Sermon: "Turning to God With All Your Heart" from Joel 1:1-2:17 | God's Restoration

well I invite you to open your Bible at the book of Joel I have never preached a series on the book of Joel before but last year towards the end of the year I camped for about a month on this Old Testament book in my own prayer times and times of reading the Bible God used it in my own life and my prayer is that he will use it in yours as well the first thing to say about the book of Joel is that it is a book full of hope the key word is really restore which is why I've chosen the title God says in chapter 2 and verse 25 I will restore to you the year years that the locusts have eaten and we'll see today how locusts figure very much in this story but the heart of the story is that God makes this great promise that he will restore what has been lost and that's why the title is restored how God can give back what you have lost now recognize that this may be a book that is unfamiliar to many of us and so I want to give a quick overview of the first half of the book today so that we have a sense of where we are and what the message is and then in the later part of the message I want to focus in on the particular call that's before us today to turn to God with all of our hearts so if you have the Bible open in front of you Joel and chapter 1 up to verse 18 is really all about the day of the locusts and the call to lament the word of the Lord comes to this man Joel the son of pethau we don't know very much about Joel at all in fact we don't know anything about him except for the name of his father we don't know when he lived we don't know particularly the location in which he spoke but what matters is that the word of the Lord came to him and God's Word speaks to every time and to every place God spoke to Joel as you will see here because of an unprecedented disaster that had come to the promised land verse 2 has such a thing HAP has happened in your day or in the days of your father's something had happened and the like of it had never been seen before among the people of God in fact it was so unusual that Joel goes on to say this is something that you'll tell to your children and they'll tell it to their children and it will even go to your great-grandchildren because nothing like this has ever happened before and you say well what was it well verse 4 tells us what the cutting locust left the swarming locust has eaten what the swarming locust left the hopping locust has eaten and what the hopping locusts left the destroying locust has eaten now the Lukas was an insect two to three inches long rather like the grasshopper but as you may know when they came in swarms they could be devastating obviously chemicals make some difference today but there is still even today can concern in the nation of Madagascar about the possible effects of a locust invasion and what Joel describes here is a locust epidemic on an absolutely extraordinary scale just to give you a little bit of a feel as to what we're talking about here let me quote to you from National Geographic magazine an article describing a locust invasion written quite some years ago but National Geographic carried this report at the end of February great clouds of locusts began flying into the land from a northeasterly direction they came in enormous numbers settling in the fields and on the hillsides where they laid their eggs in vast numbers it was calculated that some 60,000 insects could come from the eggs planted in 39 square inches of soil so a little hole producing 60,000 of these things within a matter of just a few weeks once hatched the new broods started crawling across the ground at a rate of 400 to 600 feet per day devouring every scrap of vegetation in their path now a picture a field of corn with its broad green leaves and swelling cobs and now picture a vast army of insects and they're just moving line by line through these plants and whatever they have gone and they've chewed through the plants all that is left is simply a a whitened and now dead stock that's kind of like a stump coming out of the ground everything else is gone you're seeing the brown of the earth and so forth and so on the at 200 yards a day so they're moving at a speed where you can almost see the field disappearing if you just sat there for a few hours and watched the the green is receding before your very eyes and the next day they're going to move on to the next field and when the earth is exposed what do they do they're going to dig a little hole about six inches squared and they're going to lay 60 thousand eggs in every one of these holes and a few weeks later out of these holes another army of these insects moving forward moving forward the next field can you picture in your mind what this is on an epidemic scale picture in your mind the map of Illinois and Indiana and IO and Kansas and picture in your mind the miles and miles and miles of cornfields that are represented by that vast area can you picture in your mind align moving across the map as as the devastation is is is traced from one state into another the devastation of the breadbasket of the world that's what Joelle is describing here and what had happened in of all places the promised land now you notice in verse four that Joel describes these insects in four ways he talks here about the cutting locust the swarming locust the hopping locust and the destroying locust discussion about what is the distinction is this different varieties of these insects that Joel was referring to or perhaps different stages in the lifecycle of these insects in my mind as I've read various comments on this I I'm settled in my own mind that what's being referred