 In verse 1, reading to verse 3, Amos chapter 8, Thus the Lord God showed me, behold, a basket of summer fruit. He said, Amos, what do you see? So I said, a basket of summer fruit. Then the Lord said to me, the end has come upon my people Israel. I will not pass by them anymore. The songs of the temple shall be wailing in that day, says the Lord God. Many dead bodies everywhere. They shall throw them out in silence. So let me give you some introductory thoughts. I'll reiterate, I'll repeat what I said last time we were together to develop this for you. And the last time when we were together, I was sharing with you that the final three chapters of the book of Amos contain visions of future judgments, judgments that were to be brought to the nation of Israel. And Amos specifically says four times, the Lord God showed me or he showed me. Now, before this, Amos was prophesying what the Lord said. And now he is speaking about what the Lord has shown. So that gives us insight into the fact that God is the one who's giving these visions. Now, I had mentioned that to you last time. Let me develop that with you a little bit further and remind you that Israel had prophets. But some speaking in the name of the Lord were false. They weren't genuine. They were not giving God's word to the people. What the prophets were doing during the time of Amos and Jeremiah and Isaiah and Ezekiel is what the prophets were doing is they were giving visions out of their own imaginations. And so you see the prophetic writings actually making that very clear. They were not giving God's word to the people. They were giving their own ideas. So Jeremiah, for example, in chapter 23 verse 16, Jeremiah 23 16 says, Thus says the Lord of hosts, do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless. They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord. And so God's anointed prophets were actually speaking out against the false prophets and making it very clear that these visions that were being spoken by the false prophets were not the word of the Lord, but were actually visions of their own hearts. They were giving their own set of ideas. These false prophets were giving a false assurance to the people. And as they were giving this false assurance to the people, the false prophets were not calling the people to repentance. In the book of Lamentations also written by Jeremiah in Lamentations chapter 2 verse 14, we read, Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions. They have not uncovered your iniquity to bring back your captives, but have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions. And so the people during this day are receiving from false prophets visions of the hearts of the people and are not being called to repentance because God was bringing judgment. Yet the false prophets were not making that clear because they were not true prophets at all. So the people had appreciated hearing these encouraging words. But the words that were being given to them did them no good. Jeremiah 6 verse 14 says, they have also healed the hurt of my people slightly saying, peace, peace when there is no peace. In Isaiah 57 21, there is no peace says my God for the wicked. So the true prophet was calling the people to repentance. The true prophet was saying to the nation, you need to repent because you're in idolatry and God is not accepting your worship or sacrifices. The false prophets were saying, there is peace. But the true prophet was saying, no, as a nation you need to come back to God. You see, God intended to communicate to his people through those whom I refer to as his prophets. Numbers chapter 12 verse 6 says, he said, hear now my words. If there's a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision. I speak to him in a dream. And so God was saying, I am the one who speaks to the true prophet. And so when that prophet would speak, it would be the word of the Lord. But the nation had a pattern of refusing to hear what God was saying to them. Jeremiah once again in chapter 25 verse 4 said, the Lord has sent to you all his servants, the prophets rising early and sending them. But you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. You're refusing to hear what God is saying. You're not inclined to listen because you enjoy what the false prophet is saying where the false prophet is saying peace, peace. And yet the true prophet is saying there is no peace. And so they weren't calling the people to return to God or to turn away from their iniquity whatsoever. They were simply saying everything was fine. So Amos is a true prophet. He was one who was not for hire. He was one dedicated to speak the truth. And that wasn't appreciated by everybody, especially by the false priests that had undermined the true worship in the nation of Israel. We saw last time a false priest by the name of Amaziah. He was a priest of the false altar of Bethel. And we saw how he had lied to the king, to King Jeroboam, lied to King Jeroboam about Amos. Amaziah had said that Amos was prophesying that Jeroboam would die and Israel would be taken captive. But as we saw, that wasn't true. That's not what he was saying. Amos declared that Israel would be taken captive but did not say that King Jeroboam was going to die. So what he was saying, what Amos was saying to the people was the truth, even though Amaziah was a false teacher. So Amaziah had spoken to Amos. He said, go to Judah and prophesy there. From there you can receive wages. He told Amos, you're not fit to preach in the king's chapel. You're not fit to speak in his palace. You're uncouth. But Amos made it clear. He said, I am a simple shepherd and a farmer. But I have been called by God in order that I might prophesy. So what he said to the people were true words from God and the words that he was given were to come