An Empty Amen

Opening Focus: Desperation for God

• Pastor Andrew begins with Psalm 42, emphasizing a deep longing for God.
• The core idea:
• We are often chasing what we think we need…
• But what we truly need is God Himself.
• Personal reflection:
• He realized during preparation that he didn’t need a sermon—he needed time with God.

The Tension: Knowing vs. Living

• Pastor Andrew shares a personal struggle:
• He found powerful scriptures to preach…
• But felt convicted that he wasn’t fully living them out.
• Key realization:
• It’s possible to preach truth better than we practice it.
• This creates a tension between:
• What we know
• How we actually live

What God Requires (Micah 6:8)

• Central framework:
• Do justice
• Love mercy
• Walk humbly

Do Justice

• Requires intentional effort, not passivity.
• We must:
• Go looking for injustice
• Be a voice for those who have none
• Challenge:
• It’s easy to assume everything is fine because we don’t see the problem.

Love Mercy (Compassion)

• Defined as:
• Not just fixing problems
• But entering into someone’s suffering
• Key concept:
• “Co-suffering” — being present with people in pain
• Personal conviction:
• Pastor Andrew realized he often moves too fast to sit with people.

Walk Humbly

• Example: Jesus washing the disciples’ feet
• True humility:
• Serving even when it feels beneath you
• Choosing discomfort for the sake of others

The Warning from Scripture

• Faith without action is:
• Dead
• Deceptive
• Knowing truth without living it leads to:
• Self-deception
• Empty spirituality
• Strong statement:
• It’s possible to:
• Say the right things
• Believe the right things
• And still miss true relationship with God

The Big Idea: “Empty Amen”

• Defining moment of the sermon:
• Pastor Andrew says the Lord challenged him:
• “Your amen is empty if it’s not followed by action.”
• Key takeaway:
• Agreement without obedience = meaningless

Heart-Level Conviction

• Honest reflection:
• We say we believe…
• But often don’t live it out.
• Questions raised:
• Why do we feel conviction in church but ignore it later?
• Why do we experience God but not carry that into daily life?

Call to Response: Return to God

• Pastor Andrew shifts from preaching to invitation:
• Less talking, more time with God
• Encouragement:
• What we need most is not:
• Better teaching
• More information
• But real encounter and repentance

Final Invitation

• Come back to:
• Desperation for God
• Wholehearted surrender
• Practical response:
• Time in prayer
• Repentance
• Re-aligning life with what we say we believe

Closing Challenge

• Walk out with:
• An “amen” that is fullIn word
• In heart
• And in action

My name is Andrew, I'm the associate pastor here. Pastor Jonathan is gone this weekend. Pastor Jonathan and Vivi are out taking Rafa on his  year old birthday trip. Yeah, so good to have those milestone moments and celebrate those together. And so while he is gone, while they are gone, I've got the opportunity to be able to bring the word today and I'm excited about it.

 I wanna go ahead and take a minute and read our scripture that we're gonna look at today. So if you guys would, if you'd stand your feet and let's, I'm gonna read this and let this be our prayer to you today. I wanna read Psalm 42 verses one through twelve.

 Says as the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.

 I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him? Day and night I have only tears for food while my enemies continually taught me saying, where is this God of yours?

 My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be. I walked among the crowds of worshipers leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration.

 Why am I so discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God. I will praise him again, my savior and my God.

 Verse six, he says, now I'm deeply discouraged, but I will remember you. Even from distant Mount Herman, the source of the Jordan, from the land of Mount Mazar, I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweeps over me.

 But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me. And through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life. Oh my God, my rock, I cry.

 Why have you forgotten me?

 Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies? Their taunts break my bones, they scoff. Where is this God of yours?

 Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?

 I will put my hope in God.

 I will praise him again, my savior and my God.

 God, we come to you today.

 And Lord, I pray that today would be a day and a moment

 where like this scripture opened up, we would long for you like the deer pants for the water. That today we would remember how desperate we are for you.

 Lord, bring us back to this place, the place where David had been.

 God, today let revival start in the hearts of the remnant.

 In Jesus' name we pray, amen, amen. You guys can be seated. Gentle Music So I read this scripture out of Psalm  to you today

 because this was a scripture that I came to,

 that I personally needed in the midst of preparing to preach today.

