We Call for Repentance: Joel 2 Made Plain

We're in the Book of Joel.

You can turn there with me.

We're going through some of the minor prophets.

And again, it's not a minor prophet because it's not important.

It's a minor prophet in categorization because it's a smaller book here in the Book of Joel, we only have three chapters.

And it is somewhat of a difficult book to deal with because if we don't understand the context of all of this, we might miss the important lessons that are given to us in this book.

We saw last week, chapter one, and chapter one's all about a real locust devastation that was happening to the people of Judah because of their rebellion, because of their disobedience.

And there was a call there in chapter one for them to turn their hearts back to the Lord so that they could find this level of restoration with the Lord.

So if chapter one was something that happened that already was going about in their.

In their timeframe, chapter two is about something even more terrible that is coming.

So chapter one is something terrible to happen to them because of their disobedience.

But chapter two is about something that is to come.

And so the Locust plague was essentially a preview of a greater judgment.

And really the theme of Joel is about the day of the Lord.

What is the day of the Lord?

Well, it's a day of judgment.

It's the day that God comes to all who are in rebellion to him and judges them for that rebellion, judges them for their unbelief.

And we see this progression happening here in chapter two.

He says in verse one, blow ye the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain.

What is he saying here?

He says, hey, this is a warning.

The blowing of a trumpet was a symbol for a warning to the people that there is something that will happen if you continue doing what you're doing.

If you continue in this disobedience, there is going to be judgment.

And so Joel moves from a past disaster to now, something that's going to come in the future that's much greater.

And we see at the end of chapter of verse one, it says, for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.

So the promise to the people of Judah through the prophet Joel was that God is going to judge those that are in rebellion.

And it's coming.

You can't get out of the way of this.

It's nigh at hand, it's near to them.

And so chapter two is all about this judgment that is to come.

And we see in verse two, the.

The darkness and the gloom and the destruction that's brought about in this time of judgment.

He says, verse two, a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains, a great people and a strong there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

And so this is a description of the day of the Lord that is coming.

And Joel isn't just describing God's judgment as being something that's difficult, even though obviously there's difficulty in the judgment of God.

But it's more than that, it's terrifying.

He says there's not been anything like this before.

And this is intentional language that the Lord is using here because he's saying that there is this great judgment that's going to be coming and no one can avoid it.

It's not something that anybody wants to face.

He says in verse three, a fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth, and the land is as the Garden of Eden before them.

So this is talking about complete destruction, and behind them a desolate wilderness.

Yea, and nothing shall escape them.

The truth is, is that what Joel is explaining to them is that if there is a person found in rebellion to God, found in unbelief at the time of the day of the Lord, there is no way that they're going to be able to escape.

And when we think about the day of the Lord, or we think about the judgment of God, it's all about where we are that brings us our perspective.

So if I'm in the Lord, if.

If my faith is in the Lord, and I'm trusting in him, the day of the Lord is something that's a good thing, right?

The Lord is vindicating everything that has happened in.

In the evil of this world, in the destruction and in the rebellion.

But for someone who is walking in rebellion to God, the day of the Lord is terrifying because the reality is, is that it says at the end of verse three that nothing shall escape them.

In verse four, we.

We see that there is this army, and he describes it as this army.

Now, there's a lot of debate on what he's talking about here.

Some think he's talking about of the locust being like an army of people, but ultimately I believe this is talking about a real army that's coming to judgment.

And we.

We could talk about the interpretations here all day, but ultimately I believe that this is an historical locust.

Plague that's been described in chapter one, but now it's become a prophetic pattern, while in chapter two, it's going to be now the armies of a greater day of the Lord that is to come.

So I believe that what chapter two is describing has not happened yet.

Even though we can see some allusions to the Bible in which some of these things have happened, I believe that chapter two is still something that is going to happen in the ultimate day of the Lord that we are looking to at the end of times.

So he says in verse four, the appearance of them is as of the appearance of horses, and as.

As horsemen, so shall they run, meaning they're going to be swift.

Now, this is Joel describing what God is telling him to describe.

We ultimately know that this destruction is going to be swift, it's going to be devastating.

And that's what he's describing here.

Verse 5.

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap.

Like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble.

And as strong people set in battle array.

So what we really see here, it is a description of this destruction that's going to come in God's judgment.

And then he's going to Talk in verses 6 through 9 about the fact that nothing can stop this from happening before their face.

The people shall be much pained.

All faces shall gather blackness.

They shall run like mighty men.

They shall climb the wall like men of war.