to pass. And he spoke this way. He said to Amos, your wife will be forced into harlotry when the country is invaded. You will be helpless to help her. Your children will die. Your land will be taken. You will go to Assyria as a captive. And it's like what Ezekiel said in chapter 33, verse 33, how Ezekiel, as he is speaking, the nation had said, when this comes to pass, surely it will come. They will know that a prophet has been among them. And so, as I was mentioning last time, God gave Amos various visions of judgment to come. And we looked at the first three visions. We saw the prophecy related to locusts and to fire and the plumb line. Now we're going to be looking at the fourth vision. It's called the vision of the basket of summer fruit. Now notice it says here in chapter 8, verse 1, the Lord God showed me, behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said, Amos, what do you see? So I said a basket of summer fruit. Then the Lord said to me, the end has come upon my people Israel. I will not pass by them anymore. And the songs of the temple shall be wailing in that day, says the Lord God. Many dead bodies everywhere. They shall throw them out in silence. Summer fruit. The summer fruit that we see here in this vision is basically something that represents that the end is near. You see, summer fruit is representative of the end of the year of harvest. So the fruit would be ready for harvest and thus this judgment will reveal that Israel is ripe for judgment also. It is a basket of fruit which reveals that the tree at that time isn't producing any new fruit. So the harvest is passed. There's not going to be any new fruit until the next season. And so here's what he's saying. He's saying Israel is ripe for her last punishment. Israel's national existence is about to be dealt with as the fruit is plucked when ripe from the tree. Israel will be plucked from her land. And so this is a prophecy of judgment. The time has come. And what's the response going to be? Verse three, the songs of the temple shall be wailing in that day. The singing that you were used to doing where you thought you were so good at it. The songs that you were writing that you thought were so inspired equal to the skill and inside of David himself. Those things God has said, I am not pleased with at all. As a matter of fact, we saw in chapter five verse 23 how God had said, take away from me the noise of your songs. I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. I don't want to hear the nonsense that you're singing to me. You're mixing truth with error. You are busy practicing a mixture of true faith and idolatry. They had the two alters. One in the north in a place called Dan, the other in the south in a place called Bethel. They were alternative sites of worship and they would sing and they would worship and they thought it was acceptable to God. But God has said to them, it's just noise. I don't appreciate what you're giving to me. This is not true worship whatsoever. So take away from me the noise of your songs. Now, their songs were joyful. But as joyful as their songs were to them, to God, it was simply noise. They liked it. They enjoyed it. They enjoyed the way they sang. They enjoyed the way that the music was played. They enjoyed the way that they could dance before what they thought was their God. But God was saying it's just noise to me. It's empty. There's error mixed with your worship that I will not accept. And so he's saying, take it away from me. And he's saying, your joyful songs, these songs that you enjoy so much, well, they're going to be turned into songs of sorrow. As a matter of fact, when he says to them, there shall be wailing in that day. The word wailing can speak of various things including a shrieking. He's saying that the songs that you're singing are really going to be painful to you. It's going to be something that comes out of a painful heart because you're being judged. And I'm not going to receive those things. Notice in verse 3 how he speaks about many dead bodies everywhere and they shall throw them out in silence. He's saying there's going to be such great slaughter that the bodies will not be able to be buried. There will be no professional mourners. The bodies will be cast out in silence. So he's speaking concerning judgment to come. He moves on in verse 4 and he says, hear this, you who swallow up the needy and make the poor of the land fail, saying when will the new moon be passed that we may sell grain and the Sabbath that we may trade our wheat, making their far small and the shekel large, falsifying the balances by deceit, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals even sell the bad wheat. And so he continues to bring judgment upon them and he says, and he's speaking to the rich. He says, you are the ones who lust after the possessions of the needy and you dispossess the poor from their land. You are unjust. You are so greedy that you won't even waste a single day as you pursue the possessions of other people. Even when you're at worship, your hearts are desiring to be at work, instead making money by cheating people. That's what he's saying in verse 5, when will the new moon be passed that we may sell grain, the Sabbath that we may trade our wheat. You're bringing it up to Christian kind of an image. You're in church looking at your watch, wishing you could leave to get to the place that you're going to sell your goods. You're thinking how many opportunities are you losing at that moment? Because if you had opened up, you'd be able to have more customers. And the poor people that you are applying your trade to, those who come to have hardly anything, you're actually upset because you're not able to take advantage of them to your own profit. And that's the kind of greed that he's dealing with right here. And