What is your calling in the big plan of God and how do you measure your success? Amos 5-9

Amos 7:14-15

Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock and the Lord said to me, ‘Go prophesy to My people Israel.’

We are so results oriented in our society.  If we don't win we are losers.   If we don't have a large bank account we are not successful.  If we don't have a popular FaceBook following or Twitter account we are not relevant.   To be "mighty" in this world we have to have had to conquer something or someone.    Amos is a great example of the guy who doesn't have a long resume and who doesn't have all the qualifications of a man who would be hired by most Fortune 500 business, or many church brands in our society.   Amos was just a guy.  He was a sheep herder.   He simply was tending his sheep one day and God said, "Amos, go preach to the king."   He was a maverick.   Yet, God told him to preach and he would have no converts.   The same is true of Obadiah.  The same is true of Micah.   The same is true of almost all the minor prophets.  They had no real converts.  The nation of Israel rejected them, just like they would reject the Savior Amos prophesied about years before.   Our society wants results.  The big church is a picture of God's amazing grace and blessing.  The small church is a struggle to pay the pastor and a failing work that people wonder about.   Amos is a traveling sole who is on a mission for God and only God and he know about the mission.  He had no support.  He had no visible results.   Yet, his measurement was not the count but the act of preaching.   He would not be promoted in any big box church today.   The reason?  He is too small and too unsuccessful.   Yet, in God's eyes he was faithful and he was true to HIS calling.   Peter, hundreds of years later, would preach his first message and 5,000 souls would come to Christ.   Paul would strike out across Europe and hundreds of churches would be planted.  Amos would preach message after message and not one soul is known to turn to God in repentance and praise of Amos' ministry.  He was just a shepherd and he was sent to do his job in the small part of God's plan.   And, yet, God allowed me to read about his message this morning.    A simple man who is faithful to an amazing God will be mighty in the midst of his mission ... no matter what it is.