In this sermon, the preacher discusses the necessities of life such as food, drink, and clothing, which often cause worry and concern. He emphasizes that these things were meant to be blessings and a revelation of the blessings that come from serving the Lord. The preacher references Moses instructing Joshua to meditate on the book of the law day and night, promising prosperity and success for those who follow God's commandments. He encourages the listeners to take inventory of their lives and seek the old path, the good way, in order to find rest for their souls and walk in communion with God.

Now let's turn our Bibles to 1 John chapter 1. I'll read the first, the outnumbered verses, and Pastor Brian will lead the congregation in the reading of the even-numbered verses through chapter 1 of 1 John. Shall we stand as we read the Word of God? That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye may also have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful that You have given to us the privilege of walking in fellowship with You. What a blessing, Lord, when in times of stress, in times of fear, in times of discouragement, in times of uncertainty, that we can just come and take a walk with You, open our hearts, bear our burdens, and knowing, Lord, that You understand, and that You are there to help us, and to strengthen us, and to give us victory. Lord, teach us today to walk with You. In Jesus' name, Amen. You may be seated. Tonight, we begin the book of Amos, and Pastor Skip will be leading us through the first three chapters of Amos. We have this wonderful opportunity of learning the word of God. If I should ask you, what is the real message of the prophet Amos? Who is he ministering to, and what's the heart of his message? I wonder how many of you really know the book of Amos. You have the opportunity to learn not only the book of Amos, but to learn the Bible, the whole Bible, as we go through from Genesis to Revelation. So, we would encourage you, read over the first three chapters of Amos. Join with us tonight, and you'll leave tonight with a better, clearer understanding of this prophet, and of his ministry, and what God has said to us through the prophet Amos. This morning, I'd like to draw your attention to the third chapter of Amos, the first three verses, where Amos says to us, hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, you only have I known of all of the families of the earth, and therefore I will punish you for all of your iniquities. Can two walk together, except they be agreed? God is speaking through Amos to the nation of Israel, and he reminds them that they were given special blessings by God. You only, the Lord said, have I known of all of the families of the earth. They were a chosen nation, and the purpose of God in choosing them is that he might reveal himself to the world through them. The book of Hebrews opens with these words, God who at different times and in different ways spoke to our fathers by the prophets, and so the acknowledgement that God used the prophets of Israel to speak to man today. Paul asks the questions in Romans 3, what advantage has the Jew? He answered his question saying, much and in every way, because unto them were committed the oracles of God. God committed the revelation of himself to humankind through the nation of Israel. In 2 Samuel chapter 23, David said, the spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue. David is declaring that he had divine revelation. God was speaking through him. Jesus confirms those words of David, for in Mark 12 36, Mark said, David himself speaking by the Holy Spirit said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. So Jesus acknowledged that David was speaking by the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote to Timothy in his second letter, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction of righteousness. Peter wrote in his second letter, for the prophecy came not in old times by the will of man, but the holy men of God spoke as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. So as Paul said, unto them were committed the oracles of God. It was God's purpose that the world should know him. He chose a nation through which he would reveal himself. In chapter nine of the book of Romans, Paul talking about the advantages of Israel, he said, they were adopted by God. They received his glory and his covenants and the law and the temple worship and the promises. They had a rich heritage and from them concerning the flesh the Messiah came, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. So God chose them. He said, of all the nations I've chosen you. He chose them to show the world how blessed a nation would be if God was their ruler, if they would follow the law of God, if they would follow the commandments of God. He wanted to show the world how blessed any nation could be. David said, happy is the people whose God is Jehovah. And the Lord was wanting them to be a witness to the world. Any nation who will follow after me, any nation who will serve me, any nation who allows me to be their God, I will bless. And they were chosen then to be a revelation to the world of the blessings that man could know, a nation could know when they served the Lord. When Moses was ready to turn the reins of the nation over to Joshua, he said to Joshua, this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night that you might observe to do all that is written therein. For then you shall make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. In other words, God revealed his covenants, his commandments, his laws, that if they would follow them, they would be prosperous and have good success. We do read in the Psalms that righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people and history has borne out the truth of that Psalm. In the first Psalm, the Lord said, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord. And in this law, does he meditate day and night? He will be like a tree that's planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he does will prosper. Speaking of the reign of King Uzziah, the scripture says, as long as he sought the Lord, God made his ways to prosper. And so it is true. As long as a nation or as long as an individual will seek the Lord, God will bless. