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Now Amos is a great book of the Bible, and I encourage you, I know a lot of people have never read the Bible cover to cover, I think probably most people who have been in our church for any length of time have read through the Bible cover to cover, but most people who have not read through the Bible cover to cover have probably not read the book of Amos, because it's not exactly one of the most famous books in the Bible. One time I talked to somebody that had been in church literally for 30 years, and I said to this person something about the book of Amos, and they said there's no book in the Bible called Amos. And this person had gone to a Baptist church for over 30 years, and I said yes there is a book of Amos, and there's no book called Amos. And I said yes I sure, I said look, Amos. This is not exactly a book that most people are familiar with, it's not often preached, but Amos was a great man of God, and this is a really interesting book of the Bible. It has nine chapters, this is one of the chapters, but honestly, when I was a teenager, when I started reading through the Bible cover to cover, this became one of my favorite books. And I've actually read the book of Amos many, many times, because it's actually one of my favorite books of the Bible. It's a very fascinating book. In chapter seven, and I'm just going to kind of give you an overview a little bit of the chapters, then I'm going to get into what I want to preach about tonight, but in chapter seven basically the Lord is showing Amos what's going on, because there was a plague in the land of locusts. Now it's interesting, you know, I don't know if you've ever read the book Little House on the Prairie. You know, Little House on the Prairie, I'm not talking about the TV show with the long haired sissy, his pa, and the pastor who's got his collar turned around backwards, he's a liberal, Reverend Alden, and all, I'm not talking about that lame show, but in the book Little House on the Prairie, wasn't there, there was something where all these locusts came in the United States and destroyed all their crops, and they almost starved and everything, you know, when they're out in Missouri on the prairie, okay? This is something that really happens, where locusts will come, even if it's not the land of Egypt and the ten plagues, I mean, this is something that God sends as a curse, where locusts will come, and locusts literally do not leave anything behind. They come in in a swarm, they cover the land, and this is what happened in this Little House on the Prairie, they basically come in a swarm, and they eat everything, until it's gone, I mean, they don't leave anything, and then they move on as a complete herd of locusts, you know, they move on to another place, and everything is left desolate. Well basically, because of Israel's sins at this time, God had sent these locusts, and these locusts were just eating them out of houses and homes, I mean, people were starving, they were having a famine, because the locusts had consumed their crops. And basically Amos is begging God here in these first verses, saying, God, please, will you show some mercy, I know that we've done wrong, I know we've been wicked, but show mercy on our country. And it said in verse 3, you know, the Lord repented because of Amos' prayer, begging God for mercy. And he backed off and said, okay, you know, I'm going to back off a little bit here. You know, then again, again, the judgment was coming, and in verses 4 through 6, the same thing, Amos was praying that God would be merciful to the land. And basically Amos preaches this sermon here in verses 7 through 9, where in the end of the sermon he says, I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. Now he wasn't saying that he was personally going to take a sword and go kill the king. He was saying that the Lord was going to rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. Well this phony preacher, okay, look at verse 10, Amosiah the priest of Bethel, this is this phony preacher that's got them all worshipping a golden calf in Bethel. You remember they set up the golden calf in Bethel and Bethel? So this phony liberal so-called preacher, who's got them all worshipping the golden calf like Aaron did in Exodus, he says, oh man, this guy's preaching that he's going to kill the king. And that's not what Amos, I mean, that's not what Amos said. Amos is just preaching, hey, God's going to bring judgment by the sword upon Jeroboam. He's not saying I'm going to go kill him myself. But that's the way he, you know, passes this on to the king. Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The analyst says, the land is not able to bear all his words. You know, like sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you, right? No. The problem is, words, when it's God's words, are sharper than a two-edged sword. You see what I mean? And it's funny how we live in a country where there's freedom of speech and freedom up the press. And freedom of the press is not just talking about the press like, oh, that's CNN or the news. No, freedom of the printing press, too, you know, that's what that means. It's saying we live in a country where books can be printed, people can speak freely. But it's amazing how this is the one book that people are afraid of, that the government's afraid of. It's funny, you can go to a public school and they'll have a mass library, they'll have all kinds of books about everything. When I was in school, every