"Can Two Walk Together?" – Amos 3:3 Amos uses a question to teach a spiritual principle: true unity requires agreement. Today no one walks with anyone, because we cannot even agree on a colour; the way we speak, the way we think and the things we do are always subject to the self, and all the more in these times when the thinking is "no one tells me what to do." But if we are the body of Christ, we all have to learn the same thing. We cannot walk together if there is no harmony of purpose, and we cannot walk with God if the heart is going another way.
I. Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (Amos 3:3).
A. The prophet reasons from nature.
1. Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den?
2. These are things proper to nature, which must have a reason in order to show themselves.
3. Today no one walks with anyone, and that is the reason: we cannot even agree on a colour.
B. For sheep to function they need a shepherd to lead them.
1. God leaves us the word so that we may be knowing people; it is what educates and teaches us.
2. Each one has his own book written and develops his own thinking as he likes.
3. I have never found one sheep like another, nor have you found a sheep that resembles you.
C. Everything in us is subject to the self.
1. What we speak, what we say, what we think and what we do are always subject to the self.
2. All the more in these times of so much liberty, when the thinking is: no one tells me what to do.
3. Today it is easier for everyone to have his opinion and say what he pleases, because let no one meddle in my life.
4. This message by itself brings no improvement in the human being: what we gain in the Scriptures is knowledge for those of us who want to be spiritual.
II. True unity requires agreement.
A. Unity has a code.
1. Whether friend, companion, family, brother, father, mother or cousin, to have unity one must come to agreements.
2. And we do not like coming to agreements.
3. If we are the body of Christ, we must know that we all have to learn the same thing.
4. If you say you do whatever you please, then you are not the body.
B. When we are united, what happens to the other grieves us.
1. When we love one another, it hurts us if something befalls another and we rejoice when it goes well with him.
2. The last thing you want is to harm the person, because that is not one's desire.
3. Agreement is what brings us to unity; but everyone pulls his own way.
4. I have the blood of Christ and you have the blood of Christ: it is the same, and there is the agreement.
C. The Holy Spirit comes by the blood of Christ.
1. When Jesus came into our life He cleansed us with His blood.
2. No one can have the Holy Spirit who does not have the Lord.
3. The Holy Spirit is to carry us, guide us, make us know and make us understand the Bible.
4. There can be no absence of prayer in the minister, for the people depend on that prayer: that God favour us and deliver us.
5. Learn, brethren, that the evil day comes. Do not settle into lukewarmness: lukewarmness helps nothing.
III. We cannot walk together if there is no harmony of purpose.
A. What harmony is.
1. It is what happens when those who have been saved and washed in the blood of Christ live and serve with one mind, led by the Holy Spirit.
2. It is the agreement of the soul with the will of God and with others.
3. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, for there the LORD commanded the blessing.
4. Wisdom is needed to live in unity within diversity, for that is the art: we are all different.
B. What purpose is.
1. It is the perfect plan of God for your life; God made a perfect plan from here to there.
2. Whether we fulfil it or not is our own affair; it is not that God has not acted, nor that heaven does not move.
3. For each one God has made purposes: why he will exist and what he will have to do on the earth.
4. We do not come to the earth for luxury: we come to the earth for service.
5. When the children of God move in one calling, without competing or dividing, but in love, that is harmony of purpose.
C. The rebellious heart hardens.
1. The more the heart hardens, the less anyone can soften it.
2. Then a violent breaking must come from God; and those breakings come with the woe.
3. How shall we be together if each one thinks and has his own world?
4. What we imagine and prepare makes us fall into our own traps.
5. You may say no one meddles in your life, but the trouble is that God moves us every day.
IV. Amos applies it to the relationship between God and His people.
A. The people claimed to be the Lord's, but lived in disobedience.
1. That is why God could not walk together with them: the problem is disobedience.
2. In the spiritual life we cannot say we walk with God and live outside His will.
3. When God calls us, it is to set us to do His will.
4. And if we decide to do His will, your life will be better and you will be happy.
5. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivereth him out of them all; for He who calls is He who takes us by the hand.
B. Those who serve together must be in spiritual tune.
1. That is how God works with power: we all work for the same thing.
2. Being in the body of Christ subjects each one of us, for Christ is holy, holy, holy.
3. If we do violence to it, we go out of the body, and then the body is affected.
4. To have the Lord grieved is a terrible thing, and it is dangerous for the whole church.
5. Those who serve in music are obliged to live in that union with the Holy Spirit, so that what is sung reaches the ear and from the ear the heart.
6. Then, if we came in with some trouble, we enter into joy, because we have been freed from what oppresses us.
C. God desires to walk with us.
1. But He cannot do it if our hearts follow another direction.
2. If one takes another direction, who loses? Oneself; but it is not oneself alone who is affected, many are.
3. Communion with Him rests not on words nor on religion, but on agreement and obedience.
V. Service is what keeps us together.
A. Lift your lives to service.
1. Let us stop being first person, second person and third person.
2. It is in doing good to another that we gain much for heaven.
3. Until one day your gauge shows red to the very end, because you gave service until you were spent.
4. Today people live very boastfully, and conversation is about who can boast the most.
5. What is life in truth? Service.
6. The grandmothers of old were happy because they boiled the beans without sofrito and without onion, and there was the meal, so the grandchildren would come and eat.
B. To walk together is to go at the same pace.
1. There is much to criticize, everything; but the point is to do what falls to us.
2. Two shall walk together because they know they have unity and harmony of purpose.
3. It is to go in the same purpose and the same course, according to the plan of God.
4. We could never walk as two with God if we resist His will.
5. Many doors close in life, and mortals close them; and we easily stop loving, living wholly for ourselves, day and night.