And they shall march everyone on his own ways.

And they shall not break the ranks, neither shall one thrust another.

They shall walk everyone in his path.

And when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

And this is a description of how devastating this army will be.

Verse 9.

They shall run to and fro in the city.

They shall run up upon the hill, they shall climb up upon the houses, and they shall enter into the windows like a thief.

And so Joel describes the people's trembling, their.

Their fear of this army.

And it says that this army will move with organization.

It says they'll run like mighty men.

They shall climb the wall like men of war.

They're not going to break their ranks.

And when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

And this is speaking of the overwhelming picture of God's judgment.

And I believe that the emphasis isn't necessarily on identifying every detail of this army, but really the whole picture is that human beings are not going to be able to stop what God has appointed to come to pass in the day of the Lord.

Now you would say, why Are we learning about this?

Aren't we the ones that are saved from that?

Well, first of all, I can't assume that all of us here are believers in Jesus Christ, because by the way, belief is what's going to save us from facing the day of the Lord.

But even if tonight we were all believers in the Lord, this should spur us on to share our faith with people.

Because if we believe what the Bible actually says, that there will be people that are living on this earth that live in rebellion, that are going to face this punishment.

And this should bring us excitement, it should bring us energy, it should bring us a passion to share the word of God around us, because there's hope to this.

We're going to see here in a few moments that he actually gives the remedy to the problem of the judgment that is to come.

So we're going to see in verse 10 that there's this cosmic disturbance that's going to happen at this time.

And we know that this is prophetic because we see this throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament when it's talking about the end times.

The earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble, the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining, and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army.

So lest we think that this is some evil army coming and God is not in control of this, no, this is God's army that's coming to judge those that are in rebellion.

It says that it is his army, for his camp is very great, for he is strong that executeth his word.

For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible.

And who can abide it?

Who can live through it?

And so now we're starting to see this description of earthquakes, a darkened sun, a darkened moon, stars that are darkened or affected, and the heaven and earth actually physically trembling.

And this language appears throughout the Scriptures.

We see this in Isaiah, we see this in Ezekiel, we see this in Matthew, chapter 24, obviously in the book of Revelation.

And this is Joel giving us a description of the day of the Lord.

He's describing what the world is going to be like.

He's describing what this judgment will look like.

And now he asked this question at the end of verse 11.

And this is so this is so important.

The army ultimately belongs to God.

And so Joel asked this question.

The day of the Lord is great and very terrible.

Who can abide it?

And that's the point that he's trying to get across here.

Who can withstand God's judgment?

I. I've heard people over the years say, you know what?

I'm not afraid of God.

I don't believe that he's going to do anything to me.

You know, I'm not afraid of going to hell, if there is a hell.

I'm going to be down there partying.

I'm going to be down there and enjoy my life.

Because you know what?

I don't want this thing that God is bringing about.

Folks, nobody, if they truly understand the judgment of God, nobody wants to face the judgment of God.

And oftentimes we don't hear about the judgment of God talk talked about within churches because we do talk about the love of God and we should talk about the love of God.

But at the same time, just as God is completely loving, he's completely just and he's completely holy.

And he would be unjust by not judging those that are in rebellion and those that are in sin and those that are evil.

We, we know the classic analogy of the judge who is sitting on the bench there.

And there's this person who stands before the judge and he's guilty, he's committed a grave crime, he's maybe even killed somebody.

And the judge looks at him and, and the judge said, well, you know what?

I think he's sorry.

I don't want to go ahead and punish him.

We're just going to go let him go.

That's not a good judge.

That's a bad judge.

That's a judge that is not just.

So God is a just judge.

And so as we preach the gospel to people, as we tell people the importance of understanding God's love, we have to some degree explain to them the importance and the power and the justice of God that judgment is coming.

Now, we're not there to try to scare someone, but ultimately it is a somewhat scary event that God is going to come about and judge those who are in rebellion to him.

So what's the answer to the question, who can stand up against God's judgment?

Well, we know the answer to that.

Nobody can stand against God's judgment with human strength.

So what do we do?

What's the remedy to the people in the world that are in rebellion to God?

How if this is what's coming, everyone better just give up?

Well, no, he's going to give an answer to this.

He's going to give a remedy to this.

And this is the important part of the message because we preach judgment.

We, we preach that there's going to be the, the holy God who comes and gives his justice to the world.

But we also preach that there's grace and mercy.

Verse 12, therefore, also now saith the Lord, this is from God, turn ye even to me with all your heart.

This is what we talked about this morning, turning to God with our heart.