classroom had a separate library and you could check books out and take them home. This is the one book you're not going to find. You'll find books representing all opinions, you'll find the left wing, the right wing, you'll find Islam, you'll find this, you'll find that, you will not find the King James Bible because the King James Bible is banned in public schools across America. I was told as a student when I brought my Bible, you can't have that here. You can't read that in class. And I said I can read whatever I want, I can bring this to class. It wasn't the teacher telling me that, it was other kids who had been brainwashed. Coming to me telling me the Bible is not allowed in school, prayer is not allowed in school, you can't have that here. What are they afraid of? They'll teach kids about that, they'll teach kids about Buddha, teach kids about this and that. They want to expose them to all religion, expose them to all culture. But this book is powerful because God's word cuts like a two-edged sword. And he said, look at that powerful phrase, the land is not able to bear all its worth. We can't handle hearing God's word preached is what they're saying. It's funny, they can handle everybody else's opinion. If they don't like what somebody else is saying, they'll just change the channel, right? Don't tune into that stuff. But oh, oh, oh, here's somebody who's preaching God's word. We can't handle this guy, we need to throw this guy out of the country. They want him to go back to Judah, which is another country because they have Israel and Judah, two different nations. Hey, get this guy out of here. We cannot handle this guy's preaching. Now if what he was saying wasn't true, they could have just laughed it off. If he was such a fanatic, he was so wrong, who can handle this guy? No, what he was saying was making an impact. What he was saying had power. What he was saying was getting through to people, people getting right with God. They said, we've got to get this guy out of here. So they make up this story about, oh yeah, he's got a plan to assassinate the king. That's not what he was really preaching. Because Amos said, Jeroboam shall die by the sword. Well just because Jeroboam is going to die by the sword, doesn't mean Amos is going to be one of them, does it? He's just saying that's what's going to happen. It's a pretty interesting chapter, huh? And this is a great book. I mean, this is just one chapter. And then he said in verse 12, also Amaziah said to Amos, that's the king now, O thou seer go, lead thee away into the land of Judah. And there eat bread and prophesy. That's what the devil wants you to do. He wants you to flee. He wants you to be scared all the time. The wicked flee when no man pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. Hey, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. But the devil wants to roar and get you scared, get you to run scared, get you to flee, get you to run away. And it could have been easy for Amos to say, oh, I think God's calling you to Judah now. You know all these pastors and priests always have these revelations from God? They're not Pentecostal, but they still have a word of knowledge, kind of like the Benny Hinn, you know, where, oh, God just revealed to me. It's funny. Right when they get a high-paying job somewhere else or something, it's like, oh, God just revealed to me I'm supposed to move. As soon as they start getting something coming their way that's negative or little problems in the church, oh, now God's calling me to pastors. I remember somebody came and sat me down one time, and they were thinking about moving to Phoenix in order to come to our church. And they said, hey, before I move down here, they couldn't find a good church where they were at, and they really wanted to be a part of Big Four Baptist Church. And this guy sat me down and said, well, before I move all the way out here, I want to make sure that God's not just going to call you somewhere else. You know what I mean? You know, they tell preachers to play like musical churches. You know, the grass is a little greener, you know, the sun will be here. I was like, no. I said, you know what? I said, no, God didn't even tell me to go to Phoenix, so I don't think he's going to tell me to go anywhere else. I was like, I just, you know, the Bible's the only time God talks to me. He's never appeared to me. He never had an audible voice. He never said go to Phoenix, go to Tempe, you know, go to that subdivision that you don't like, you know, and start a church there. He never said that to me. And so he's not going to tell me to get up and move somewhere else. And you know what? A lot of people would say, oh, man, flee. No. I plan to die here. Now, you know, maybe I'll go away in an orange jumpsuit. I don't know. But I'm just saying, hey, I plan to die here. I'm not trying to run away. I'm not running scared tonight. If they say, oh, get out of Arizona, you know what? Take me out of Arizona. Because you know what? We need to stand up and preach God's word like Amos and say, you know what? And I love what Amos answers, because Amos answers him. They're like, go somewhere else. Preach what you want, but get out of our country. Then answered Amos. And this is what I'm going to preach about his answer. But you say, well, if you're preaching about something else, why are you going through this? To encourage you to read the Bible. Love the Bible. The Bible is the most fascinating book. It's a great way to kill time instead of