that's what he's saying. You don't even take the days that have been set apart to worship God. You don't take them seriously at all. You're there watching, you're watching, in order that you might be able to do what you want to do, which is to profit off of other people. You're that greedy. You love the market days. You love the market days more than you like the days that have been set aside to honor and worship God. The new moons and the Sabbaths. Well, those were days that work was not to occur. For them it didn't matter if those are sacred days. They didn't let anything get in their way. They were too busy wanting to get rich. When he says in verses five and six, concerning the making the effos small and the shekel large, what they're doing is falsifying the balances through deceit. In other words, you're cheating the needy by overcharging them and selling them poor products. You're using a false balance, a false scale. In Leviticus 19 verse 36, it says, your scales and weights must be accurate. Your containers for measuring dry goods or liquids must be accurate. I, the Lord, am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. They were taking weights and it was supposed, we'll say it was supposed to weigh 12 ounces and it actually was just cheating the people. It wasn't an actual 12 ounces. And so they were overcharging people and giving them less product, even though they were telling them they were giving them the amount that they were asking for. The Bible in Deuteronomy 2513 says, you shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. So they were supposed to be honorable. They were supposed to have taken care of the poor and not take advantage of them. But he says, no, what you're doing is you're profiting off of the poor people and for this you will be judged. In verse 7, the Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall the land not tremble for this and everyone mourn who dwells in it? All of it shall swell like the river, even subside like the river of Egypt. And so the Lord continues to bring judgment and speaks in such a way as to make it very clear that they will be judged. Notice in verse 7 how it says, the Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob. The pride of Jacob. As I was studying this, that's an interesting phrase. What do you mean the pride of Jacob? And it turns out the commentators were unanimous, at least the ones that I use, that the term the pride of Jacob speaks of God himself, that Jacob's pride would have been in the Lord, if you will. It speaks of God. It's another way of speaking of God. And in a New Testament sense, it would be speaking of Messiah. It speaks of all that reveals him. And so that would include Messiah. And he's saying here, I will remember what you've done. I'm not going to let it pass. And I am going to bring judgment upon you for what you have done. Continuing on into verse 9, it shall come to pass in that day. It says, Lord God, that I will make the sun go down at noon and I will darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into morning and all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth on every waist, baldness on every head. I will make it like morning for an only sun and its end like a bitter day. Now what we have here, and we're going to see this from verse 9 into the conclusion, is what has been called the mingling of near and future judgment. Some of the things that he's speaking about occur when Assyria takes Israel into captivity, but other portions occur during a time called the tribulation at the end. Now, when it says here in verse 9, I will make the sun go down at noon and I will darken the earth in broad daylight. Great darkness is predicted to occur during this time in the future, yet for our still in our future, called the tribulation. When you look in the book of Revelation, for example, and you look into chapter 6 verse 12, or Revelation chapter 8 verse 12, there are judgments that are coming that are described as containing darkness. When you look in the Old Testament book of Joel, it says in chapter 2 verse 31, the sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. When you look in Isaiah 13 verse 10, it says the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going forth. The moon will not cause its light to shine. When you look in Jesus' words in Matthew 24 verse 29, he said immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. So great darkness is predicted during the tribulation. Now in verse 10, when he says, I will turn your feast into morning and all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head. I will make it like morning for an only sun and its end like a bitter day. That refers to what is about to occur with the invasion of Assyria. I've been saying this to you, I'm pointing this out to you, that in the near future, within a short time, the Assyrians are going to come into the north and they're going to invade and take Israel captive. And so what you have here is a mingling of future, and that would be verse 9, that is really going to be consummated during the time of the tribulation. But you also have near future, which is going to take place with the Assyrian invasion. So he's speaking about a time of sorrow, a time of mourning. That's what he said in verse 10 when he said, I'll turn your feast into mourning, your songs into lamentation. So instead of having joyful feasts or happy songs, it's going to be a time of pain. When he says I'll bring sackcloth, sackcloth in the old as well as the new, is representative of mourning, of sorrow. When he speaks concerning baldness on every head, baldness was also a picture of mourning. According to Isaiah 15 verse 2, every head is shaved and every beard will be cut off. That's another way of speaking of people who actually are symbolically