Joel says here, as a prophet of God, and ultimately we know that God telling his people, the way to avoid this judgment, the way to avoid the day of the Lord, is to turn our hearts over to him, to believe in him, to love him, to follow him.

And so he says here, there is this call to repentance.

And I believe that starting in verse 12, really, verse 12 all the way down to verse 17, is the.

Is the spiritual heart of this whole chapter, because it tells us really what we are all called to do within our own lives and what we're calling other people to do.

It's not about outward signs or shows of religiosity.

It's about coming with our heart.

And so verse 12, he says, therefore now saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, with fasting and with weeping and with mourning.

The idea here is this turn.

I want you to notice that word turn there.

It says, the Lord says, turn ye even to me.

This is describing biblical repentance.

Talked about this a little bit this morning in our Bible study.

Biblical repentance is not just turning away from something.

Okay?

So, for example, let's pretend that this microphone is a temptation of sin.

And, you know, every time I go to this microphone, it's a sin.

Repentance is turning away from this.

Okay?

By the way, repentance is a military term that means to retreat, to go away from and go to something.

So if I'm going north and I'm supposed to repent, I'm supposed to go south.

I'm not supposed to just stop going north.

And so what we see here is that if I was to look at this and recognize that this is bad for me and turn away, but then look back and go, well, I really want that.

That that's something that's.

I wish I could have that.

You know what?

If I could, I would.

But I know there's a lot of problems with that.

No, that's not repentance.

Complete repentance is turning away from this and turning to something.

And biblical repentance is turning to the Lord, turning our hearts to God, and turning away from that bad thing.

So it's not just about avoiding the bad thing in our life.

It's about turning.

And that's the critical point of biblical repentance.

God isn't just calling them to panic and change what you're doing, have a religious ceremony, start fasting.

He's not giving a list here in verse 12 of what you do to get saved.

That's kind of what it looks like.

Well, okay, so if I want to not face the day of the Lord and the judgment of God, I need to fast, I need to weep and I need to mourn.

Okay, so let's start a fasting, weeping and mourning ministry.

And that's how we're going to get people saved.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying that the fasting and the weeping and the mourning comes from turning our hearts to God.

But just doing those outward signs are not going.

That's not going to be enough.

It's not going to save us.

So he says it's not just about a religious ceremony.

He says, turn to me.

That's biblical repentance.

So he says here, the way to avoid the judgments of God is by embracing that I cannot save myself and turning my heart over to the Lord.

God wants genuine, inward repentance.

And that repentance is seen in faith.

Now, there's this big argument in Christian circles.

Is repentance needed for salvation or can I just have faith?

Doesn't the Bible just say I'm supposed to have faith?

Well, yes, you are saved by faith.

But that repentance is turning away from my good works.

It's turning away from thinking that I can save myself or that my church can save me.

And it's that repentance of turning to God in faith.

And so I believe they're.

They're united together to have faith.

There has to be some level of repentance to turn away from my wicked ways and turn to God.

Now, it doesn't mean that I'm going to be sinless, okay?

Because sometimes I've heard people say, well, repenting is never sinning again.

Well, obviously we're going to still deal with sin in our life.

But he says, here, turn to me.

And that will produce this fasting and weeping and mourning.

Then I want you to see what he says in verse number 13, because I believe verse 13 is where it's all about.

In this chapter, he says, and rend your heart and not your garments.

Now, why is that important?

Because part of the outward show of repentance, particularly in Bible times, is that people would tear their clothing.

You've probably even read that within certain Bible stories that there would be an individual who was repentant and he would tear his clothing and sometimes even put on sackcloth and ashes.

And there would be this outward sign of repentance.

And God's not saying that that's bad, but he says is don't just tear your clothes, rend your heart.

Because he wants our heart because you.

What can happen is that we think that maybe some outward sign can prove that I love God.

But he says, really, here it's not about tearing your clothes.

It's about giving me your heart.

So like I said, in the ancient world, tearing one's clothing was a demonstration of grief or in some cases, repentance.

And so God is saying here, don't just tear your clothes.

Don't just do a religious act, but tear your heart, rend your heart.

In other words, we could say it this way.

God is saying, don't give me an external performance when he is desiring our inward transformation.

I know that for me, and it's probably because of who I am, but I always saw the Christian life as something that was performative.

And I'm just being transparent with you here.

This evening, it was all about what I can do, what can I accomplish?

How can people see the way that I'm living and say, wow, that person is a really good person.