rotting your brain on some TV. Why don't you kill some time by reading God's eternal word? That will change your life. Instead of just some mindless video game somewhere. Hey, this is interesting. I don't have to go home and read the book of Amos after hearing the sermon. I say, man, it's an interesting book. That's why I'm going through this, but I want to get into the sermon. It says in verse 14, then answered Amos and said to Amos, I am. I was no prophet. Neither was I a prophet's son. But I was an hermit and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me as I followed the clock, and the Lord said to me, go, prophesy unto my people Israel. It wasn't my plan to be a preacher. My dad wasn't a preacher. I'm doing this because it's what God told me to do. It's not what I wanted to do. It's not what I planned to do. I was a gatherer of sycamore fruit. I was just following the clock. And he says here, now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord. So then he kind of tones down his preaching. Because he said, you know what? I'm getting in trouble here. I'm getting in trouble with the law. It's all the way up to the king. He said, I better tone things down. This is where he bogged it down a little bit. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord. Thou sayest, prophesy not against Israel. And drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. Okay. He says, therefore, thus saith the Lord. Thy wife shall be a harlot in this city. Now if somebody said that to me, I'd be pretty upset. Hey, your wife is going to be a whore. That's what he just said. Your wife shall be a harlot in this city. And thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by themselves. He's like, by the way, it's not just you that's going to die by the sword. You're going to die by the sword. Your sons are going to die by the sword. And your wife's going to become a harlot. And thy land shall be divided by line. And thou shalt die in a polluted land. And Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of this land. Man, what a god. We'd have some preachers who would just get up and just preach and not care. Just don't care what anybody says except what the Lord Jesus Christ thinks. That's all they care about. Preaching God's word. Maybe that's why there's a book in the Bible called Amos. Whether you know that or not. You know, because this guy stood up and preached God's word faithfully. Whatever happened. I mean, it's a great, great man. But here's the part that I want to preach about. Where he says, Hey, I was a hermit and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock. And the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. Now turn into the New Testament, if you will. And the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. Now turn into the New Testament if you would. Get on my notes here. But turn if you would to John chapter 4. John chapter number 4 of the New Testament. John chapter 4, because I think Amos, his little life story there, I think it could apply to a lot of people that are maybe in this room tonight. And maybe some people who are not here tonight. But in John chapter 435, look what the Bible says. This is Jesus preaching to his disciples. He says, Say not ye there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that where I knew you bestowed no labor. And you entered into many of their labor. Many of the Samaritans that say he believed on him. And I want to explain how some believe because of the woman at the well. Some believe because of his own preaching. But let me ask you this question. What do you want to do with your life? Is what I'm preaching on tonight. Do you want to gather sycamore fruit with your life? Or do you want to gather fruit unto life eternal? I mean, do you want to spend your life gathering sycamore fruit, just following the flock. And by the way, that's what 99% of Christians do. They just follow the flock. They just follow the flock. But see, God is calling out to you tonight. He's calling out like he called to Amos in Amos 7. He said, I was following the flock. I spent my life gathering a bunch of sycamore fruit. And God called me as I followed the flock and said, go and preach my word. Go prophesy unto my people Israel's faith. God wants more for your life than just gathering a bunch of physical fruit. If Amos had not responded to God's call, he would have been a nobody with his life. Think about it. He would have been a nobody. Just another guy following the herd. Another guy just like everybody else. But this man became so great that we are here thousands of years later preaching about how Amos was a man of God. Amos is preaching to us today. I mean, we're reading Amos' sermon today about his life today. Why? Because he answered God's call to step out of the flock and say, I'm not going to spend my life just gathering food that's going to go into my mouth, go into my belly, and go out to draft. Hey, I want to do something with my life that's of eternal value. Not gathering the fruit of the sycamore but gathering fruit unto eternal life. What's that mean? What it's talking about is winning souls. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that wins souls is life. Hey, those people, that fruit you're gathering, you're gathering it, it's going to be in his barn. It's fruit unto life eternal. That he that soweth and he that reapeth might rejoice together. What's that talking about? That's talking about getting to heaven. And the guy who sowed the seed, that's where you went out and maybe knocked that door, gave somebody the gospel and they didn't get saved. Later on somebody else came by, maybe even ten years later somebody else was able to get them saved because that seed that you had sown was watered and watered and eventually that person got saved. Hey, it's going to be great to rejoice together when you get to heaven and see the people that you didn't even know that you had a part in getting them saved. You know, you didn't reap that sheaf but you preached them the gospel and later on they got saved. Man, that's going to be great. You're going to be rejoicing and saying you're the one who got that person saved. I gave that person the gospel. I thought they never even got saved and then later you came by and got them saved. Praise God. Hallelujah. I mean, think about how rejoicing of time is going to be for those who win souls when they get to heaven. Man, I can't wait. I can't wait to meet Jesus face to face. But you know what? Then I want to meet the people that I've won in the Lord. That's going to be a great time just to see them in heaven. I preached them the gospel. They said they believe. They confess with their mouth to Lord Jesus that they believe on Him. And I know by faith that they'll be there. But boy, it's going to be something to see them there. To see with my eyes. Not the faith where I see it in my mind's eye. Where I believe it's true. But to actually physically see. Then, oh Lord, haste today when the faith shall be tight. And boy, that's going to be a time of rejoicing for those who didn't spend their life gathering a bunch of fruit that's going to rot. I mean, who even knows what a sycamore fruit is? Does anyone know? But that's what your life is going to be if you just keep falling in the herd. If you don't do anything for God, what's it going to matter? I mean, the top famous names of today, someday they'll be unknown. But we know Amos' name. Hey, but we know the men of God throughout the whole Bible who are up in heaven right now who serve God and who gather fruit and the life eternal. We know their names. And when we get to heaven, we'll know the names of many others who were great servants of God. What about the twenty and four elders that are up there who receive special crowns? You know, whoever those men are. And what about all the other multitudes that are going to have crowns that will be given authority and ruling and reigning with Christ? Hey, those people have a name that's going to endure forever, but the memory of the wicked shall rot. I mean, think about it. Today, the famous names. Who are the famous names that everybody knows? The household. Throw some names at me. Just household names. Tom Cruise. Britney Spears. I mean, there's almost nobody that doesn't know Tom Cruise. Britney Spears, you know, or whatever. Whoever you want to say. You know, you can throw out names. But think about this. Can you tell me the stars of the 1920s? Can you tell me the cool music of the teens? I don't know. You know, 1906. Boy, the famous people, the actors, the actresses, the politicians. None of us has a clue. And boy, at the time, man, they were cool. They were the hottest thing. I mean, everybody knew their music. Everybody watched their movies or plays. You know, back then, it was probably like a play that they were performing or the theater or the musical. You know what? We don't know the day. We don't care. We don't know. And guess what? Nobody's ever going to care again. Get in heaven and have some retro fest where we go back and, oh, man, all this cool entertainment that we missed. No, we're going to be singing the praise. Hey, here's a preacher that you never heard of from the late 1800s. Man, listen to this guy preach. This guy was a great soul winner. This guy was preaching God's Word. This guy did great things for God. Hey, he gathered fruit. That's a life eternal. He didn't gather record sales. He didn't gather up a following and fame and fortune and all the following of this world. No, he gathered fruit that was eternal. And so Asher says, you want to be like an Amos who basically just goes through his life following everybody else? Are you going to let God take you out of that and say, you know what? You're not going to follow the flow. You're going to preach for me. You're going to do something with your life that's not a temporal thing. Say, what is a sycamore fruit? Well, I'll tell you what a sycamore fruit is. A sycamore... Now, there are two trees that are known as the sycamore tree, okay? There's the Middle Eastern, what's called a sycamore tree, which is what we're reading about in the Bible. But in Europe, there's a type of maple tree that is referred to as a sycamore tree. But this is not the sycamore of the Bible, which is a fig tree, which makes sense because I don't think a maple tree has fruit upon it, but this is some kind of a sycamore. So it's some kind of a fruit that's like a fig, apparently. Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what I read, so, you know, take Wikipedia or leave it in our opinion. But that's not the point. You know, I care what the Bible says. He was gathering some kind of fruit that nobody's heard of, okay? Was it a fig? I don't even know what a fig really looks like. I know what fig means. You know, but I'm not really sure what a fig looks like. Is it a little... Is it like a date? Is it similar to a date? No. People are shaking their head no. See what I mean? I don't know. But the truth matters. I don't really care. You know what I mean? Because that was what he was doing before he answered God's call to say, no, I'm not going to go pick up a bunch of fruit off the ground, and then that's what I do for a living. Gather, sycamore fruit. No. Do something with your life that's going to matter for eternity. Look at Luke 5. Here's a great... This is one of my favorite passages. By the way, I love the four Gospels. I mean, to me, the four Gospels are the heart and soul of the Bible. I mean, obviously all Scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, but I feel like everything before the four Gospels is pointing toward Jesus Christ, the Gospel of Jesus, and I feel like everything after is telling us about it and pointing us back. It seems to me that the focal point of the Bible is Jesus Christ being incarnated, born of a virgin, living that perfect life, going to the cross, being crucified, bearing on in the sins of the world. He was buried. He rose again. I mean, to me, that's the crux of it right there. I mean, that is just the heart of the Bible to me. That's what it all... I mean, it's my favorite part of the Bible. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I mean, some of the clearest salvation teaching that just tells you how to be saved is clear. You're going to find in the four Gospels where Jesus is just saying, if you believe on me, you'll have everlasting life. Whosoever believeth. I mean, it's found in the four Gospels. Some of the clearest teaching on the end times, prophecy of Christ's second coming, came out of the mouth of Jesus himself while he was on the earth. I mean, some of the most poignant passages in the Bible, the raising of Lazarus in John chapter 11, what a powerful story. I mean, every word is just packed with power. And I love this story in Luke chapter 5. I mean, I love the four Gospels. But in Luke chapter 5, it says in verse number 1, It came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret and saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their necks. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and talked the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Watch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draft. And Simon answered and said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net great. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink. Then Simon Peter saw it. He fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, O Lord. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished in all that were with him at the draft of the fishes, which they had taken. And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, this is a great phrase, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed them. I want to spend my life catching fish. He said, You're going to catch men. Not just a physical scooping down of a net. And boy, they were excited. They were happy. They had 153,000. That was in John 21. But they were told, Let down the nets. Did you notice that? He said in verse 4, Let down your nets. And he said, Well, we've told all night and found nothing. I'll let down the net. Singular. Right? He said, Look, we've already worked all night. We've caught nothing. We're not going to let down the nets. But at your word, because you command us to do so, we will let down the net. Singular. And then what happened? The net broke. Because he said nets, they let down net. Too many fishes. Too many fishes. The net broke. Okay. But what's amazing is, this would be like, let's stop and think about this. Let's say you're a businessman. And you just made the biggest profit that you've ever made. I mean, these guys, they got their partners. They loaded the ship with fish. This is a dream come true for fishermen, right? More fishes than the net can even handle. And they didn't even clean the fish. Look at that. Look how they walked away from it. You see that? Isn't that interesting? You might not have thought of that before. How they brought in this great, that's their job, that's their livelihood. Wow. We are making money now. But they forsook it all. Amen. Think about that. They say, you know, somebody else, somebody else can clean these fish. You got them. It's like, look at the money. You tore them all night. You caught nothing. You just filled both ships with fishes. We're going to follow Jesus. Fishing? We're going to catch men. Business? You know what? Nothing in this world has the value of serving God, of winning a soul to Jesus Christ, of getting somebody saved. That's worth more than anything. It's worth more than any fruit you can gather. It's worth more than any fishing enterprise or business. And to us, we look at this, and we may just think, oh, fishing. But think about whatever your business is. And think about just walking away from the biggest profit, the biggest debt. Or maybe you don't own a business. Maybe you're just working a job. Walking away from the biggest paycheck, the double overtime. The job is going to be a six-figure income. And say, nope, I want to catch men. I want to win souls to Christ. That's why these men were great men. That's why the eleven disciples turned the world upside down with the gospel. Because they walked away from everything. They forsook all. They said, you know what? We don't need money. We don't need the riches. We don't need the fame. We don't need the popularity. We just want to follow Jesus. We want to gather fruit that's eternal, that's under the light of eternal. And by the way, sometimes you do toil all night and catch nothing. Have you ever been out soul winning and worked and worked and worked and just didn't get anybody to save you? But nevertheless, at God's word, you keep doing it. You may catch nothing. Do it because he said so, and eventually you'll reap if you may not. Turn if you would to 1 Timothy check number 1. 