to here is four consecutive years of locust plagues and the reason that I'm drawn to that is because the great promise in the book is I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten and so it seems that this devastation went on for a period of years perhaps a period of four years harvest after harvest after harvest after harvest fails until everything in the land is completely devastated and and look at what has happened after it seems these four years of devastation for the land verse 10 the fields are destroyed the ground mourns because the grain is destroyed and of course the wine dries up in the oil languishes not only is the land completely devastated but look at what it's meant for the animals verse 18 how the beasts groan the herds of the cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them just scorched earth really even the flocks of sheep suffer and for the people verse 12 pomegranate palm and apple all the trees of the field are dried up and gladness dries up from the children of men there isn't a happy person to be found because trying to eke out an existence after the fourth year of this kind of devastation is absolutely miserable and even the Lord Himself is touched by this loss do you notice verse 7 God has spoken about this happening in his land he speaks of how the locust has laid waste my vine this is God speaking and splintered my fig tree the vine that's been laid waste it's God's vine the fig tree that's been splintered is is God's own fig tree the promised land throughout the Old Testament is especially spoken of as God's land it it belongs to him which is why the land was always on leasehold rather than on a freehold kind of a basis and because the land belonged to the Lord the firstfruits of the land were always to be brought to him as an offering but how can the firstfruits of the land be brought to the first as an offering there can be no grain offering if there is no grain and that's the point of verse 9 the grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord and the priests mourn and the ministers of the Lord so Joel is describing a real historical event we do not have the date or the precise location within the promised land of which he speaks but he brings to us the word of the Lord that comes into disaster on an astonishing scale and we need this book in the Bible because around the world the people of God needs to know how to respond to disaster how do you respond to disaster not just this one which we're not experiencing but any disaster anytime anyplace you only need to pause a moment and you say now wait a minute Joel speaking exactly into our world today what do you do how do you respond to the Christian when you see war and violence sweeping think of the image of these lookers moving across the field and destroying it sweeping across the Middle East how do you respond what are we to do when an invasion of drugs sweeps across our country picture it moving across the geography of the United States devastating not plants but the lives of people what are we to do when a wave of shallowness and of unfaithfulness sweeps across the church in the land like a plague of locusts stripping faith of its vibrancy and stripping Christian life from any costly obedience the answer is right here in Joel and you'll see it in in verse 13 it's it's the call to lament that's the single word verse 13 put on sackcloth he says to the people of God and lament Oh priests wail or ministers of the altar go past the night in sackcloth Oh ministers of my god earlier in the summer I had the opportunity of attending the free church conference in New Orleans there were many many good things in the conference and one of them was a lecture by Professor McGarry who teaches at Trinity here and he was speaking on the Psalms of lament there are a large group of Psalms in the book in the Bible that are described as laments that's really what they they do and he began by pointing out that there is a massive change you don't need me to be saying this there is a massive change that is going on in our culture godlessness is sweeping across our land just like the plague of locusts swept across the land in Joel's day and professor McGarry said you know Christian people want to do something about this and they're frustrated because they don't know what to do and he said here's the problem Christian people today don't know how to lament it's not part of our world and McGarry said this he had a whole room of posture sitting in front of him and he said to us as pastors he said we the pastors need to learn how to lament and then we need to teach the people of God to do the same now that is exactly do you see that is exactly what Joel says here it has to begin with the ministers put on sackcloth and blow mint or priests wail or ministers of the old then it extends into another circle are you following me here verse 14 the the next circle is those who are most spiritually mature he refers to the elders consecrate a fast call a solemn assembly gather the elders so here are now people who are vocationally employed in the work of leading worship and ministering the word and they're learning to lament and around them is a circle of elders spiritually mature people and they're learning to lament and then it begins to spread throughout all of the people of God gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land all of God's people to the house of the Lord your God so I'm asking this question of you as I've asked it of of myself what do we know about lamenting in a culture where everything is geared to the feel-good experience it is very difficult for churches to lament so what happens is because we want to feel