 This was something that I needed because I found myself in the midst of going through different scriptures and passages and wondering what I would be able to share

 just really pressing to get a word from God. I don't know if you've been there before where you know that you need something from God and so you begin to press and press in your own strength and power.

 And for me, there were moments like that this week where I was pressing and pressing in my own strength. And what I needed in the middle of that was to back up, to submit myself back to God again and remember that I'm desperate for him, just for him.

 That what I needed most was not the word for today. What I needed most was a moment with him.

 A moment to rest in him, to rest in his presence, let him be enough. And I don't know if you're there at all, if that's something that you feel as well but I think that it is good for us to occasionally return to Psalms like this where you see the words of David and you feel that what I need is to be reminded that I'm desperate for nothing more than Jesus.

 Whatever I might feel I'm desperate for, nothing will suffice but him. He is all that can give me what I need.

 And you know, this week I began, I ran into a bit of a unique problem

 because I started to go through these different scriptures that I felt like there was something really good of a word to share.

 And what I wanna do is I wanna take you through a couple of those scriptures this week that were really on my heart and then I wanna share with you my problem that I ran into

 because I feel like the reason why God asked me to share that the problem that I ran into is that maybe you might find that problem relatable,

 that maybe you might find yourself, maybe it's today, maybe it's not today,

 maybe you might find yourself at times in that same place

 and God brought me to a place where there was encouragement and action that I could take that was helpful and I wanted to be able to share that with you today.

 One of the scriptures that I had been reading and looking at this week was in Leviticus chapter ,

 verse .

 And this chapter in Leviticus , the heading of this chapter is holiness in our personal conduct, holiness being to be set apart.

 And in verse , he says this, he says, "Do not take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land. Treat them like native born Israelites and love them as you love yourself.

 Remember that you were once foreigners living in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God."

 I'm reading this verse and I'm thinking of what an impactful thing for him to say, to say, "Listen, I want you to treat the outsiders like insiders because you were once an outsider."

 He says, "I want you to treat the foreigner like the native born and I want you to love them as yourself."

 And I just began, like this was one of the starting places for me this week and the scriptures that I was reading to think who are those people for me in my own life that I might look at and forget.

 And that if I could return in my own heart to a place where I could go,

 I know what it's like to be there.

 You know, I grew up in church

 and I made a decision early on to follow Jesus. And yet in my life, I've had moments where I have walked away from him and I've known what it's been to live on the outside and then try to come back into the church and be treated differently. Like I know what that experience is like. And so who are those people in my life, whether foreigner or not, whether exactly like he mentions or otherwise, that I just,

 that it's time to remember that I too have been left out and forgotten.

 Who do I need to look at that I might be willing to bring in and bring close to show them the love of God?

 And then I come again to these other verses

 like I come to Micah .

 Micah  says this, it says, "No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good. And this is what he requires of you,

 to do what is right, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

 You know, he says there to do what is right. Others translations would say to do justice.

 Man, I was looking through this verse this week and it like excited me. I love this verse. This is like, this verse is in a picture frame

 on the playroom in our home.

 It's one that we come back to and we look at often. And I was looking at the verse and I was thinking, like I was so excited to think of all the things that he says in here that like, sometimes we wonder what do I need to do in life? And this verse, like it just puts it real plain and simple. Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly.

 And I'm looking and I'm thinking about justice, right? To do what is right.

 And one of the things that just really challenged me

 is I read and I studied.

 And as I just began to process and think about this, is to think that if we're going to do justice

 for those who have been treated unjustly,

 it's going to take effort to go and to look for those who have been treated unjustly. And to do something about it.

 Because when I walk in the light,

 most of what I see on a day to day basis,

 I don't get a chance to see the injustice.

 And I can convince myself that it actually doesn't even exist.

 But the reality is that if we're called to do justice, we're going to have to leave and go to the darkness to bring the light.

 That if we're going to do justice, we can't wait for those who have been treated unjustly to speak up and ask us.

 Like I began to be challenged to simply sit and think that usually those who are treated unjustly have no voice.

 So can I wait and sit and just convince myself that because no one has asked me for help that no one needs it?

 Or is doing justice about taking the light that God has put in me and going to dark places to look for those who have no voice and be a voice.

 To look for those who have been treated unjustly and do justice on their behalf.

 And that was a pretty challenging thought for me.

 And then he talks about not just doing justice but to love mercy.

 So I start looking at mercy.

 And I start thinking of like, what does that really mean?

