider thinking about what do you make in a year? And if you divide that by 365, would you consider giving that amount above and beyond to support God's work all over the globe? It's not the same size gift for everyone, but it is equal sacrifice and participation. Now some of you would say, I'm already planning to give a lot more. Don't be limited by one day. I just want to encourage all of us to consider being a part of one day. One day to change the world. This is going to be a great three-week series. I'm so excited for the next few weeks. I want to encourage you again to take all three of those steps. So the book of Amos challenges us to take a deep look inside to say, are we partnering with God in ways that he cares about those who are most vulnerable or those who are most in need? Will we, as God's people, recognize that God roars for the justice of the most vulnerable, and may we roar with him? I'd love to just have Pastor Fabian close us with a word of prayer in Spanish. Is that okay? Yeah. Could you please pray with me? Precioso Dios, aquí estamos delante de ti. El Señor que ruge. Señor queremos movernos en el mismo corazón que tú te mueves Dios y mirar aquellos al nuestro alrededor empezando por los que tenemos cerca y aquellos que están lejos Dios para igual que tú servir a aquellos en necesidad, a aquellos en pobreza, a aquellos en situación de vulnerabilidad Dios. Ayúdanos como tu iglesia Willow Creek a dar más allá Señor, a escuchar tu voz, mirar si estamos calificados pero más que eso estar dispuestos y disponibles y juntos Dios seguir sirviendo a tu iglesia alrededor del mundo Señor bendícenos guíanos, llévanos en esta hermosa jornada de celebración de esperanza te lo pedimos y todos nuestros campos en Willow Creek decimos amén