2. A Famine In The Land Amos 8:11

3. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5  It will change your thinking  Your thinking will then affect your decisions  Your decisions determine the course of life you pursue

4. Amos 8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD

5. Times were coming when they would search for the cast aside word of the Lord, but it would elude them (Amos 8:12)  This was the bitter fruit of their actions (Amos 8:13-14)  God’s spirit will not always strive with man (Gen. 6:3; Prov. 1:23-33)

6. We are living in a time when there is such a famine in the land.  The word of God is abundantly available today.  More Bibles are owned now than at any other time.  Are they read?  Are they studied?  Are the words therein heeded and followed?

7. The Situation In The “Last Days” 2 Timothy 3:1-4  Not some far off time period  The last days began at Pentecost  Peter invokes Joel’s prophecy (Acts 2:16- 21; cf. Joel 2:28-32) –Peter says this is what is happening (v. 16) –It happens in “the last days” (v. 17) –Thus the last days are now, not later –Men will call on the name of the Lord in order to be saved in the last days. When? (v. 21)  God’s Son speaks to us “in these last days” (Heb. 1:1-2)

8. What is described as happening in the last days is indicative of a famine  There are far too many similarities to modern times to dismiss this  Notice some similarities in 2 Timothy 3:1-4  “Lovers of themselves” (v. 2)  “Lovers of money” (v. 2)  “Lovers of pleasure” (v. 4)

9. There are those in the church who have no use for God’s word (2 Tim. 4:3)  They will listen to the teachers who tell them what they what to hear so they can do what they want to do  This is hardly new (Isa. 30:10-11)  “and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:4, ESV)

10. The Antidote The antidote to this famine is to feed on the word of God  Live by the book (2 Tim. 3:14-17)  Three great truths about God’s word:  The word comes from God  The word brings salvation in Christ  The word equips us to do God’s work

11. The antidote needs to be in me  It is not only the power of God, but contains the instructions on how we are to “live by faith” (Rom. 1:16-17)  It is able to save (James 1:21)  It is what I need (Acts 18:8)  To hear  To believe  To follow