mourning. And so the baldness is not the losing of your hair in a natural way, it's the shaving of the head and the shaving of the beard, but you were in that time a picture of mourning. So if you were in a time of sorrow and mourning, you would be shaven. You'd shave your beard, you'd shave your hair, you'd actually burn it as an offering to the Lord and it was symbolic of the fact that you were mourning. And it's speaking of depth of sorrow, a depth of mourning, and it's going to be like you lost your only son. You're going to be in such pain. It's going to be like you lost your only baby, the son of your heart. That's how bad it's going to be. It's going to end like a bitter day. It's what he says. And here we go because I want to spend some time looking at verses 11 and 12 with you. Here we go into something that I want to look at this and I don't know how long I'll be able to speak about this, but I will share a little bit about it right now. Behold. The days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land. Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east. They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it. Let's look at that for a moment, shall we? There's going to be a famine and this famine is going to be unusual. It's not going to be a lack of bread and it's not going to be a lack of water. The famine that you're going to experience is going to be the absence of God speaking to you, the absence of the word of God. He's saying you have rejected my word and you refuse to hear my prophets. You have given honor to false prophets and you've rejected the true preferring the lies of the false prophets over the truth that comes to those who might have sent. He is saying you have ignored my commands, you have substituted your own, you have refused to bow your heart to me and because you've chosen to listen to those who tell you lies, I will no longer communicate with you. It's interesting how they wander from sea to sea, seeking revelation. It could be that you wander from the Sea of Galilee all the way to the Mediterranean, looking for a word from the Lord but you don't receive one. Notice how he says you travel from north to the east. He didn't say you'd travel from the north to the south but you travel from the north to the east. Now why would he say that? The way you and I, the way we communicate today, right, is he went from north to south and that's what we're saying is encompassing east to the west and north to the south, that encompasses everything. Why is he saying you went from the north to the east? And the answer to that very simply put is this, the people in the north, the people who are in Israel, the ten northern tribes, they didn't want to go south because to their south was Judah. When they went to the south, they would be going to the temple and so what God is saying is you're wandering everywhere except where you should go. You're wandering everywhere trying to find an answer for your needs. You're trying to hear a word from me but you're not even going to the place you ought to go. You're going to false prophets. You're going to false teachers. You're going to people who are not even communicating the truth. You refuse to go to the truth because you prefer to hear the lie. And so there's a famine. I'm not communicating with you. I'm not speaking to you. We're not having a conversation. You haven't honored my word. Because you don't honor my word and you don't listen to my prophets. I want you to know there's a famine in the land that's coming and it's not a famine of bread and it's not a famine of water. It is a famine of hearing the word of God because you're not hungry for the word of God. That took place during the time of Israel. They refused to hear the things of the Lord. You're saying you're looking for my direction. You're looking for my counsel but you will not find it because I will not speak. Because when I do speak, you don't listen. Have you ever given anybody advice? No, I know none of you ever have. You know where I'm going with that one. Have you ever given someone advice, poured your heart out, gave them Scripture, prayed with them, said, you're asking me this is what it says. You're asking me this is and they smile at you and then they'll go where? To somebody who will tell them what they want to hear. I've had that happen so many times you can imagine. As a pastor, do you know that at a point in my ministry I actually that season has passed but there was a time it was happening so frequently people would walk up to me and they'd say I'd like to ask for some advice in this church and I'd say okay do you want me to agree with you or do you want to hear the truth? And they would look at me like oh naturally I want the truth and no, no you don't, no. What you want is me to tickle your ear. You've already made up your mind what you want to do and you're trying to get my permission to do it. There was a couple here many, many years I can say it now many years ago over 20 years ago now who came up to me and said they wanted me to perform their wedding and I was speaking to them and all and I didn't really know them so I was just speaking to them after church service on a Sunday morning and Pastor David can you perform our wedding and I said to them well let's talk a little bit and we were speaking and long story long story made short as I converse with them and started getting a little history of the relationship turns out she was still married yeah she was still married and they were planning on getting married because they're engaged and I said you realize of course that you're not you're not able to get married what do you mean well there's still a marriage involved here and I tried to explain to them and they got upset you know and surprise and they they left and they came back a week or two