1 Timothy check number 1. And we'll see Paul. We saw Amos. And we saw Peter and James and John and a ship. Now let's see Paul, the apostle Paul. 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 11. According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord. Watch this. Who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Here's a man who said, God took me and put me into the ministry. Just like he took Amos out of the flock and said preach. He said go. He said, Paul, I'm going to take you and show you what things you must suffer for my name's sake. That's what he told him through Ananias. He said, I'm going to show you that you are going to be my chosen vessel to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. And he said, Christ Jesus our Lord enabled me when he put me into the ministry. Now you may say, well, I don't know if I'm qualified. I don't know if it's my gift. I don't know if I'm capable to preach God's word, to win souls to Christ, to go knock at the door, to open my Bible, to show somebody how to be saved. I don't know if that's me. I mean, my dad wasn't a preacher. He wasn't a prophet. That's what Amos said. My dad wasn't a prophet. My dad gathered Singapore fruit. His dad and I did the same thing. We don't even know their name. We don't even know who they are. Personally, my dad was not a preacher. My dad is an electrician. His dad was an electrician. Before that, they didn't have electricity. No, I'm just kidding. Anyway, my dad was an electrician. My grandpa was an electrician. And I'm an electrician. But you know what? God took me from the vlog. And I started out in the vlog. I started out pretty much just like every other independent Baptist that I was around. Going with the flow, trying to win souls, trying to do everything. But you know what? God took me and said, You know what? I have bigger plans for you. Rise above the mediocre. Rise above the flock. What does the flock represent? The crowd. And even if it's a crowd of Baptists, it's still the crowd. And God still requires of us greater things, excellence, to rise above the crowd and say, You know what? I want to do bigger things for God. I'm not satisfied to just be a part of the flock. I'm not satisfied to just, like everybody else, I'll put in my, Oh, the church has a soul waiting program. Okay, I'll go put in my time. You know, I'll do my 59 minutes and 59 seconds and check it out that I was there. You know, I'll show up on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and kind of do my time. Oh, the pastor said, If I don't read the Bible through cover to cover once a year, I'm not right with God. Okay, well let me do the minimum then to meet his standard. I don't have a standard. You know what? You need to meditate on the word God day and night. I mean, I think it's great to read the Bible through cover to cover once a year, but I think it's better to read it through twice a year. And you know what's even better? Four times a year. You know, don't be limited by man. Don't be limited by the crowd and the flock and say, Well, this is what Pastor Anderson does, or this is what everybody else, this is what he said, or this is how much so many he's doing, or this is how much he prays, or this is what he memorized, or this is what he did. No, why don't you rise up and say, No, I'm pressing on the upward way. New heights I'm gaining every day. Still praying as I mumble about. Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. I can't be limited by what other people do. Somebody brought up in the preaching class last night about the four-minute mile. I think it was you, brother. You know, I think the guy who gave us Roger Bannister who broke the four-minute mile. A month later, two other people had broken it. Because it was a psychological barrier where people said it can't be done. And once one man broke that four-minute mile, two other people did it within a month. Ten people did it within the next few months. Because once they saw somebody who would break that barrier, it opened the door to other people. Today, high schools have had children who could run a four-minute mile today. And yet, in the past, people said it could not be done. Don't let man limit you. God's hand is not shortened. God has all power. He said if you have the faith of a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, remove hands to yonder place and it would obey him. He said, you know, you could say to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea. God has no limit. And so don't limit yourself and say, well, as long as I can measure up to so-and-so, as long as I'm going to measure up to this pastor or this preacher or this guy in church. No. Get out of the flock. Let God enable you. You say, well, I'm nobody special. You know, was Amos really somebody special? A kid gathering a bunch of fruit? I mean, was Peter really that special? An uneducated fisherman? And by the way, they were not formally educated men. Because they pointed that out in Acts 3, 4, and 5. These men, they were uneducated, but they said, how do they have this boldness? How do they have this powerful preaching? They took knowledge of them that they've been with Jesus. It's not about you. It's not about your talent. It's not about