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All right, my Bible in 365, 
brothers and sisters, we are at 

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the most amazing prophetic book 
of Amos. 

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And I have to say this, he is 
regarded as one of the minor 

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prophets, but there is nothing 
minor about his work. 

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By the way, just so you know, 
when we use the term mind your 

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prophets, what we're actually 
talking about is we're talking 

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about the length of their 
writings. 

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It has nothing else to do with 
anything else. 

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It doesn't mean it's a lesser of
a prophecy, just simply means 

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it's a smaller body of work. 
But often times those are the 

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ones that pack the greatest 
punches. 

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Speaking of which, I'm only 
going to spend time focusing on 

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one specific passage in the book
of Amos, and that is Chapter 9. 

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But before I do, there are facts
about this book that you need to

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know, and facts about the 
prophet Amos that you need to 

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know. 
And that actually starts with 

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the fact that he was not a 
professional prophet. 

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Amos specifically says that he 
was not a prophet by 

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professional. 
That's a very important 

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distinction for us to be able to
make here. 

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He wasn't trained in a prophetic
school. 

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He was actually a herdsman and a
gatherer, also referred to as a 

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dresser of a Sycamore, a 
Sycamore fruit. 

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So God took an ordinary working 
man and sent him with an 

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absolutely extraordinary 
message. 

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And that is critical that we 
understand that because of how 

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this applies to us with how God 
works. 

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Look, Amos didn't choose 
prophecy as a profession. 

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God interrupted his profession 
and literally made him a 

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prophet. 
And that is remarkable. 

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Now the other thing we should 
know is that Amos came from 

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Judah, but he was actually sent 
to Israel, meaning he came from 

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the southern Kingdom of Judah, 
but God sent him to speak to the

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northern Kingdom of Israel. 
Now he was from Tekoa which is a

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small town South of Jerusalem in
the southern Kingdom of Judah. 

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Yet God sent him N to confront 
the the very prosperous northern

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Kingdom. 
It wasn't prosperous for long, 

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but it was at the time that he 
went to go confront them. 

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Now he was essentially a foreign
preacher walking into the King's

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religious center and announcing 
the judgment was coming. 

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That's a heavy place to be. 
And he had no natural 

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constituency there. 
Like that's kind of important to

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understand. 
He had no real political 

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protection. 
There was no real influence with

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respect to the crowd around him.
There was really no reason to 

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expect that anyone would even 
welcome him. 

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And what's interesting is when 
he did preach, it was during the

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time of tremendous prosperity. 
Why? 

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Because we know he ministered 
during the reign of Jeroboam the

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Second and when Israel during 
this time. 

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This is when Israel was enjoying
the lots of military success, 

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and I'm speaking about the 
northern Kingdom here. 

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And of course there was a lot of
territorial expansion that was 

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happening. 
There was a lot of economic 

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prosperity. 
And if you were to look at it 

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from the outside, the nation 
looked very strong and secure. 

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But underneath all that 
prosperity was a bunch of 

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idolatry and sexual immorality 
and a whole lot of judicial 

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corruption. 
And by the way, they were also, 

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with all of that, exploiting the
poor. 

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That's what the Bible tells us, 
and God even refers to their 

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practice of religion as being 
somewhat hollow. 

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Israel interpreted prosperity as
evidence that God had approved 

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of them, when in reality God did
no such thing. 

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And Amos declared that judgment 
was already approaching them. 

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And that actually brings us to 
one of the books greatest 

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Warnings. 
OK, a nation can be economically

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prosperous. 
It can be militaristically 

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powerful and spiritually 
condemned at the same time. 

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And that scares me for the 
United States of America. 

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But it's a powerful reminder 
that we get from the book of 

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Amos. 
Now, here is the other fact that

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I want you to know. 
Amos opens by setting a very 

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rhetorical trap. 
We should know this. 

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OK, Chapters one and two, Amos 
will announce judgement against 

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Israel's surrounding enemies. 
He talks about Damascus, and he 

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talks about Gaza and Tyre and 
Edom. 

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He speaks about Ammon and Moab. 
And his Israelite audience would

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have enjoyed every word of what 
he was sharing. 

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Yeah, Our enemies are about to 
get judged. 

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Then Amos moves closer and he 
starts to condemn the southern 

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Kingdom of Judah to the northern
Kingdom. 

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OK, so he's talking about the 
southern Kingdom of Judah. 

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Then he turns directly towards 
the northern Kingdom of Israel 

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and the people who had been 
cheering him on and and really 

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excited about him condemning 
everybody all of a sudden lose 

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their minds when they become the
primary defendants, for lack of 

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a better term. 
And I actually think that the 

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structure is really brilliant 
here because Amos allows Israel 

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to agree with God's standard of 
judgement for one nation after 

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the other, after the other, 
after the other, until the 

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standard gets shown to them and 
it forces them to have to 

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understand and sort of 
experience this. 

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And here's the thing that you 
need to know. 

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Israel wasn't being repented, 
OK? 

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They were not going to repent 
from any of this. 

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Now, I should also say this 
because this is really, really 

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important here, OK? 
Amos reversed their 

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understanding of the Day of the 
Lord. 

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The Israelites, they had 
expected what everybody called 

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the Day of the Lord to mean 
God's judgment upon their 

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enemies and Israel's 
vindication, which by the way, 

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is the general way to look at 
that. 

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But in this particular context, 
that was not the case. 

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Amos actually shocked them by 
declaring that it would be 

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darkness for them and and no 
light. 