And what Jesus tells us in the New Testament and what we see here in the Book of Joel is that the Christian life, the life of love for the Lord is not about performance outwardly so that other people can see us.

It's about an inward transformation that does produce outward works.

But the outward works is not what change our heart.

What changes our heart is the devotion and the repentance and the love and the faith that we have in the Lord.

And so he says, rend your heart and not your garments.

We could say, well, hey, you know what?

Just go to church.

Make sure you.

You say all the right words.

Make sure everyone on the outside thinks that you're a good person.

Show your public displays of sorrow, weep.

But the fact is, is that all those things could be empty without an inward heart change.

God always wants our heart, and all those other things will follow.

You know what?

I. I believe that we will have the proper mindset, the proper humility, the proper sorrow, the proper weeping, the proper fasting, as it says here, with a heart that is turned over to God.

So.

So he says Here in verse 12, it's about turning our heart to the lord.

In verse 13, he said, it's all about allowing our heart to be broken before the Lord.

Turn unto the Lord your God again.

This is a second mention of this turning unto the Lord.

So let's say we have.

We want revival at our church.

And I agree with that.

I think revival is vital.

I think revival is vital in our churches.

I think it starts in our churches.

I think.

Actually, let me take a step back a little bit further before it starts in our churches.

It starts with the individual hearts, and then it goes to the home and then it goes to the church oftentimes.

And I'm not downplaying revival weeks, but what happens sometimes with the revival weeks is we get into a scenario where we're all coming to a service and we're all getting riled up with our emotions.

We're all kind of hearing all the things that God wants us to hear, and we make a decision that's based on maybe emotions or maybe it's based on truth.

But at the end of that week, it kind of is like we're back to square one.

We're back to where we were before, folks.

Revival is not about doing something performative.

Revival is about a broken heart that starts with repentance.

And then with that repentance comes renewal.

And in that renewal comes that sense of revival.

So.

So God wants our heart.

And so he says there twice, turn, turn your heart, turn unto me, the Lord, your God.

So if we want revival in our lives, it's turning our hearts back to Him.

And what does that mean?

What does it mean to turn my heart to Him?

It means that I'm giving over to his wants for my life.

That.

That my desires become his desires.

That it's no longer about me.

It's no longer about my feelings, it's no longer about my will.

It's no longer about my agenda.

It's about turning my life over to him and giving him everything.

And then he gives us, in verse 13, why we should do this revival is not me coming up here.

Because let's.

Let's be honest.

I could come up here tonight and tell you, and I won't pick on anyone specific.

I was about to pick on Pastor Ethan, but I'm not going to do it.

Okay?

I'll pick up myself.

If I was sitting there, I could preach to myself and say, here's all the things you have wrong in your life.

I guarantee you're not reading your Bible enough.

I guarantee you you're not praying enough.

And all of us can kind of be like, well, yeah, I guess I'm not reading my Bible enough, you know?

Well, the truth is, okay, for example, let's say you're like, I'm really reading my Bible a lot, Pastor Josh.

I think I'm right where I need to be.

Well, how long.

How long are you reading your Bible for?

Every day I read my Bible for one hour a day.

I think all of us would say that's pretty impressive.

That's good.

Why aren't you reading it two hours a day?

Well, because I got this.

Well, you know what?

I think you should be reading it.

See, you see how that guilt can be placed upon our life?

And we could say, well, yeah, just not a good person.

Revival is not about being beat up about our failures, because the reality is, is that all of us fall short of what we should be in our life because we're humans we struggle with.

So what revival is, is not just feeling sorrowful about how bad we are, even though there's a level of repentance in our life, but it's recognizing who we are in the sight of God's holiness.

And that's what we see here in this passage, folks.

You want to know what it means to be holy?

Well, look at the Lord.

He says here in verse 13, turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

So.

So what do.

What do we see here?

We see that the way that we can properly understand the change in our life is by looking to the Lord, looking at his standard, and saying, I have not met that.

So my heart wants to be more and more like Him.

That's what he's saying here.

So.

So it's not about coming up and saying, got to be like Pastor Josh, because no one should match their Christianity off me right there.

I can live as an example before you, but at the end of the day, I'm not the ultimate standard of righteousness.

God's the ultimate standard of righteousness.

So what does he say here?

He says, look at who the Lord is.

Look at who you are in your rebellion and fall down before him in great need of his grace and his mercy and his patience and his kindness and his.

And repenteth him of the evil.

Turn to him.

I don't need any of you coming to me and saying, pastor Josh, I need to confess to you all of my sins, okay?