later and talked to me after service and said to me that they had gone to another pastor in the area and he said that I was wrong and and they could get married and I still remember that and I and I said then why don't you have him marry you you know seeing that he knows why don't you have why are you asking me to because I'm not going to so why don't you have them him do that and long story made short they got married and they got divorced within about a year you know but they had come to me asking me for advice when in fact they didn't want advice what we a lot of times want is someone simply to agree with the decision that we've already made and we're looking for somebody to give authority to that so that we can say well I received counsel from so-and-so who says it's okay and what is happening here is that people are saying I want to hear from the Lord you go from from the north to the east from sea to sea seeking to hear from me when in fact you really don't want to because you are compromisers he's telling the nation of Israel you are compromisers you are not willing to actually hear the truth and as a result of that I'm going to stop revealing to you because when the truth is spoken to you you don't want to hear it you want to argue about it you want to reject it you offered to me false worship with all of this high praise and all this excitement when in fact I don't receive any of that because to me it's simply noise because you really don't care what's pleasing to me at all you simply want to act religious and I will not receive that you refuse to hear what I say it's like Jeremiah 8 verse 5 where the question is asked why has this people slidden back Jerusalem in a perpetual backsliding they hold fast to deceit they refuse to return Zechariah 7 verse 11 they refused to heed shrugged their shoulders stooped their ears stopped their ears so that they could not hear it's a picture of you ever put your thumbs in your ears so you don't have to hear what someone's saying to you when you're a little you may have done that I see that in church all the time well here you go here's something practical what Israel did then continues to occur today the church can also refuse to hear and as a result does not receive guidance to be to be made capable to have a transformed life requires the humility to be willing to receive that which you may not agree with but you know it's true we have preconceived ideas we have ideas within ourselves that we think are true then the word of God is divided we know that it's accurate and now we're put into place of having to say will I or will I not obey what I know is true and I've shared this with people before one of the best ways to learn the meaning of a passage is to determine to obey what it commands that's how you learn the things of the Lord is through obedience Jesus speaking on one occasion says to his men what I'm doing you don't understand now but you will later there are things that you by faith step out and simply obey and trust you may not understand everything at the moment but ultimately you will have what we used to call it that aha so that's what God wanted to say to me now I understand so we walk by faith and not by sight when God's word is spoken to me and I hear what he is saying in the Bible study whereas I'm doing my devotions and praying through passages and all I have to take that moment to meditate on what he's saying and say Lord but how does that work and how can I do that and that's where I begin to go deeper with the things of the Lord and I believe very strongly that today the church refuses to hear and because the church refuses to hear the church is not able to be guided it's interesting how in the beginning of the church in the age of the church when Pentecost had fully arrived and people had been saved and they began to gather together and they began to live as the church in a community they gave themselves over to the apostles doctrine the first thing that you see in the book of Acts chapter 2 when you look at verses 42 through 47 the first thing you see that was what was called an earmark of the church what was the mark of the church the very first thing you see is that they gave themselves over to the word of God consistently and continually the church in other words was birthed by Jesus Christ and obedient to the revelation of God through his word and so for the church to be able to grow in the grace and knowledge of God they needed teaching there are churches that you can go to today where a Bible is never even opened it's not even open it's not even expected that you will use a Bible there are places that are famous I could mention them to you by name and you would say oh like one particular church in garden grove the chrysanthemum cathedral I'll mention one name with Robert Shuler who took a poll in the area before he did his work there and discovered that the people of Orange County at that time didn't believe that the Bible was something they needed and thus he built his quote-unquote ministry on his books and booklets and things like that and we all have seen the end of what began in the fashion that it did it was built on sinking sand I don't say that with any joy I certainly don't say that with any condemnation it's a fact it wasn't built on the sure foundation of the word of God and when you don't build on the sure foundation of the word of God it's not going to stand Jesus said that in Matthew chapter 7 in the Sermon on the Mount the one who is blessed is the one who hears and obeys he said who builds his life not on sinking sand but the solid rock the foundation who hears and obeys what we have today I really believe is a church that is enduring a famine it is like that that video of removing the music and simply seeing the fluff the entertainment but there's no foundation