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In other words, they wanted God 
to arrive because they assumed 

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He was on their side. 
But Amos warned them that when 

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he arrived, he would judge the 
northern kingdom's sin. 

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And by the way, there are five 
major visions that Amos has that

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speaks to this very specific 
issue. 

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There's the vision of the 
locust, the vision of the fire, 

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the vision of the Plumb line, 
the vision of the basket of what

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the Bible calls summer fruit, 
and then the final vision, which

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is the Lord standing beside the 
altar. 

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Now each of these visions become
progressively more severe and in

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the 1st 2:00 famous actually 
intercedes and judgement is 

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withheld because of his heart 
for the people. 

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It's kind of interesting how 
that works. 

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But by the time the vision of 
the Plumb line comes, God 

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announces that he's no longer 
going to give a pass to Israel 

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and the opportunity to avoid 
national judgement is just 

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completely closing. 
In other words, if they're not 

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going to repent, I'm judging 
them. 

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And that's what God does. 
And so God sends an earthquake. 

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By the way, it's interesting 
because the earthquake that gets

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sent is an actual historical 
reference point. 

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Amos dates his ministry as 
occurring two years before the 

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earthquake, and the earthquake 
was apparently so severe that 

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centuries later, Zechariah still
refer to people fleeing from it 

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during Uzziah's reign. 
So this is how we're able to 

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place all of this down. 
And Amos preached before the 

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ground actually physically 
shook. 

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But it was his message that 
warned that Israel's entire 

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national structure was about to 
be shaken. 

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So it was a prophecy about an 
earthquake that eventually did 

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happen, and it was something 
that people refer to as the 

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great earthquake. 
And it's even interesting to 

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think about because there are 
biblical archaeological 

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societies that have evidence of 
this earthquake, and it's 

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actually noted quite well. 
And that brings us to Chapter 9,

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because with all of the judgment
that had been proclaimed not 

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only upon Israel, but upon 
Judah, all of Israel, I love 

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reading a portion of Amos 
Chapter 9 because Amos Chapter 9

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speaks of something that has not
yet happened but is beginning to

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happen. 
And I absolutely love it. 

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Let me read verse 13 to you. 
And if you say that God is done 

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with Israel, you're just not 
reading the Bible and you're 

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certainly not reading biblical 
prophecy. 

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I want everybody to understand 
that. 

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Look what it says in Amos 
Chapter 9, verse 13. 

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Behold, the days come, saith the
Lord, that the plowman shall 

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overtake the Reaper, and the 
treader of grapes him that 

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soweth seed, and the mountain 
shall drop sweet wine, and all 

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the hills shall melt. 
By the way, it is interesting 

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when it talks about the plowman 
overtaking the Reaper and the 

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treader of grapes, him that 
soweth seed. 

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In other words, the idea here is
that there's going to be so much

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abundance that they they're 
going to be overlapping. 

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The time where you sow the seed 
is going to overlap from the 

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time that you're actually 
pulling out of the ground. 

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Meaning there's going to be 
tremendous abundance 

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agriculturally speaking. 
Which by the way, is something 

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that we're beginning to see 
happening right now in Israel. 

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They're the number one exporter 
of fruit in that region and, and

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actually becoming one of the 
number one exporters in the 

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world, even with war and all the
other things that are going on. 

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Look what it says in verse 14. 
It says, and I will bring again 

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the captivity of my people of 
Israel. 

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And I just got to tell you, it's
hard not to get emotional when I

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read this verse. 
I remember reading it to the 

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consul general of Israel when 
his station had just finished 

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and he was getting ready to go 
work for the foreign minister's 

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office. 
I stood before him and I read 

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this and I cried like a baby 
because God is making it come to

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pass today. 
Let me read this again, verse 

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14. 
And I will bring again the 

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captivity of my people of 
Israel, and they shall build the

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way cities and inhabit them, and
they shall plant vineyards and 

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drink the wine thereof, and they
shall also make gardens and eat 

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the fruit thereof. 
We're watching that happening 

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right now. 
And they've jumped into these 

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waste cities. 
Look at the agricultural 

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technology they have put into 
play. 

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It's amazing what they have 
done. 

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And here's my favorite, very, 
very favorite verse. 

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And I will plant them upon their
land, and they shall no more be 

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pulled up out of their land 
which I have given them, saith 

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the. 
Lord thy God, I. 

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Mean he's doing it you can talk 
all the smack you want about 

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Israel. 
You you can say whatever you 

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want you could say God's done 
with them you could you could 

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spew any kind of lie you want to
spew but God's word is God's 

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word and God's promise is real 
and Israel will never be plucked

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out of their land ever again. 
That's the promise that God. 

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Gives and why am I emotional 
about this? 

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Because if God. 
Can keep his promise. 

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To Israel. 
He can keep His promise to you 

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and me. 
If God can say Israel, this is 

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what I will do for you and keep 
His word. 

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We can trust in the salvation 
that we have. 

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The salvation that. 
Almighty God has given us. 

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Nothing is better than that, 
right? 

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We can trust God is a God that 
keeps his words. 

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He's not a liar. 
Tells the truth. 

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And guys, I'm here to tell you 
and don't forget this line. 

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That is a child of God. 
For you, get ready, the best is 

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yet to come. 
I love you. 

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Keep reading the word. 
Keep getting excited about what 

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God has to offer because His 
best. 

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Is what he wants for you. 
I love you guys, keep fighting 

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the good fight and look to him 
always.