Now, if you sinned against me and you want to confess that, hey, the door is always open, but you don't have to come to me, okay?

Because I'm not the judge.

What it says here is that we have to go before the Lord, it's getting our life right with him.

And so we notice the reason why God calls us to repent here.

It's not that maybe God will be merciful, it's that God is merciful.

It's not maybe God is gracious.

No, he is completely gracious.

He's completely slow to anger.

He's completely in this loving kindness.

And therefore repentance is possible because of God's character, because we look to Him.

He's the one that enables us to come back to him in repentance.

And so that's really the idea that God is calling these people here in this passage to do.

And I believe that's what God is calling us to do within our own lives.

I think that there is.

Obviously, there's a lot of manipulation that can happen within Christian circles.

So.

So what can we do?

What we can do is we can look at the Scriptures and we can say, look, it's not about performing.

All of us here tonight can somewhat put up a performance to look a certain way.

Like, I've been around church long enough to know what to say, when to say it, how to look to make sure that everyone thinks that I'm okay.

But what I'm going to say to you here this evening is, you can act in front of me, you can act in front of the church, you can even act in front of your family.

But really, God knows your heart and you can't fool him.

You can't avoid what he sees in your life.

And that used to scare me.

I used to have a preacher come up in our chapel, and he's like, God sees you in every moment of your life.

He sees what you're doing.

He knows what you're thinking.

And I used to sit there and going, oh, man, it was terrifying for me that God would know what I was thinking yesterday.

That's the same thing.

When it goes back to the day of the Lord.

Those that are in rebellion to God, that's a fearful thing, that God sees everything.

The fact that God sees all of my sin, that's like a painful, like burdensome thing.

But if I'm walking in the Lord and I've turned it all over to him, it's a beautiful thing to know that God sees everything because he sees me in my brokenness.

He sees me in my need.

He sees me as.

And guess what?

He still loves me.

I love my family for many reasons.

One, because they are my family.

But another reason why I love my family is they've seen me at my best.

And they see me at my worst and they still love me.

They're still there.

And I'm like, I can't believe that they're still there and they still love me.

That's the beautiful thing, that God, in a most perfect way, knows everything that we've ever done, but yet he still loves us.

And the truth is that if many of us were honest, the fact that God has seen everything makes us pretty unlovable.

But at the end of the day, that God loves us is such a reason why we must turn to him for this salvation.

We must turn to him in repentance.

We must turn to him for revival.

So verse 13, I want you to think about that verse this week.

I truly want you to identify ways in your life, and I'm going to do this in my own way that I can rend my heart before God.

How can I allow my heart to be broken in such a way that God can use that?

If I'm hard hearted against the things of God, if I'm hard hearted against loving my neighbor, if I'm hard hearted against the word of God, then I'm never going to turn to Him.

But he says, rend your heart and not your garments.

Now he's not saying, hey, don't do outward signs of repentance.

What he's saying is, don't do outward signs of repentance and not have a changed heart.

And that's really the challenge that he gives us.

In this chapter, verse 14, he says, who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him, even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?

Jo Joel.

Joel isn't suggesting that God is fickle and he's back and forth, but he's emphasizing humility.

Judah cannot just take for granted the blessings that God is giving them.

They have to come before him dependent upon his mercy.

And we see that over and over again in Scripture, that we must understand the desperation that we have for his blessings in our life, his grace in our life.

And that's where we come to a place of revival.

So again in verse 15, he says, blow the trumpet in Zion, warn them, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly.

So there's nothing wrong with coming together and identifying these things.

So, so don't get me wrong.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't come together and corporately call for revival, because that's exactly what's happening here.

But we have to understand that revival doesn't start with somebody else.

And we just hope that we catch on with it.

It's revival starts with me.

And that's exactly what we see happening here.

Joel starts to go about this, and he says that we need to come together and have this assembly.

And we see in verse 15:16 says, Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and those that suck the breast, and let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet.

So he says, call everyone.

Let the priests and the ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them.

Wherefore should they say among the people, where is their God?

You say, what is.

What is he talking about here?

Well, he's saying, you.

You need to bring everyone together in this community to be unified before the Lord in this decision.

This is a decision that we have to make.

This isn't just going to happen on accident.

This isn't going to just happen in a day where we go, oh, we're accidentally all on the same page.

We're accidentally all on fire for God.

No, this is a conscious decision.

This is an intentional decision for individuals and the community and the church to come together to make a decision, to say, you know what?

We need this.

We need this revival.