your good looks or your charisma or your magnetic personality. No. It's Christ Jesus our Lord who's going to enable you if you're ever going to do anything for God. It's going to be his power. It's going to be his might. He's the one who's going to enable you. You are not the one who has to end up yourself to go out and do great things. And I mean, even Amos, who preached before kings. Paul the apostle, who preached before kings. And even the Caesar, the ruler of the known world. Peter, James, and John, who stood before the government of their nation and preached. Who stood and preached in the temple. Who stood and preached to the multitudes, to the thousands at the day of Pentecost. They didn't have any special education. They were the ones when Jesus was calling. Because they weren't the only ones that Jesus called. Jesus called others who said, oh, you know, I have to go bury my father. Oh, man. I purchased land and I have to go look at it. People have excuses why they don't come. No, these were the men who said, nope, drop everything. Money, doesn't matter. Comfort, doesn't matter. Hey, I'm going to go where God wants me to go. I'm going to follow you whithersoever you go. Look at Matthew 19. It's the last place we'll turn. Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter number 19. I mean, what do you want to be with your life? You want to get to the end of your life and say, oh, well, yeah, I have a successful business. You think people in heaven are going to want to listen to you tell your business stories when you get there? Let me tell you about this fishing trip that I did 3,000 years ago. People are not going to care. When you're in heaven, you really think I'm going to go seek out the guy who had the coolest fishing story. Well, what about the really cool time when he was up in the Sycamore tree and he found a bunch of fruit. And it was, oh, wow, doesn't matter. Nobody's going to care. Do something with your life that matters. When I'm an old man, when my hair's all gray, and I'm in my older years, and I can look back upon the majority of my life almost over, I want to look back and say, hey, I did something for God. I gathered fruit on life. I want to get there and have just done a bunch of things that nobody even remembers, nobody cares, nobody knows. Hey, I want to do something that's going to last for eternity. And that's winning somebody a price. That's getting somebody's sake. And we'll be rejoicing about that for all eternity. Look at Matthew 19, verse 24. And again, I say to you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, whose men can be saved? But Jesus beheld them and said to them, with men this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. Then answered Peter and said to them, behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee. What shall we have, therefore? Now, had they truly done that? Yes, they had. They had forsaken all. They did leave everything behind. Jesus said to them, verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel, and everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. So ask yourself this question. Do you want to be, Peter? Let me ask you, Peter, do you want to be a really successful fisherman? And man, did I catch a lot of fish. And boy, you should have seen the boat, and the house, and the car. It's great. Or do you want to, for 1,000 years, sit on a throne with Jesus Christ, ruling and reigning? I mean, would you rather hang on so tightly to the things that you want, the things that you're not willing to give up to serve God, the things that are holding you back, and you just want to hang on to the things of this world? And this ties in perfectly with this morning's sermon about Lot's wife. Lot runs out of Sodom for his dear life, fire and brimstones coming down. And oh, Lot's wife, she forgot something and became a pillar of salt. Because she just had to go back for the stuff. But look, whatever that is that you're just hanging on to, don't you know if you let go of it, God will give you a hundred times that? That's what he said. He wouldn't do it. I'm not Benny Hinn saying put a dollar in the plate and you get a hundred dollars. Then put a hundred in the plate and you get $10,000. Put the $10,000 in the plate and you get a million dollars. Great, just keep going. You'll be a millionaire like me. Come on around on a jet like me. Wear a white fancy suit and white shoes like me. No, that's not what I'm saying. You know, I said in the regeneration, God will award you a hundred times that you can give up. If you were to give that as an interest rate, that would be 10,000% interest. And you want to just hold on so tightly. You know, you're just clinging to it. You know, oh man, you know, I just got to hang on to this sin. Or I got to, you know, I can't give up this music. I just love this music. Or you know, well, you know, if I serve God, it could cause some problems with my spouse. So I don't want to rock the boat, you know. So I'm just going to go with the flow. Or my parents might get mad at me. Because I'm, you know, refusing to watch movies with them that are obscene. You know, and my friends are going to call me holier than thou. And they're going to make fun of me. And I'm going to lose my friend. And by the way, whenever I got right with God, I lost every friend that I had. I have zero friends from before I got right with God when I was 17 years old. I cannot name for you one friend that is my friend today who was my friend before I got right with God. Now before