June 28, 2026 | Amos, the Courageous Prophet

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Devotional Reading: Psalm 23

Background Scripture: Amos 1:1; 2:6–16; 3:1–15; 7:10–17

Introduction

A. Whose Words Will We Heed?

When I served in the church nursery, I both loved and hated building block towers with the kids. It was fun to see how tall we could build the towers, but it could be frustrating when my advice went ignored. I would often suggest, “Let’s make sure we build a big base.” However, my building buddies were more interested in reaching the sky as quickly as possible. I would be thinking about stability; my co-architects were more interested in originality. The result was always the same: the tower would come crashing down to shouts of glee. Maybe the point for the kids was to see it fall more than to build it tall, after all?

It fascinates me that while kids love imitating adults, they also love doing things their own way. The kids in the nursery did not want building advice; they wanted to take their own approach. Adults can easily adopt a similar mindset regarding various matters. We often assume that we are in the right and feel we don’t need anyone else’s input, so we ignore the voices and words of those who can offer guidance. The stakes are low when building block towers for children, but the stakes are much higher in real life. Whose words will we heed?