So he says, call everyone, call the children, call the babies, call the bridegroom, call the bride out of what they're doing.

Wake up where you're at right now, wherever you are right now, come together and.

And make a decision to follow God.

Make a decision to submit yourselves to him.

Verse 17, he talks about the priest interceding.

He says, you know, the leaders have to do this.

The priests are told to stand between the porch and the altar and pray, pray for the people.

Their prayers were all about sparing the people from the judgment.

And I think that's an important thing to understand, is that it starts with leadership, but it goes everywhere.

Israel's condition isn't just about Israel.

It affects the reputation of the Lord.

That's what we see at the end of verse 17.

The whole culmination of this is not just so that they could avoid judgment.

The whole culmination of us leading people to Christ is not just so that they all go to heaven, even though that's a result of it.

So if we went out to the Middletown community and preached the gospel and a thousand people got saved, that's a great day.

That's an exciting day.

That's a day that we should all celebrate.

And we would say, why are we so excited?

Well, a thousand people are going to be going to heaven today.

We know that now.

We know that because they've stamped their.

Their sealed with the Holy Spirit.

They're.

They're good and we're excited.

And I'm not downplaying that part of it.

I'm saying that that's a good thing.

We should be excited when other people are going to heaven, but we also should be excited that God is going to get the glory for doing this right?

It always points back to the work of God.

Because if I go out and I say, hey, look, and I know sometimes you'll hear people say this, and I know what they mean, but like, hey, look, brother, so and so went out and saved 20 people today as he was visiting.

You know, that person saved nobody.

That was just a message that was brought about as a vessel, as a messenger of God.

It is God who does the saving.

That's his business.

So at the end of verse 17, he says, wherefore should they say among the people, where is their God?

The whole theme of this is that the way that Israel reacts or repents or disobeys is indicating the reputation of God's name among all the other nations.

So the way that we respond to the preaching of God's word is a testimony to people around us.

That's what this is saying.

So the world is looking at the church and they have a lot of opinions.

You know, all you got to do is get on the Internet and see what people think about people at church.

Well, they're a bunch of hypocrites.

They're a bunch of, you know, thieves.

They're a bunch of manipulators.

And let me tell you, there are hypocrites, thieves and manipulators within churches.

We get that.

We understand that.

And I don't blame them for thinking that, because that might be all they know.

But the way that we respond to the preaching of God's word is a testimony to those that are in the world.

Because if we say that God is loving, but we're not loving, if we say, hey, we should trust in God, he's trustworthy, but we're not trusting.

That shows people that we're not serious.

God is not something real to us, that it would change us.

So the way that we affect the people of this world as a testimony for God is that we point everything back to him and we say, you know what?

What we say, we believe.

And what we believe we do.

And that's the understanding here in verse 17, that the way that they respond to this is going to be an indication to the heathen out there in the world who God truly is.

Is he real, is he powerful?

And we're going to see that, that God is a God who is concerned about the way that we respond to His Word.

And so the Levites are supposed to pray for the sparing of the people for judgment.

And I think that we should pray for the people in our community better.

And rebellion to God, that's a hard thing to do.

For me, it's easy for me to pray for people that I love, people that are in my family, people that are within my church.

But you give me someone who doesn't believe what I believe, it's very hard for me to have compassion on them because I'm like, well, you know what?

It's their decision, it's their rebellion.

God's going to judge them.

But really the biblical response should be, yes, God will judge them, but, but I should have enough compassion to share the word with them and pray for their soul, to pray for the fact that they will come to Christ.

You know, we talked about Romans 13, about how we deal with government.

And I'm, I, so I listen to all my sermons, I go back and listen to my sermons and for good or for bad, and then sometimes it's painful to go back and listen to all the sermons, but I was listening to the sermon about Romans 13 and about the government.

I'm like, man, there's probably some government official that's watching this video and they're very upset about me preaching that we shouldn't worship government, that we should worship God.

But, but one of the things that I thought about is maybe I should have said this more.

But I think personally, now if you guys don't like this, you can, you can take it up with me later.

I think we should be praying for government officials who are against our policies.

You know, I, I, we look at people and I know that I, I know it probably riled some people up, but there are people that I don't agree with politically and I actually don't agree with morally.

And I think that they're very much in rebellion to God.

But what would be right for me to do is pray that God gets a hold of their heart and maybe pray that someone can bring the gospel to them.

There's actually a ministry in Washington, D.C. that churches can support to have people go into the offices of congressmen and congresswomen.

And senators and give them the gospel on both sides of the aisle.