I got right with God, I had all kinds of friends. Got right with God, started living for God, started winning souls, went to a fundamental church, lost every friend and had to make some new friends. Finally I have some friends. Thank you for coming to church and being my friend. But it's true. And many people can testify the same thing. I had all these friends. I got right with God, started going soul winning, and gone. That's the price you got to be willing to pay my friend. You got to be willing to take up the cross and follow Him. You will lose friends. You will have family members turn on you. You're going to lose financially sometimes. You can't serve God and family. You can't do it. You can't serve too badly. You can't serve money and God at the same time. And what I'm saying to you tonight is that you've got to be willing to give some things up. Give up the sycamore business. Give up the fishing business. And say, you know what? I'm going to live for God. He's going to give me a hundred times whatever I give up. Whatever I leave behind. It's not worth it. I mean, think about the story. I'll close with this. Remember Elijah? He comes to the widow at Zarephath when there was the famine and it wasn't going to rain for three and a half years. He comes to that widow at Zarephath and she just had that little bit of meal left in the bottom of the barrel. You know, that's where his present comes from, scraping the bottom of the barrel. She had just nothing left. And Elijah came to her. And God had commanded this widow woman to sustain Elijah, to feed him. Well, he shows up at her house and he says, can you give me a little cruise of water? Can you give me a glass of water? She says, okay, sure. She goes, oh, wait a minute. Also, can you also bring me a little bit of food as well that I can eat with my water? And she said, listen. There's only a little bit of meal left in our barrel in our whole house. She said, I was going to bake this one cake and I was going to bake it for me and my son. We're going to split it and eat it and we're going to die because we have no food, no money, nothing. So we're going to split this one cake and we're going to eat it and then we're going to die. Because there's no food at the grocery store. I mean, this was a bad thing. No food at the grocery store. It's not raining. We don't have money. We don't have any food. We are going to starve to death after we split this and eat it and die. And he said, okay, but can you make me a cake first? That's what he said. Read it. And she says, okay, whatever. And she makes that cake and feeds it to him. And you know what? She went back and boom, there's more. And it was a miraculous thing where every time she'd go back and take out the last part, put the lid on, she'd come back the next day. There it was again. There it was again. And God performed a miracle where the food just kept coming from that barrel. Kind of like when Jesus fed the 5,000 where he just kept breaking off in peace. You know, you can always break off one more piece. He's breaking off the five loaves of the two faces and fed 5,000 people. But think about this. What if she would have just said, you know what? No. This is my last food. I'm going to eat it myself. She would have died. Her son would have died. But she gave it to God. And that's what we want to hang on to what we want. This is my life. This is what I want to do. These are my toys. These are my things. Instead of just letting go. You know what? None of it matters. I want to win souls to Christ with my life. That's what matters. Getting people saved, that's what matters. Preaching God's word, that's what matters. Not all the physical, temporal things in this life that are all going to be gone. It's all going to fade into the garden. I didn't even really plan to tie the two sermons yet. But this morning sermon and night sermon are basically the same sermon. Just kind of two sides of the same coin. Is it what's in this life that we're hanging on to? Or are we willing to forsake some things? Lose some friends? And you know, it's not that I forsook my friends. They forsook me. It's not that I said, I'm not going to hang out with you anymore because I've grown spiritually. No, it was them that, you know, don't want anything to do with you anymore. I've never had to forsake any friend. They all forsook me. And it hurts, it's painful. But you know what? It's life. And you know what? What a friend we have in Jesus. That's the real friend that's never, that's taken closer than a brother. So ask yourself tonight, do you want to just live and die as a nobody? Do you want to receive a hundredfold? Do you want to gather fruit in the life of eternal? And you want to go through all eternity rejoicing and praising God for the people that you need in Christ. For what you've done for God. You want to be a nobody? I mean, I guarantee you there are hundreds and thousands of Sycamore guys that you've never even heard of. But then there was Amos, who I personally think, one of the best books in the Bible, one of the greatest men of God, a very powerful preacher. But he could have been, he was this close to being a nobody. It was all based on when God said go. God said forsake him. He said yes, that's all. That was all the difference between being a nobody and being a man who preached to kings, God's word. And he still, he being dead, yes, because today we're hearing his voice of the book of Amos thundering forth tonight, preaching to us what we need to do, as far as that word prayer.