there's nothing solid there's nothing really there it's just external and that has happened that is happening J. Vernon McGee somebody I really loved and I still profit from J. Vernon McGee said very little of the word of God in this land today there is a Gideon Bible in every room in every hotel and motel in this country nearly everyone owns a Bible but who is studying it who is reading it who is believing it I think we are beginning to see the famine of the word of God in this country I agree you can go to a church largest church in the United States and the pastor will hold the Bible in his hand and say this is the word of God I believe it etc etc etc and then never opens it up again through the entire service so you hold it you say you believe it you say you receive it but you don't even read it and that's what you're teaching the church and I am telling you I am telling you that that's the condition of the church in many places today in the absence of the word of God there is a famine and people are going from place to place to hear from the Lord but they are mixing their fleshly carnal lives with their faith and wondering why God isn't ministering to them specifically a lot of times they'll say the devil that reminds me of an old comedian Flip Wilson used to say the devil made me do it there's always the devil but I think I know that we give more credit to the devil than we do our own flesh because many of the things that people do are simply flesh there was a movement it's still out there where people would confess certain things and their confession creates the reality and all and I remember this woman hearing of this woman who was at a dinner with a bunch of people and she began to pray over at the pie casting out the calories of that pie in the name of Jesus that's not a story that's a truth that's true what I just told you is true that was true in the name of Jesus calories begun she's overweight I wonder why that's a fact I'm not messing with you it's the truth see when you don't rightly divide the word of truth then you're going to get a mixture of error with opinion that's what happens and many places today that are that are supposed to be teaching the word of God well many of the pastors today know that because people are looking for messages for that moment the Bible refers to them as having itching ears meaning that they're going to hear what they're itching to hear they're looking for someone who speaks to them smooth words don't speak to me true I don't want that when I got saved I am so very blessed to be able to say that when I got saved God was gracious to put me in in the Calvary Chapel under Pastor Chuck and the influence that he and those who were with him at that time had on me has been permanent which is that what matters yes you can have personality and yes you can have humor and yes you can enjoy yourself and why not but you have to give substance you have to feed the people the word and encourage them to feed themselves to encourage them to have a time with the Lord in the morning and the afternoon evening whenever is the best and you're most able so you can hear his voice on your own so that you can hear God speak to you and he does so through his word you see in many churches today God's word has been replaced by stories, testimonies and sensationalism but the Bible says in Psalm 36 verse 9 with you is the fountain of life in your light we see light in your light we see light you know the entrance of thy word is what brings enlightenment to us you see your word is truth and so what we need is the truth that sets us free and so what we need today especially in these last days I have made it my life's goal and I say this with just honesty I have made it my ministry life's goal to be able one day as because the days should the Lord tarry the days going to come when I hand this church to another pastor and I say go for it you know I have a mission on Maui I have made it my life's ambition to to teach this church whoever is willing to hear the word and to exhort you to stay true to it because God's word is truth and if you don't have truth you are prone to error you cannot make life decisions listen carefully this is true you cannot make proper life decisions if you don't know God's word you can't you can't you will be feeding your flesh and deciding through emotion and the moment there are things you will learn in God's word that give you hope give you strength give you courage increase your patience strengthen your faith it will take you through the dark times all of you know that and what has gotten me through what has gotten me through there are so many things I don't waste my time coming in and wasting yours either sharing with you the various struggles and battles and wars and things that I or we as a family have gone through but if people think that being a minister and being a pastor's wife and being a pastor's kid is easy you've got no clue it isn't easy at all it is a perpetual battle it is a constant onslaught it is a dealing with accusation lies disappointment hurts struggles and sorrows that the average person never endures and never experiences that's just a fact because the pastor and the ministers of the church carry a lot of the weights that people come and drop on their shoulders and that's what we're here for but we hear so many painful stories so much tragedy so much hurt so much disappointment I get so many letters and so many conversations of things that have happened can you pray for me can you pray for me and yes I can why because my God is able but how do I know that by being in the Word of God all things work together for the good of those who are called of God all things do I know that I have seen that but how do I know that because Romans 828 taught me that that's how I know that how do I know