And folks, I'm going to tell you that there are a lot of people in, in Washington, D.C. that need Jesus Christ, okay?

And.

And I think we can all at least say Amen to that.

So this isn't a political message, okay?

It never should be.

But what it is is that I think we should be praying for those in this world that need Jesus instead of saying, I hope that God brings down all the judgment upon them.

The reality is, is we should be praying for them now.

We should understand that there's vindication in the fact that the day of the Lord is coming.

I think that there are some people, maybe you struggle with this, that it looks like that person's getting away with this evil.

No, they're.

They're not believers in the Lord, and it looks like they're getting away with it.

I'm going to tell you that there's no one, no one that's ever walked this earth that has lived in rebellion to God that will get away with it.

And that's something that we have to understand.

We know that our God is just.

We know that one day God is going to make all things right as he is making all things right now.

And that's what Joel Chapter two is all about, that this day of the Lord is coming.

But instead of looking out and saying, well, when is this day of the Lord coming?

Is it coming next year?

Is it coming tomorrow?

What are we supposed to do?

He very clearly tells us it's not just about worrying about the darkness and worrying about the earthquakes and worrying about this army and worrying about all the judgment.

He says the very simple way to deal with all of this that is to come is come in verses 12 and 13 with a heart of repentance to get right with God right now.

It's not about tomorrow.

I'll get it right tomorrow.

I remember as a teenager, I would be sitting in these church services and I would hear the preacher preaching.

And I'm going to confess to you something that I would say, okay?

I would say, and I don't have to confess this to you, but I'm going to tell you this.

I would say when I'm.

When I'm out of high school, okay?

I just want to enjoy my high school years.

When I graduate, that's when I'll turn my life over to Christ and I'll completely give it all over to Him.

And I always had an excuse.

Next year, next year, next year.

And then I got to Be in college.

And then it was like, well, when I get married, you know, there was always an excuse to put off what God was calling me to do.

Folks, there's.

Oh, you could always find an excuse to put off what God is speaking to you about right now.

Don't put it off.

Tomorrow's not guaranteed.

And what does he say here?

He starts out with chapter two, with a blow the trumpet.

Now, I. I think a while back, we had the shofar that I got from Israel, and Nora blew it up here in front of the church, or maybe she didn't.

I can't remember.

But there.

There.

There's the shofar.

And I think about that shofar, you know, being blown, warning the people, judgment is coming.

Be ready.

And I think that that's what we have to do within our own circle.

We have to say, hey, guys, the time is at hand to get busy about the things of God.

I think all of us know what it means to play church.

You know what I mean by playing church.

You know, I can come in, I can do my thing.

I can make sure all the appearances are good, and I can just sit and play church.

Folks, I think that we all can look out in the world and see that it's time to stop playing church.

We need to get busy about things because things are getting real around us.

The freedoms that we have within our country, the religious liberties that we have in our country are not guaranteed.

And, folks, think about all the freedoms that we have right now to go out and preach the word.

There's no one coming and trying to stop us here.

Let's be busy about it now, because tomorrow it might not be so free.

And I'm not saying that means we stop preaching, but I just mean that we need to take advantage of the opportunities that we have right now.

Let's.

Let's be vigilant.

Let's be stewards of the blessings that God has given us.

And so let's wake up.

Let's revive our hearts to the Lord.

So if you can take anything with you here this evening.

And starts out with verse one, blow the trumpet.

And then verse 15, he says, blow the trumpet.

There's a warning here.

Verses 12 and 13.

Turn your heart to the Lord with fasting, with weeping, with mourning.

Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God.

This isn't a message for people that are living in open rebellion to God, you know, struggling with drugs and alcohol, even though this could be a message for those types of people.

I know I'm speaking to a Sunday night church who is in some way desiring the Lord, who would be considered to be faithful church people.

So you say, well, what do you think of us, Pastor?

You think we're turn?

No, I think all of us to some degree need to turn our hearts to the Lord.

All of us have to come to a place and say, you know what, I was good today, but maybe I'm not good tomorrow.

Maybe I was committed to God today, but I'm not committed to him in this.

I don't know about you guys, but for me I just think that we need to redeem the time because the days are evil.

And Joel, chapter two is all about using the opportunity now to get right with God so that we can affect as many people as we possibly can in the time that we have.

You know, we never know how much time we have.

Tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us.

I look around and I see a lot of young people in the church.

I see a lot of people in that middle aged area.

I see a lot of people that, as the Bible calls it, are, well, mature in their years.

It's a good thing, okay?

It's a good thing that we have variety.