 To love mercy.

 And as you look and you think about what that word can mean and the definitions of it, the piece of it, the small part of it that I kept coming back to was the idea of having compassion.

 Right, do you remember in some of the stories that Jesus would heal people or do things for people and it would say that he was moved with compassion?

 To have compassion for others. Another way, and this is something new that I've been learning

 and knew that I was processing this week, is that another way you could say, you could define compassion

 is that you would enter into someone else's suffering with them.

 Or another way you could say it is to cosuffer.

 And so to love mercy might be that we could be a people

 who would keep our eyes open

 to look for those who are suffering

 and not simply just try to solve their problem,

 but maybe to come in with them and cosuffer with them. That to have compassion might simply be that in the midst of your suffering, someone might come and be with you in your suffering.

 And again, just like some of the ideas that were coming with justice, I'm sitting and thinking about mercy and compassion and cosuffering and it was messing me up.

 Just wrecking me. Like for me, just my personality type, I like to solve problems. I like to fix things and move quickly.

 Right?

 I love task lists and I love checking off task lists.

 And I thought, like, what if to love someone well at times might not be to step in and try immediately see how quickly can I solve your problem, but to let them know in the midst of their problem, they're not alone.

 Like in the midst of your suffering, I might sit with you to suffer with you until the time comes led by the Holy Spirit that we leave that suffering,

 but that we might cosuffer together.

 And man, I'm telling you that,

 those were tough things to sit and ponder.

 Because for me, sometimes my pace is faster than that.

 I'm a guy who, I feel like I move slower than most, but yet in the sense that my wife chuckles from the front, I feel like I move quite slow in life,

 but yet the task list that I keep, they move quickly.

 When I start to think that I move slow, every once in a while you can ask some of the staff who've been here a long time, that back when I was the janitor, they used to know when I was coming because I wore my keys in like a carabiner on here. And like you knew when I was coming, because you could hear the shoo, shoo, shoo, shoo, shoo,

 it was never like a gentle sway.

 Sometimes I was convicted by the thought that sometimes I move too fast to cosuffer with others.

 I move fast enough to fix their problems, but not enough to suffer with them.

 I began to think about like to love people well, to have mercy, to cosuffer with them, that love does have a pace.

 And I just didn't know if I was at that pace.

 It says, "Do justice, love mercy, "and walk humbly with your God."

 And to think of humility,

 the example that I got to picture and go back to in my mind is I began to go back to think of Jesus

 as he's getting ready to be betrayed

 and move to the cross and die on that cross,

 that there's this night that he sits with his disciples and he washes their feet. Do you guys remember the story?

 Sniffs And he takes on the position and the role of a servant. He gets down, he takes the water and a towel, and he does something that in their minds

 was degrading and dirty and submissive, and they couldn't get their minds around. Why in the world would he do this to me?

 If anyone, like of all the people, this, the Son of God submitting himself to me,

 serving me, getting dirty, doing something degrading for me,

 and I began to wrestle with and think about this idea that if I was gonna do justice, love mercy, walk humbly,

 and I would be willing to be a person who in submissive service for others would do things even when to me they feel beneath me,

 when to me to serve that person feels degrading,

 when to me what I'm doing on behalf of others makes me feel dirty, would I still walk in that kind of humility, because Jesus did?

 He got down and washed those feet.

 I mean, can you imagine being in that position of a disciple when you're like, Blows Raspberry

 I should be washing your feet,

 only for one of them to pipe off and just be like, wash all of me, and you're like, you missed the whole thing, bro.

 Blows Raspberry And here's why all this was so tough this week. This isn't the message, this is the intro.

 Because then I started coming across these other verses,

 seemingly are disconnected, but not.

 Matthew chapter seven, Jesus says, starting verse ,

 says, "Not everyone who calls out to me, Lord, Lord, "will enter the kingdom of heaven,

 "only those who actually do the will of my Father "in heaven will enter.

 "On judgment day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, "we prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name "and perform many miracles in your name, "but I'll reply, I never knew you, get away from me, "you who break God's laws."

 And he transitions over to the next verse.

 Says, "Anyone who listens to my teaching "and follows, listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, "like a person who builds house on solid rock, "though the rain comes in torrents and floodwaters rise," like that was this week,

 "and the winds beat against the house, "it won't collapse because it's built on bedrock.

 "But anyone who hears my teaching "and doesn't obey it's foolish, "like a person who builds a house on sand.