VI. God does not demand perfection, but willingness.
A. Christ endured in meekness.
1. He bore the destruction of His blessed body; they mocked Him and they spat on Him.
2. Today, if someone wrongs you, you take him to court and fight until thousands of dollars are taken from him.
3. God at no moment demands perfection of us: what He wants of our life is willingness.
4. A heart that says: Lord, I want to go where you go.
B. When the believer and God are agreed.
1. When you agree with God in thought, in faith and in obedience, the walk becomes light, safe and full of peace.
2. For when one does what God wants, there is much peace.
3. And when we do not, within our breast there is a groaning, because the soul is cast down.
4. One cannot walk with God if the heart goes another way: to vanity, to complaints, to the demands with which we live. That suffocates.
5. He does not look for perfect steps, but for a soul that says: with you I go on.
C. The peace the world has forgotten.
1. To walk with God is to surrender, to let Him set the pace, and to find that peace in His will.
2. The world has forgotten peace: people protest over one thing and another, and many wars are declared.
3. Whoever is truly concerned about something acts, because that concern leads him to an action, and that action will do good.
4. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
5. The peace God leaves does not mean the problem is solved: it is that He gives us peace, because the blood of Christ covers us.
6. When His will and ours meet, the path is lit, the weight is lightened and the soul learns to agree: my soul, wait thou upon God, for I shall yet praise Him.
VII. The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way (Psalm 37:23).
A. God carefully guides the steps of those who trust Him.
1. There are things that unsettle you, things you have not done and things you intend to do tomorrow: let God be the one who keeps your steps.
2. There are no coincidences; I speak of the one who has communion and prayer with God.
3. When we walk by His hand, every step, every pause and every turn has a purpose under His direction.
B. And he delighteth in his way.
1. God takes pleasure in the life of the one who seeks to walk according to His will.
2. If you have many troubles and many circumstances, I assure you that you stopped praying and stopped seeking.
3. If a problem drags on and is not resolved, it is because you have not faced it and have not established the truth.
4. Everything goes as far as you permit. Be warriors, learn to do battle.
5. Sacrifice the mouth a little one day in the week: not in penance nor in scourging, but reading the word and praying, knowing you are abstaining.
6. Let us be useful on this earth; there are hardly any churches left, they have closed. We have always fought as a church, even when in the pandemic the service had to be given by telephone.
C. God sustains the walk.
1. Stumblings will come, and someone will always trip you; but it all depends on you.
2. Be it the relative, the brother, the spouse: let whoever will lay the stumbling block lay it, for God raises the righteous and straightens his steps.
3. To walk with God is to know there is no loss when His direction is followed; losses come from want of action, and what is sacred God multiplies.
4. The one who delights in God is guided by God at every step, even when the ground is shaking.
5. Where man sees a stumbling, our God sees teaching and sowing; the righteous does not walk alone, and if he falls, the divine hand lifts him with great patience.
D. The LORD renews strength.
1. Here on earth we are being spent, and as we are spent we lose strength.
2. But He renews the strength of the one who trusts in Him, who has faith, who is active to act.
3. If you rise and do what God wants, you will see one miracle and another, and our faith increases; and faith has an action.
4. Lament and complaint are easier; but what moves God's hand is the faith of the righteous, not doubt nor the wish to be the victim.
5. He directs, He sustains, He proves; and when He proves it is as if He said: be still, rest in me.
6. Every new day brings the hope that the LORD is with us and that He has not seen the righteous forsaken.
VIII. Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path (Psalm 27:11).
A. David writes in a time of danger and persecution.
1. Instead of trusting in his own strength or his strategies, he asks God for direction and wisdom.
2. That is what must be done when we are in such difficulties: ask God for direction and wisdom.
3. The psalmist acknowledges that only the Lord can show him the right way and keep him firm amid so much opposition.
4. David had a perfect and beautiful communion with God; he was the man who had to raise up the temple and the people, to unite, to battle and to drive out the enemies.
5. It is a plea of humility: go to God in humility, and acknowledge that we do not know it all.
B. Lead me in a plain path.
1. Learn that word, church: uprightness.
2. You think uprightness is only for a certain moment; uprightness is twenty-four hours.
3. Every act that is not in uprightness is written in the books, and there is no step backward.
4. David asks not only to know the way, but to walk in it with uprightness and justice.
5. The absence of uprightness is the absence of morals, and the absence of morals corrupts the whole family.
C. Because of mine enemies.
1. For he knew that evil always lies in wait and that only obedience to God protects and strengthens.
2. Teach me, Lord, your path when my step falters or stumbles.
3. Let fear and noise not guide me, but your firm and tender voice.
4. By the track your light marks I walk in peace, without turning back; your direction gives me rest and in your path I find good.
IX. This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you (Luke 22:20).
A. We remember a love without equal.
1. This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
2. Had He not made this sacrifice, you would have no security of eternal life.
3. God reveals the word to us so that we may know it; a people in God has much good, and we must know how to use it.
B. When the heart hardens, the covenant is broken.
1. We know that the covenant we made the day we were converted has been broken.
2. May the people be conscious of what it is to fail Him, to take Him again to the cross, to harden our heart, to be vain and proud.
3. But if we are His body, He is the sovereign who can carry out the order of heaven, so that in His word and in supplication there is room for forgiveness.
4. May a reverent love fall upon the life of the brethren, so that they love Him in purity and are faithful to Him.
Christian Church Mega Zoé · Pastor Edermira Cruz
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