Message of the Week

The Little White Community Church

Scripture: Amos 2:10-11, 3:7 Sept. 17, 2023

Message: “God’s Prophets!” by Pastor George Gnade

Intro.: 1. In our study of the Book of Joel, we learned that Joel was probably a contemporary of Elisha. While Elisha preached to the northern kingdom of Israel, Joel preached to the southern kingdom of Judah.

2. Elisha was especially sent to train and teach other prophets to take his place after he died, just as Elijah had trained him before Elijah died. Another possible contem-porary of Elisha was Amos. But he was much younger than Joel or Elisha. He was probably just a little boy who may have heard about Elisha while he was growing up.

A. Consider how Amos got started.

1. This is an important lesson for us to remember. Our children will grow up and take our places. I was in my last church in Sidney, OH, for 20 years. I watched so many boys and girls grow up. Now that I retired and moved back to PA, many of them are now beginning to worship and serve, filling the holes left by older people like myself.

2. Sunday School and youth group really are important. In talking with some of you, I believe I learned that many of you grew up here and went to Sunday School and youth group together in this church. Consider how old many of you are now! That is why it is so important “to train up a child in the way he should go, so that when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6).

3. Amos may very well have been introduced to the Lord through Elisha. But Amos had no intention of being a prophet like Elisha!

a. In Amos 7:14, he says: “I was neither a prophet or a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of Sycamore trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flocks and said to me: ‘Go, prophesy to my people in Israel.’”

b. Many children have no idea what they will eventually end up doing when they grow up. I thought I would become an electrical engineer. But God made it very clear to me that that was not His plan for my life. Like Amos, God turned me around and called me to serve Him instead as a pastor. God called Amos to be a prophet!

4. When did you learn about Jesus? What did you plan to do when you were growing up? Is that what you actually ended up doing? Or did God have other plans for you?

B. Secondly, please consider the role of the prophets.

1. In Amos 2: 10, God says: “I brought you up out of Egypt, and led you 40 yr. through the wilderness and gave you

(this) land.” God was reminding Israel how long it had been since their forefathers were introduced to the Lord.

2. In vs. 11, He says: “I also raised up prophets from among your sons and Nazirites from among your young men.”

a. This is very important. This was God’s way of helping them to know the Lord. Nazirites were often called by God to carry out special assignments for Him, and prophets were sent to teach and warn them to help keep them on track.

b. In Amos 3:7, it says: “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets.”

3. Enoch was like a prophet and warned people to get back closer to the Lord (See Jude, vs. 14- 16). So was Noah.

a. Even their forefathers, people like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were like prophets and spoke in behalf of the Lord.

b. Moses was called to bring the people up out of Egypt. Through him we received the ten commandments. When Joshua took his place, God told Joshua to “be careful to do everything written in (God’s Law); then you will be prosperous and successful.” The first five books of the Bible are often called God’s law. That was all they had of God’s Word at that time.

c. Then came judges like Samuel and people like King David and Solomon who all were used of God to give us more and more of the O.T.

5. But once the kingdom was divided into the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and Judah, it became necessary to raise up prophets like Elijah and Elisha. In fact, the rest of the O.T. is made up of the writings of the prophets. That is over half of the O.T.! This is God’s Word that we study every week. Only after Jesus came was the N.T. added on.

6. That is why Amos 3:7 is so important. Let me repeat it: “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets.” They have given us the Word of God.

a. In Heb. 1:1, it says: “In times past God spoke unto our forefathers through the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken unto us through His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also created the world.”

b. This was God’s way of telling us that Jesus and His apostles and prophets, who wrote the N.T. in His behalf, had the last word. As it says in Jude, vs. 3, “I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once and for all entrusted to the saints.”

C. In light of this precious gift that God has given to us, consider the following warning from God Himself.

1. In Amos 8:11-12, it warns us: “The days are coming … when I will send a famine through the land- not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the Words of the Lord. Men will stagger from sea to sea, and wander from north to east, searching for the Word of the Lord and they will not find it.”

2. Throughout history there have been times when it was hard to receive the Word of God.

a. When the Assyrians captured and scattered Israel, they no longer had God’s Word to help them.

b. Before the coming of Christ, there were 400 years in which it was hard to hear the Word of the Lord.

c. The Middle Ages was another time when it was difficult to receive the Word of God. Praise the Lord, that is when the printing press was finally invented, and now Bibles have been written in almost every language and made available to people all over the world.

3. After the Gospel is preached to the ends of the earth, before Jesus comes again, I believe this passage is warning us it could happen again. Then people are going to wish they had spent more time in God’s Word and less time just having fun.

In Conclusion: 1. Don’t take God’s Word for granted. Learn all you can (II Tim. 2:15). Hide God’s Word in your heart so that you will not be led astray by every new idea that

comes along (Ps. 119:11; Eph. 4:11-16).

2. The day is coming when people will seek it and will not find it because they didn’t listen and learn while they could. If ever there was a time in the history when we better open our hearts to God’s Word while we can, it is now. Don’t change it, don’t doubt it, don’t just listen but not practice it. Humble yourselves and claim God’s “great and precious promises” (II P. 1:4) while you can.