 "When the rains and floods come "and the winds beat against the house, "it will collapse with a mighty crash."

 And then I came over to  Corinthians .

 Says, "If I speak in the tongue, "if I could speak all the languages on earth "and of angels, but I didn't love others, "I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

 "If I had the gift of prophecy "and I understood all of God's secret plans "and possessed all knowledge, "and if I had such faith that I could move mountains "but I didn't love others, I would be nothing.

 "If I gave everything I have to the poor "and it even sacrificed my body, "I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, "I would have gained nothing."

 James , , "But don't just listen to God's word,

 "you must do what it says.

 "Otherwise, you're only fooling yourselves.

 "For if you listen to the word and don't obey, "it's like glancing at your face in a mirror.

 "You see yourself, walk away and forget what you look like, "but if you look carefully, "it's the perfect law that sets you free. "And if you do what it says,

 "and don't forget what you heard, "then God will bless you for doing it.

 "If you claim to be religious but don't control your tongue, "you're fooling yourself and your religion is worthless.

 "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father "means caring for the orphans and widows and their distress "and refusing to let the world corrupt you."

 James , , "What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, "if you say you have faith "but you don't show it by your actions? "Can that kind of faith save anyone?

 "Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing "and you say, goodbye and have a good day. "Stay warm and eat well.

 "But then you don't give that person any food or clothing. "What good does that do?

 "So you see, faith by itself isn't enough "unless it produces good deeds. "It's dead and useless.

 "Now someone may argue, some people have faith "and others have good deeds, "but I say, how can you show me your faith "if you don't have good deeds? "I'll show you my faith by my good deeds."

 Revelations , verse  and .

 He says, "I know all the things you do. "You're neither hot nor cold.

 "I wish that you were one or the other.

 "But since you are like lukewarm water, "neither hot nor cold, I'll spit you out of my mouth."

 And I just start reading through these scriptures

 and I'm confronted with the fact that there's this really great material for great messages.

 But yet I'm confronted in my own heart

 to go, I don't know if I always act like those verses that I see.

 And listen, as pastors and as preachers, we don't always stand up

 and preach the things that we're doing perfectly. Matter of fact, if we did, there's just not very much we could preach. We are a practicer of the faith, just like you. We are brothers and sisters in Christ with you.

 But yet nevertheless, there are those things that I look at and I go to look for and love the foreigner,

 to do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly.

 I was confronted with the idea that there's a chance that I might be able to preach a better sermon on that than I would be able to live it.

 And that was convicting.

 And so, like on Thursday, sitting and preparing and praying and preaching,

 like I found myself just kind of sitting in my office like, "I'm confronted with it, not knowing what to do with it." So just really pressing hard. God, give me the sermon, give me the sermon, give me the sermon.

 And I didn't need the sermon.

 I needed him.

 I didn't need more time trying to find the right words.

 I just needed to grab my Bible, close myself off,

 just spend empty, unhurried time with him.

 Maybe you've been there too.

 Maybe you've been there too, that like what you're, just really felt like, "God, what I need is," you fill in the blank. Mine this week, sermon.

 You could probably fill in the blank with yours.

 "God, I need," fill in the blank.

 And then I come to Psalm .

 And he reminds me, "No, no, no, no, no, "you're not desperate for the sermon.

 "You're desperate for me. "So can you put away the sermon and just come after me?" And then I come back to the sermon. And he says, "Can you put away the sermon and just come "after me?"

 And so I sat there in my office, just locked myself in there. It was great, I could do it. On Thursdays, most people work from home on Thursdays. It was just Danny cleaning and me, and it was like, "Well, this is easy, no one is here."

 And so I just prayed.

 I like to light a candle when I pray. I don't know why, I just do.

 Light a candle, grab my Bible,

 and just reminded myself, "I'm desperate for nothing more than you."

 And in the midst of that, I just,

 I started to think and realize

 that maybe that's what I needed to share.

 That what we, for me, what I know I need,

 is like I need a moment to just come back before God,

 and repent of the fact that I know more, it could teach more than I was capable at that moment of acting on.

 And that God's calling me to something better than that.

 Maybe you felt that way too.

 And like today, I was in pastors meeting on Thursday, we were talking about the service, and what's our order, and all the things we have to normally cover to make sure that everything runs well. I told them, I was like, "Listen, I'm not going to preach as long, like it will be short."

