Joel 1

Or in chapter 1 the day of the Lord and are the first thing that we want to talk about is this plague? I mean that obviously receives the central focus our attention for the Book of Joel and in order to convey the intensity notice how it says verses 2 and 3 hear this you all doors and give you your all you and have it into the land has anything like this happened before or even in the days of your father's like in time past tell it to your child. Tell your children about it and let your children tell their children. So this is something so significant that it's something that you should tell your children and their children and it and it's like in are they something big happens? And we all star talk about it. Did you hear about this? Did you hear about that? And what is there a significant event that you can think of that we did that and we kept on talking about it and we keep on talking about it from time to time to this day. Is there anything that you can think? That has been that big that has impacted us. Okay, 911 would be you know a pretty big example there. anything else now this kind of gives you an idea of the level of the intensity of this plague. It's it's up there where you know, that's what comes to mind just like 911 comes to mind. So, you know, we'd have to think to get some some other events that were pretty big but this is how big this is have you heard about this Locust plague tell it to your children and let your children tell it to their children. So this is something from one generation to the next that is supposed to be brought up and expressed in order to bring out a certain response from those who hear about it until the plague is described in verse for what the chewing Locust has left. The swarming Locust has eaten with the swarming Locust has left the crawling Locust has eaten and what the quote crawling Locust has left the consuming Locust has eaten now, I'm people want to talk about these locusts and what these locusts I mean, we're there were they really locusts or where they different kind of locusts or the same time. August Moon in different stages or maybe some of your Summers and did you have locusts in your version there or did I caterpillar you might have a caterpillar A Bug's Life caterpillar in your version? Probably we don't probably don't have too many different versions yet, but I'm a caterpillar. We don't know exactly what these were Locust is the most common transition translation and then some people will take this that it wasn't really locusts at all. But it was just kind of symbolic of an invading Army which I do think we make us a switch to in Chapter 2, but I think I hear that the closest to be taken literally were talking about this Locust plague that has come now the leg is playing comes in four ways. It's not just you know, you have these locusts and they coming to eat the whole lot what you have, you know, the Locust plague comes and it devours the land and then there's probably a delay or a little bit of time and then another wave comes through and eats more. What was left and then there's a little bit of a delay of time and then the third wave comes through and then the 4th wave comes through and by then the whole land is devastated. So are you guys at once and that's bad you get hit twice and that's even worse you guys hit three times and it's like when is this is this going to end and you hate the fourth time and your rock to the spare basically and you know, Wait, what kind of face that I mean we use the phrase when it rains it pours, right? And I kind of conveys what's happening here. But the first time something happens, that's bad. Well the second time something happens. We think we can anything else go wrong, right the third time. It's when it rains it pours and the fourth time is what is going on here. I'm about to die and I can't take any more of this. And so this is the kind of the one two three four hits that they're taken and then not only doesn't like Hannah to this Locust plague but a little further down notice. It uses another animal. Find my verses 5 through 7, maybe somebody can spot it and use a nut uses another animal to describe this plague or the intensity of the play. Anybody see the animal there that's used. Do I have a lion? Yes, The Lion and the teeth of the line. So I suppose the Locust the Locust comes across eats all of the vegetation, right? But the lion comes with its teeth and it sinks its fangs into the meat. So we're talking about animals. Which is actually going to be brought up a little bit later and and just threw up, you know the idea of teeth biting ripping tearing and that that that's how you know what things I've come against us can feel sometimes like we're being torn apart and then the line of course, it just says the king of the beasts just instill fear. And so this is like a never-ending I never ending play and as these plagues have come on we see the response of three different groups. You have the drinkers first as the first group you have the priests as the second group and you have the farmers as the third group. So we're going to have in this chapter. The plagues comes and then we see what happens or the impact upon these three different group groups the drinkers the priests and the farmers know it has for the first group The drunkards and the drinkers you say that in verse 5 does awake you