good about our experience of being in a worship service for an hour what happens is the church has to turn a blind eye to the real needs of the world public prayer gets reduced to thanking God for all the wonderful blessings that are in our lives people go out the door with a profound sense that somehow the realities of the world in which we live have been completely and utterly missed when do God's people cry out to him for mercy on our land because friends if we don't do it who else will nobody else will when do you cry out to God for mercy on our land the church is a place for people who want to become serious about following Jesus and Jesus wept over Jerusalem he knew what it was to lament and if we want to be like him and to be his people we need to learn this to our friends we're just reading off what's in the Bible this is what we always try to do here but we dare not simply speak about these things we must do them and earlier the summer I spoke about the depth of our praying it came out of a deep conviction that I believe the Lord laid on my own heart I mentioned that this fall we would be establishing a regular gathering for prayer at every campus of the orchard and that starts this week on the first week of every month is going to be a gathering for prayer at each campus at Arlington Heights at Itasca at Marengo it's going to be on the first Wednesday of the month at Barrington it's going to be the first Thursday of the month Joel says verse 14 gather the elders gather all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord folks we have a chance to do this at each of the campuses on Wednesday and Thursday night of this week we'll have time to pray about particular campus needs but we're we wanting to follow through on what the Word of God says to us the church and to seek to enter into what Joel is teaching us here and to learn something more about interceding for the world that's what chapter 1 is really all about here it's about the day of the locust and the call to lament then from there what happens in the book is that Joel moves from one picture to another and begins to speak to us about the day of the Lord and the call to repent do you notice from chapter 1 and verse 19 we have a new in a very very different picture verse 19 he says to you or Lord I call for fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness and flame has burned all the trees of the field now the locusts eat the vegetation they consumed it they obviously did not burn it and so quite clearly when he brings in fire now he's moved to another picture he's talking about something else altogether but in some way these two pictures that almost like her a hologram moving from the one to the other in some way they are connected and in this second picture he's now speaking about chapter 2 in verse 1 the day of the Lord he says the day of the Lord is coming and it is near and having described this vast army of insects that has completely devastated the land by eating the vegetation julno describes a vast army moving into the land he's speaking of something yet to come and this army is like the plague of locusts in this way in that it sweeps across the land only this army is burning everything that is in its path the earth is scorched verse 3 fire devours before them and behind them a flame burns you see how these pictures are connected then in an astonishing turn around some of you will remember that Isaiah the prophet spoke of how God would make the wilderness like the Garden of Eden Isaiah says let me tell you there's a day coming when the Garden of Eden will be made like a wilderness you see that in verse 3 land is like the Garden of Eden before them so you look out you see is beautiful beautiful garden this there's earthly paradise vegetation and hills and and then there's army comes and what's left after is moved over that same ground is nothing but a wilderness and nothing escapes them the effect of this army on the people is sheer terror verse 6 before them the peoples that are in anguish and all faces grow pale and there's not just the people who are terrified on the day of the Lord verse 10 the earth quakes before them the heavens tremble the Sun and the moon are darkened and the stars withdraw their shining this is one of many descriptions in the Bible of what is consistently called the day of the Lord the day when the armies of God himself bring about the final judgment in which God Himself deals with all human sin and having brought the earth through this Cataclysm in which it melts as Peter says with fervent heat a new heaven and a new earth is created and it will be the home of righteousness and having made the description you'll see in verse 11 that Joelle states quite clearly that this is the army of the Lord that he's talking about and it is the great day of the Lord that he's describing he says the Lord utters his voice before his army for his camp is exceedingly great and he who executes his word is powerful for the day of the Lord is great and it is very awesome and who can endure it the obvious answer is no one you know Jules saying to folks from their own experience how helpless you are before a plague of insects not more than three inches long how helpless do you think you're going to be when you stand before the judgment of Almighty God himself so the devastation of the locusts leads to a call to lament and now this prophecy of the day of the Lord that is to come the day of judgment to which the Bible consistently points leads Joelle to a call to repent verse 12 yet even now declares the Lord return to me with all your heart friends every disaster brings with it a call to repent remember that and to knit into your