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things. And he was talking about the necessities of life, what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink, what you're going to wear. These things that are often a care to us, a worry to us. He said, just seek me first. These other things will all be added unto you. But in spite of the special blessings and the privileges that God gave to the nation of Israel, they did not walk with God. They did not keep the commandments of God. And so the time has come, God said, when they would be punished. Our text then asked the question, can two walk together except they be agreed? The Bible speaks of Abraham walking before God. That's something that all of us do. God sees and knows everything we ever do, and thus we all walk before God. The Bible tells us that neither is there any person that is not manifest in his sight. For all things are naked and open unto him and to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. We all walk before God. But it's far different to walk with God. And the whole idea here is that it is possible for a man to walk with God. That is walking in communion with God, walking in fellowship with him. And in reality, that is the purpose for God creating man. Several years ago, there was that musical called God's Trombones. And it was sort of the telling of the story of creation from a very homespun way. And having told of the creating of the world and the placing of the animals and all upon it, then the narrator said, and God said, I'm lonely. And so he created Adam and Eve for fellowship. And how true that is. That is the reason why God created man, that we might walk in communion, in fellowship with him. And we do read concerning Adam and Eve there in the Garden of Eden, how that they broke fellowship with God by disobeying the command of God and eating of that tree of which God said, you're not to eat of that tree in the middle of the garden. And there we read that God walked in the garden in the cool of the day. And he called and asked Adam, where are you? God came to walk with them, to commune with them. But you can't walk together in communion unless you are agreed. And they were no longer agreeing with God. They were disobeying God, and thus walking in communion with him was broken. We do read in Genesis concerning that patriarch known as Enoch. And the testimony of the scripture was, and Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. One day as he took his walk with God, he never came home. He just kept walking, and God took him. When we walk with God, we do reach the ultimate intention for our existence. God created you for fellowship, to walk in communion with him. We sung this morning, and he walks with me, and he talks with me. And he tells me, I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known. Can you say that as a personal witness of your own life? Have you known the joy of just taking a walk with God? Letting him talk to you? Letting him express to you the love that he has for you? That wonderful communion of just walking with God? I know of no greater therapy for the problems that we face in life than just going out and walking with God and sharing with God. When we're upset, good to just take a walk with him. Open up your heart. Tell him how you feel, and let him speak to you and minister to you and bring peace. When you're worried, oh how wonderful it is to take a walk with God and just share with him the fears, the anxiety that you have over the situation, and let him speak to your heart, and let him bear that burden for you. Because the scripture said, just cast all your cares on him, because he does care for you. When you're discouraged, it's wonderful just to take a walk with the Lord, and just share with him your heart, the discouragement that you feel, and hear him as he will speak his words of encouragement and his words of love. When you don't know which way to turn, you feel like you're boxed in, good to just take a walk with the Lord, share with him how you're feeling, and let him show you the way out. When you're afraid, good to just take a walk with the Lord and let him know your fears, and he will assure you of his love, and his perfect love will cast out all fear. Walking with the Lord. Solomon, as he was writing of Christ in a figurative sense, there in the Song of Solomon, said, my beloved spoke and said unto me, rise up my love, my fair one, come away. Have you ever heard the Lord just calling you and saying, rise up my love, let's take a walk together. Let me help you. Let me guide you. Let me strengthen you. Oh, how wonderful it is just to walk with God. I highly recommend this. Whenever a problem arises, just go out and say, Lord, I want to walk with you and talk with you about this situation, and just let God know exactly where you are and how you feel. But the question is, can two walk together unless they're agreed? And obviously the answer is no. You can't really walk in communion unless there is an agreement. That was the problem with the nation of Israel. They were no longer in agreement with God. They had turned their backs upon the law of God. They were worshipping other gods. As long as they walked with God, God blessed them. They prospered. They became powerful and they became bountiful as God poured out his blessings upon the nation. But as they gained in strength and in power and in military might, and as they gained in wealth, their eyes soon became enamored with the material things that they were able now to afford. And they were no longer walking in real communion with God as they had divided hearts and divided interests. As their military became strong, they began to trust in their military might rather than in God himself. And they were no longer walking in agreement with God. And God will not walk with you if you will not walk with him in agreement with him. He will not deviate from the straight path. Jesus said, straight is the way and narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life. But there are always those endeavors by man to broaden the way. But the Lord will not broaden the way. It is a narrow way. It is a narrow path walking with him. It is denying the flesh. It is denying the world and the things