 But what I mean is I need a moment to come back,

 to come down to the altar.

 Just repent.

 But maybe it's more than just me.

 Maybe you're here too, and there's something that's just like, I need some time with God.

 And so we talked and we decided, I'll just make space for that.

 We make space in the service, that whether you sit where you're at, or whether you come down here,

 that what we need,

 it was just time with Him.

 That like the psalmist says,

 what I long for,

 like a deer that's panting for water,

 is to be desperate again for you.

 And so,

 the way I want to close,

 is while I was sitting there,

 I just started to write.

 And,

 because the most clarity that I could get,

 in anything,

 was to just start writing how I felt in the moment.

 And the way that I, what I wrote down, I felt like this was the thing that I really felt like the Lord wanted me to share, because

 the word that He put in my mind of why I felt so confronted

 by some of these verses,

 was that even if I wasn't preaching this weekend, but I was sitting on the other side,

 like if I was sitting where you were and someone else is preaching, and they're like, do justice, be like, amen!

 Love mercy. Walk humbly.

 That I could amen it out in the crowd,

 and the Lord was challenging me,

 that your amen is empty,

 if it's not followed by action.

 And so, it was like, oh,

 what if I have an empty amen? Soft Music And that what the Lord wants from me is an amen filled with substance to say, I'll take what you're saying, and I'll walk out of here,

 and I'll do it.

 So I'm just going to read to you

 what I wrote.

 And then when I'm done,

 I just want to open while Pastor Isaiah is up here, and he plays to give a time for prayer.

 Sometimes that's what we need.

 Let the message be short, let the time with God be long.

 And let's just dig into that moment.

 So here's what I wrote.

 I have sermon material, but no direction. Soft Music

 When I choose a direction, it feels empty.

 It feels empty because in my own life and in the lives of others, I hear loud but empty amens.

 We call ourselves believers, but don't believers act on their belief?

 We call ourselves people of faith, but James says faith without works is dead.

 I'm confronted with the dissatisfaction

 of thinking like a Christian and calling it belief, but deceived because when my belief is not accompanied by action, the Bible would call me a liar.

 It'd call me a foolish builder, Luke Warm, a false believer, deceived, a noisy symbol or dead.

 How do I break the habit of agreeing and thought, but not in action?

 How do I become a person whose amen means something?

 How is it that I have the power to silence the conviction of the Holy Spirit when I walk out of the room?

 Why do I feel I'm deeply here and then deny what I felt when I show up at work tomorrow?

 I feel his presence deeply in moments of worship,

 but refuse to take that presence into the world with me.

 I don't think God wants our amen in this moment.

 I think he wants our whole heart again.

 I think he wants us to change us at this altar

 in such a way that we can't stand back up and walk away the same.

 He wants to save us here.

 He wants to call us here.

 He wants to know us here.

 He wants to know you and be known by you here.

 He wants us to long for him like the deer pants for water.

 So I'm simply confessing my sin before you.

 And if you can relate to me at all, then I'd ask you to join me at the altar to pray

 and to repent, which means to turn away from our sin.

 I'm not inviting you to the altar to pray over you,

 but I am inviting you to the altar that we might pray together.

 And so for the rest of service until we close,

 if there's anything you have to pray for,

 this space here is open.

 Anything you need from the Lord, this space is open.

 For intercession, for repentance, for worship, for praise,

 for space with God to remind ourselves that there's nothing we need more than him.

 Father, we come to You today and we're thankful for You. Gentle Music God, let these songs be the prayers of our heart.

 God, I pray that we would be a people

 who are interrupted and interruptible by love.

 That God, we would be led by Your Spirit, filled with Your Spirit to love others.

 Our schedule, our agenda, all is submitted to You.

 That we might love well.

 As those who have been changed by love, that we love.

 Father, forgive us, fill us, lead us, guide us.

 Today, Lord, give us eyes to see, ears to hear,

 hearts to obey in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

 Guys, if there's something that you need prayer for today, I know that our prayer team loves to hang out up here at the front and as we kind of dismiss a different sort of service, if you need to stay at the front, you can.

 But I pray it'd be a moment for all of us.

 That whatever it is the Lord is doing in our hearts,

 today we would walk out with an amen that is full

 in word and heart and in action.

 You're loved, you guys are prayed for,

 and we will be excited to see you guys back next week. You guys have a good Sunday.