drunkards and weep and wail all you drinkers of wine because of the new one end and I think the word drunk drunkard being put their use there is a little bit of a of a misdirection of what is actually being conveyed here and I think when it comes down and parallel to the second phrase you drinkers of wine, so so really it's not about getting drunk is as much as it it's it's about there's no worrying left. It's not to bring service to the drunkard are the one who drinks wine. It's about it's about it's about this plague before the plague. There was plenty to drink and now after the plague there is nothing left to drink and that's really where the emphasis Falls on. Before we had, you know enough to drink in excess and that's probably why the word drunkard is in there again, that's not really the emphasis emphasis is that it's all gone. They've they've a wiped out all of the vines. It's all been destroyed and we're going to be short on having things to drink likewise. You have the priest now, how are the priests impacted by this? Well, they're the ones that offer the worship to God and part of the worship of God. Is this Free Will grain and wine or drink offerings these Free Will offering so you had prescribed offerings that you were to make as a worshipper of God, you know to atone for your sins and so on and so forth, but you also had these grain or drink offerings that you brought as a free will offering and and so because there's no more grain and again because the vine has been destroyed there is the inability to bring forth any kind of offering The fact that a lot of the sacrifices had to do, you know what the point of the fat of of the you know, they are loyal of the all of the olive oil fat that's gone. The grain offerings down the drink offerings are gone. And so before the people could worship, but now all that's gone. There's you can't bring a grain offering any more you just can't do it. And then of course you have the third group the farmers and the farmers the crops have perished so you can see a list and verse verses 11 and 12 season list of how the farmers have been impacted does the weight of the body. That's all gone. The vine is dried up that's gone to Fig Tree the pomegranate the palm tree the Apple all the trees of the field have withered and said all of the cops are basically destroyed in this is how it has impacted the farmer. So these are the three groups and really meant to kind of describe, you know, just the overarching life. Are the people of Israel your sustenance in the farmer is destroyed. Your worship has been impacted and the the joy that you had in having plenty that's gone. and I'm this was different for them. So this is it. It's be like Asuna and I think we we live in the time where we just have plenty to all of a sudden another play comes through and you go from I have plenty to have nothing and that would be a shock culture shock for all of us. I think in many ways. So this is this is what's happening. And I think we have a like including verse and verse 12 at the end of verse 12 and I have the slide up here just to bring out that last part of hers 12 and here it is surely Joy has weathered away from the sons of men The Joy has withered away like what? Like all that other stuff. So when the when the plague comes not only do you lose all of these things not only do you use to you lose the ability to I mean, look when hard times hit we lose our ability to enjoy the things around us. We get the screws get depressed. We don't feel like worshiping God or when we do it's you know, it's really hard to do it and you know our livelihood like the farmer can be impacted by what has happened to us. If it's a Health crisis or a relational crisis or just whatever it might be and this is the worldly way in this is this is where life if it's impacted in that way leaves people with not only loss of the things but joy being withered from the heart being drawn out and taken away and I think we've all experienced that to some degree. And and so this is the lost this is the trouble of the play and the loss of joy is in the end. So the response how do we respond? To this now brings us to our second point. Verses 13 and 14 and back if you're going to lose if you lose Joy your joy is gone. What what is kind of a natural? finger follows the loss of joy Call yes, you cry, right so I says Jorge yourselves and lamantin your priests were around you to minister before the Elder come and lie all night. So this is a cry in the morning to Sackhoff and Ashes type of thing where you left take off the festive clothes and you put on to the rough clothes and lay on the ground and you throw up the ashes and over your head. We all do that right don't practice in our daily, you know, literally like that, but it said again that the idea of the attitude of just why should I even try and just kind of fall down and and you know, throw the ashes over your head. So this is that this is the beginning of really being humbled I'm bringing a person to the point where they do what they should do. And that is to call upon the Lord. That's the proper response. So come lie all night in Bacliff using minister to God for the grain offering in the drink offering our with it with health and House of God and and and then he makes a little bit of a turn here first. There is the individual repentance and humility and coming before