Christian thinking about the world in which we live every disaster brings with it a call to return to God some of you will remember you can check this out in Luke's Gospel in chapter 13 but Luke records an occasion when some people who were listening to Jesus told him about an unspeakable atrocity that had happened sometime in their area Herod who was a wicked King had launched an attack on some people his own people while they were actually in the act of worship they were offering sacrifices Luke 13 verse 1 they say to Jesus now Pilate mingled the blood of these people with their sacrifices it was an unspeakable atrocity how could a ruler possibly do such a thing to his own people and of course you realize immediately that that is exactly the question that is on everybody's mind today as we see the awful evidence of a gas attack on man and women and children in Syria how could such an atrocity take place and what should be done about it and as Christian people we owe it to those who we call to lead us to pray for them that God would grant wisdom in the burden of such decisions but I want to point out to you that when these people brought this unspeakable atrocities Jesus I wondered if you remember what Jesus said when everybody's mind was taken up with an unspeakable atrocity of Herod mingling the blood of Galileans with their own sacrifices it is one of the most astonishing things that our Savior ever said I tell you unless you repent you will all likewise perish can you imagine the stunned silence when he said your heart is rightly moved as you lament this evil have you thought about the reality of a day of judgement that is yet to come every disaster brings with it a call to lament and a call to repent for all of God's people and in these last minutes let me just make these very brief observations about our repentance so that you can carry these things forward who should repent all of God's people the entire community of God's people verse 15 the congregation the elders the children the very young the newly married the about to be married there is not a single one of us who does not need to hear the call of God to return to him in a fresh way today it's so easy for us as Christian people to get complacent in the idea that all the nation needs to repent and how self-righteous we can send when we say it repentance begins in the house of God and it begins with the people of God friends we will not see a repenting nation until we see a repentant Church we will not see a repenting nation until we see a repentant Church and repentance and faith are like two sides of the same coin those who believe repent and those who repent believe and how can we repent well notice how wonderfully Joel lays this out here he gives us no less than five reasons for repenting what are they he says return to the Lord your God for he is gracious that means he won't treat you as you deserve to be treated and he's merciful which means that he has pity and his compassion and he knows your struggle and he slow to anger the day of judgment will come but it has not come yet and for Christ's sake God is ready to be reconciled to all who will come to him in true repentance and he's abounding in steadfast love he will not turn you away he will welcome you and he will receive all who humble themselves and come in the name of his son and wonderfully repent because he relents over disaster you know people don't repent because someone tells them what they're doing is wrong people repent when they begin to see that God is good that God is good and joel has raised this awful question who can endure the day of the Lord and the Old Testament really never answers that question but then you come into the New Testament and you find that one man did one man did injured all that was involved in the pouring out of everything that's in the day of judgment and he did it on behalf of all who would come to him in faith and in repentance and that man's name was Jesus he was God in the flesh God with us God acting for us God in Christ reconciling us to himself and through Jesus Christ he's as to all of us today there's mercy and there's grace and there is steadfast love for you return to me with all your heart and when should we do it even now declares the Lord return to me now at the height of your trouble now in your struggle with sin now in your own sense of feeling unworthy to come even now turn to me with all your heart says the Lord O God deliver us from being shallow Christians who care little about the suffering of the world teach us what it is to lament and to cry out to you for your mercy and grant to us Father wisdom to know that this world has a limited number of days and that we live in the light of eternity and a day of judgment is coming and help us we pray more fully to embrace Christ in faith and in all that is meant by repentance and to walk with Him so that as he stood in the day of judgment for us so we may on his merit stand on that day through grace alone and by Christ alone in his name we pray

Channel: Unlocking the Bible

Views: 30,688

Rating: 4.632184 out of 5

Keywords: unlocking the bible, what does the bible say, learn the bible, sermon on joel 1, sermon on joel 2, turning to God with all of your heart, how to receive restoration from God, sermon on restoration, sermon series on the book of Joel, restoration in the bible, god will restore your wasted years, i will restore what the locust has eaten, meaning of restoration in the bible, god restoring what the locusts have eaten, god's restoration, the book of joel, sermons on the book of joel

Id: F4YLrM6MeHQ

Length: 34min 43sec (2083 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 02 2013