of the world to live after the Spirit and live in communion and fellowship with God. The Lord will let you take another path. He will not stop you. And that was basically the problem with the nation of Israel. They as a nation decided to take another path. My heart is stirred and grieved as I look at the conditions of our nation today. And I see that that pattern that Israel followed is being followed by our nation today. And we are choosing to take another path. No longer acknowledging God. No longer looking to God for our help. Seeking really to exclude God from the national life. And I can tell you that's a very dangerous thing because soon you'll find God excluding us and removing the hand of protection that he has kept on our nation. And our nation will be subject to calamities, to catastrophes that God has protected us from as long as we acknowledged him and sought to walk with him. But when we want to remove God and have determined to remove God, then God will remove himself. But the hand of protection that he has kept will no longer be there. And we will be subject to many catastrophes as a nation. Twice in the book of Proverbs it is said, there is a way or a path that seems right unto man. But the end of that path is death. Now a wise man will look at the path that he is walking and seek to determine, if I continue walking this path, where will it lead me? Will it lead me closer to the Lord? Will it lead me in communion and fellowship with him? Or if I walk this path, will it lead me away from the Lord? It may seem right, but as Solomon warned in the Proverbs, the end of that path is death. Jeremiah told the people in chapter six, thus saith the Lord, stand in the way and see and ask for the old paths, which is the good way and walk in them and you shall find rest for your soul. But they said, we will not walk in them. Referring to the people who refuse to hear the prophet calling to them to just stand still for a moment. Take an inventory of your life. Is your life today everything that you desire it to be? Are you on the right path? Are you comfortable in the path that you are walking today? Is it bringing you close to God in communion and fellowship with him? Stand, he said for a moment, take inventory. Don't just rush through life without looking ahead and seeing where your path is leading you. Stop for a moment. And then he said, ask for the old path, the good way. And the result, you will find rest for your soul. When you know that you are walking in communion with God and that he is leading in this path, what peace there is, what rest there is. Lord, I'm just trusting you to lead the way, to show me your way and that rest and the peace that you have in your heart when you let him lead in this path of life. Isaiah said that as you're walking on the right path, you will hear a word saying to you, this is the path, walk in it. And if you hear that voice of God's spirit speaking to your heart saying, this is the path, this is the path you should walk in, you know that you're on the right path. So I'd ask you to listen. Is God speaking to your heart and saying you're on the right path? This is the path, walk in it. You see, the bottom line is that God wants you to walk with him and he has promised that if you do, you'll be blessed, you'll be happy, you'll be prosperous. But to walk with him, you must agree with him. Can two walk together except they be agreed? You have to agree that his way is the right way. You must be willing to walk in the light as he is in the light. And as John told us this morning in our scripture reading, if we say that we have fellowship with God and we are walking in darkness, that's a lie. You're deceived. You don't know the truth. You cannot walk in fellowship with God and walk in darkness for God is light. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we do have fellowship. And John said, I write this to you that your joy may be full. I don't know how long it's been since you just said, Lord, I need to walk with you today. I have some issues that I need cleared up and Lord, let's just go for a walk. And I would encourage you just take a walk and just start talking to God. And before long, you'll hear him talking to you as he begins to assure you of his love and of his over ruling plan and purpose for your life. If you'll just submit your way to him, walk in agreement with God, agree that he is God agree that he is right and agree that he must lead as you walk together and you'll experience such peace, such joy walking with God. Father, what a blessing it is to walk with you. And Lord, as we are living in a pressure cooker, this world with all of the pressures that it puts upon us daily, how wonderful it is to be able to just cast all of our cares upon you, knowing that you care for us and walking Lord with you in this beautiful fellowship. Father, for those today that are going through problems, those who have fears, those that are discouraged, those who are upset, we pray Father that today they might just take a walk with you, that you might minister to them, Lord, from your great love and grace. Help them, strengthen them, and may they receive that wonderful assurance that you know, that you care. More than that, you're going to take care of it as they leave it with you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Shall we stand? The pastors are down here at the front to minister to you this morning. Maybe you don't know how to walk with the Lord. They'll help you. They'll pray for you that you might just really experience today that wonderful, wonderful blessing of just fellowship with God, communion with God, walking with God. And I trust that before the day is over you will take a little experiment and just take a walk and ask God, walk with me Lord. Speak to me. And he'll tell you of his love. He'll tell you of his plan and of his purposes for your life as you walk with him. May the Lord bless you. May the Lord be with you. May the Lord watch over and keep you. May he fill you with his love. May he guide you by his spirit. May he strengthen you for whatever situation you might face this week that you might know his presence and his power working in your life as you fellowship with him. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace.