Our text from Amos this morning is very visual. It paints a picture. Can you picture in your mind the scene Amos paints? He describes people quite at ease. They are described as sprawled out on couches made with ivory inlay on the framework. In other words, that is a NICE piece of furniture! The menu for dinner is lamb and stall-fed beef. This is the food of the rich. Most common-folk seldom had meat. But those Amos pictures dine on it as a matter of course. And the beef is stall-fed. This is not from cows that have been out on the range roaming and grazing and becoming lean and muscly. These cows were kept in a stall to fatten them up. These cuts of meat are marbled with fat. These are USDA prime cuts of meat!

Two things certainly jump out at us from our Gospel lesson today. First of all, there is the great concern for what is lost. Secondly, there is the great joy when the lost thing has been found. These things certainly overwhelm us when we consider that each of us was that lost thing! Jesus sought each one of us with the earnestness of the shepherd seeking his lost sheep and the woman seeking her lost coin! The angels of heaven rejoiced and celebrated when we were safely on the Shepherd’s shoulders!

It was on Maundy Thursday evening as he was gathered with his friends that Jesus spoke those beloved words to his disciples: In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2) Jesus’ words evoke images of a huge, magnificent mansion. We may think of mansions we have seen this side of heaven. Places like the Palace of Versailles in France or the Biltmore in North Carolina.

To begin our sermon we are going to talk about one of those “church words.” It is a word you likely have said many times. It is the word “amen.” In our service this morning, you will say the word “amen” at least 14 times! Why? Why do we say this word so often?

I don’t know if our text today shocked you at all when you heard it. There is something shocking about it. In our text a man who admits he is but dust and ashes (v. 27) stands before the LORD God, who is called in our text the Judge of all the earth (v. 25). That’s a pretty bold move! That’s a pretty vulnerable place, don’t you think? Especially when the Judge of all the earth has just shared his secret with you that he is going to carbonize wicked, impenitent Sodom and Gomorrah to dust and ashes! Abraham, himself a sinful creature of dust and ashes, is bold enough to speak to the Lord, and bold enough to ask him to change his course of action!