And so sometimes we'll look at someone who's been in a church for 50, 60 years and say, well, you know what, you know, maybe, maybe they've done most of their ministry, you know, in the past.

But I'm going to tell you that if you have tomorrow, you have breath, there's an opportunity.

And that's the same thing goes for the young people.

Young people, we look at a young person's life and we assume they're going to have all these years ahead of them.

But we never know.

We never know what's going to happen.

We never know what God's timetable is.

So what I would encourage us all to do is think about what can I do now to have my heart rend before God, torn before God, open before God so that he can use me to see these great things come to pass.

And we'll come back next week and we'll finish chapter two.

There's these great things from the Lord that he is going to bring about in this day of judgment.

And then we see a famous passage of the Holy Spirit.

There's a prophecy of the Holy Spirit that's going to be poured out upon God's people.

And we know that in the book of Acts, Peter alludes to this very chapter about the Holy Spirit being poured out.

And that's exciting to see.

And we'll study that a little bit more next week and then we'll look at chapter three, judgment on Israel's Enemies.

Because this, this book does talk about a restoration of, of the nation of Israel.

And we'll talk a little bit more about how that fits into the end time perspective within our, our belief system.

But, but Joel is an important book.

And if you want to take a couple themes with it, just take the theme of, number one, the day of the Lord, the certainty and the, and the complete and utter destruction that comes with the day of the Lord, the judgment of God.

And then number two, the fact that there's hope, the fact that there's salvation offered.

And that's Joel 2:12 and 13, that there is this hope that we can turn to him and find salvation.

And I hope that's something that you can celebrate in your own life, but then also use as a fuel to share with other people around you.

You know, I, I was so excited this morning to hear, and I don't want to share too much, but there was one individual that got up this morning and a while ago I had a conversation with, with them and you know, it was like, I'm not sure if this is something that I want in my life.

I'm not 100% given over.

And just to see that God can take the, the insecurities and the doubts and just remove them.

And that's an amazing thing to see like that God is a God of clarity.

He's a God of understanding.

And if you're struggling with some things in your life, you're not sure.

Don't, don't, don't doubt him.

Go to him.

He's the one thing that we can trust in in our life.

A person might fail you, a church might fail you, but at the end of the day, God never fails.

And I encourage you to think about that because I'm, I'm excited about God's work.

What if, let's say, let's be, let's dream right now.

Let's just, let's dream.

What if every single Sunday we had people getting baptized?

What if every single Sunday we had people joining the church?

You say that's impossible.

Well, look back at the time of the Book of Acts, okay?

They were adding people daily to the church.

5000 One day say that's a mega church.

Well, praise God.

If we had 5,000 come up, we're not going to turn them down.

We're going to have to build a new building or have multiple services.

Folks that the same God that was working in the Book of Acts is the same God that's working today.

The same Gospel that changed hearts back 2000 years ago is the same God that changes hearts today.

He's the.

It's the same power that changed your heart.

You might have gotten saved when you were 5 years old or 50 years old, but it changed your heart.

And think about that same power that rose Jesus from the dead is the same power that's living within us.

And that's exciting for me.

And I think that we should get excited about the things of God.

And so the end, the Judgment day, the day of the Lord's not something that we should fear.

It's something that should spur us to serve God in the time that we have.

Some people ask, how long do you think we have?

I have no idea.

But I can tell you one thing.

I can tell you one thing for sure, okay?

And I can stand on this.

We are closer today than we were yesterday, Okay?

I can tell you that now, and I can be confident in that.

But what I would say is that let's not waste our time.

Let's be busy about the things of God.

And so come on back.

We're going to study the Book of Joel.

We're going to finish the Book of Joel, Lord willing, if.

Unless the Lord stops us.

And then we're going to get to a book called the Book of Amos.

Now, the, the minor prophets are.

It's a big chunk.

It's a big bite.

We got to get into it.

And I don't want to rush through these things.

I want us to understand these to the best of our ability because I know sometimes it's easy to go through the New Testament and we need to go through the New Testament.

But these Bible says all scripture is given by the inspiration of God.

And we need these passages.

This, this strengthens us.

This bolsters our faith.

When we understand the Old Testament perspective, the New Testament perspective, we.

It helps us understand when, when Peter says he quotes the Book of Joel, you would never know that he was quoting the Book of Joel unless you understood that it's there in the Book of Joel.

So it's not a matter of one's more important than the other.

They strengthen each other.

And we're going to see that as we go through these minor prophets.

And I hope it'll be encouraging for you as we do it.