these things how do I learn these things how do you become an overcomer you overcome by the Word of your testimony the Word of God lived out in your life carefully because some people don't understand this this will go out over the air eventually and there will be people who say I don't get it I don't believe that you're wrong it's true you will not make good decisions without the guidance of the Spirit in God's Word you will not make good decisions in life without the guidance and power of the Spirit of God and the Word of God and the children of Israel were moving back and forth saying we need guidance in God no, there is a famine in the land and it's not bread and it's not water it is the hearing of my Word because when my true prophet when my true prophet Amos when Jeremiah, when Isaiah when they came and they have spoken to you you will not listen you want to mix your idolatry the things of your flesh with what I have commanded you and you can't do that the Bible is God's Word and in His light we see light somebody once wrote this the Bible contains the mind of God the state of man the way of salvation the doom of sinners and the happiness of believers its doctrines are holy its precepts are binding its histories are true and its decisions are immutable read it to be wise believe it to be safe and practice it to be holy it contains light to direct you food to support you and comfort to cheer you it is the traveler's map the pilgrim's staff the pilot's compass the soldier's sword and the Christian's character here paradise is restored heaven opened and the gates of hell disclosed Christ is its grand object our good is its design and the glory of God its end it should fill the memory rule the heart guide the feet read it slowly frequently and prayerfully it is given you in life will be opened in judgment and will be remembered forever it involves the highest responsibility will reward the greatest labor and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents the word of God and God says you will go from north to east from sea to sea looking for it and because you've refused to hear there will be a famine he says finally in verses 13 and 14 in that day the fair virgins young men shall faint from thirst those who swear by the sin of Samaria which is idolatry speaking of idolatry who say as your God lives Odan and as the way of Bershiba lives they shall fall and never rise again judgment he says is coming it'll come upon the young because they've been idol worshipers the ten northern tribes will go into captivity and will not return to the northern kingdom he says this is what's going to happen they shall fall and never rise again you know as again as we've been going through Amos one judgment after another but let us remember one thing we don't have to come under the condemnation Jesus Christ took it upon himself for us there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit the ones who suffer condemnation are the ones who do not believe in the Son on them according to John 3.36 the wrath of God continually abides but because Jesus took upon himself my sin and because Jesus Christ died on the cross for me I have freedom and I have life because of him so excuse me even though the church today as it appears in its physical form there are many today who attend physical church meaning they go to assemblies of those who profess Christ there are numbers of people who are genuine and there are others who are there who are simply not there are many there who are the wheat but in the wheat and amongst the wheat there will always be a terror or a counterfeit what are we to do we are to just teach the word live the word and encourage any person who comes to embrace the truth so that they can be set free and in a moment when I'm telling you you know I've been a Christian a while and I can tell you that in my 45 almost 46 years of walking with Christ I can tell you that we are in a day right now that I honestly didn't think would come I honestly thought that God would continue that revival he began when I got saved and what has happened is a generation has arisen who has not recognized the work of God in the way that God moved in that initial revival in the Jesus movement and a generation has arisen give us more entertainment and less conviction me I don't like getting spanked I never did I've never liked being spanked my dad only hadn't spanked me two or three times in my entire life because I didn't like getting spanked and I've never liked being chastened by the Lord but whom the Lord loves he chastens be zealous the Scripture says therefore and repent I don't want to learn it the first time because I don't want to have to go to the same lesson a second and third and fourth time some people have to learn the same lesson over and over and over and you will never move to step B until you learn step A and the Lord will keep you in step A for like oh no I'm already in W no no no you're still in A you just haven't grown learn your lessons well don't disregard the word of God that speaks concerning strong things understand that God loves you but he does not put up he does not put up with me sowing to my flesh thinking that I will not reap corruption because the Scripture says if I sow to the flesh from the flesh I do reap corruption oh you know God is mad at me oh no he's not mad at you but he is chastening you he is purifying you he is cleansing you why because he loves you oh maybe I don't want him to love me that much that's between you and the Lord but I'll tell you this when the Lord finishes that work as a child of God there is a joy because you become more like him and after all isn't that what we want to be more like him in the end that's what it's all about being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ so may we hunger for his work