God but and and we probably have practice in that but this next part is where I think we don't have too much practice on and this is really far as to the responsibility or the initiation by the you know, the priest of the religious leaders or the pastor of whoever you wanted to say is it's where you moved from the individual lamenting over his sins to let's all come together. We need to pray about this so hers 14th concert. Play the fast call sacred assembly gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord and I think we see here that morning should not be an individual thing. It should not stop at that. It is something that the whole church should come together since that, you know today we start talking about some of the purposes of the church in this is on my heart for a long time. But one of the persons of the churches that we come together in hard times and we uphold and support one another and if we need to we all cry to the Lord together over a thing that we do that partly when we come on Sunday nights, although it's not this intense, you know fasting and a sacred assembly. This is you know, what a separated assembly assembly that is set apart of specially for this task, you know, the elders are coming together and so I'm Crying out to the Lord and say this is a a real important part of our repentance and turning to the Lord. We cry out to the Lord through morning and Waylon, and I know I was talking about rejoicing today right this morning, but there is a time to weep as well and weeping doesn't mean that we have cast off, you know, the Lord or anything like that there there's a proper place for crying and mourning and and being Afflicted even as we fall upon the Lord and depend upon him. So the two don't have to be mutually exclusive and I know it's really hard but we don't have to separate the two they they can they can be together and we cried to God we fast is a corporate worship. We call a sacred assembly and there's an important that happens when we come together as a body of Believers and we worship God to get That is so important and so having a church and I mean all through my Christian Life. I would hear people going off and starting their own churches in their houses. And I'm not opposed to that. However, a church does not consist of just a family. I mean you have a family unit and the the family is supposed to worship worship God together, but a church consist of those who have been called to be the elders in the leaders of the church. If you do not have a called minister in your church, you do not have a church. So there's you you have the individual and we as individuals we need the family and as families, we need the church and as a church, we are the body of Christ and all those levels of of you know places or however, you want to call it those, you know, the individual and the family and the church and and the Lord all of those are important each and every one of them. So we are to fall in the Lord and To Pray by ourselves, but we're also to come together in a sacred assembly and there was something magnificent that God does when we join together in his name. What is the third Point here? There's a an interlude or an exclamation found a verse 15 alas. You know, what an exclamation exclamation is, right? Oh my oh no, hooray, you know all those are exclamation. So we have kind of a drawn-out exclamation in verse 14. Hello last for the day of the Lord his own hand it shall come as destruction from the almighty that that's kind of the interjection that accept the practice come everybody in the morning. There's all of this that this, you know repentance in humility in sackcloth and Ashes going on the sacred assembly and then and then behold the day of the Lord it has come. It comes as destruction from the almighty. So this is this is I don't know if this is a world where this is a hurry and you know, maybe for the people of God it might be her a but at the same time, you know might be a way to but the point is that the Lord is coming and ready or not. You know where it comes.

And then he goes on into the next section here the last part and there was there's more destruction as we come to the end of the chapter but notice that it was 19 and end. This is where there goes this constant. Hope in the Lord so is not verse 16 is not the food cut off her before I joined by his friend house of the Lord, but then he comes down verse 19 says oh Lord to you. I cry out to you. I cry out for all of these things happened first 20 the Beast of the field also cry out to you. It's only see everything in the midst of their destruction. They look up towards God and to him they cry out now here I have to just kind of bring this around 2 something that the world accuses Christians up the world accuses Christians of using God as our Krutch. I don't know if you've ever heard that you just believe in God because he helps you or you got is your crotch or something along those lines. And and I remember our first as a new Christian is kind of reacting to that and you know, just trying to defend I'm not using God as my crutch and and and I kind of went up and thought along those lines because you know their ideas. Well, you're not strong enough. You can't make it on your own you got to turn to God and you know, it's just you're just a weak sort of person and I reacted to that right? As I Grew in the Lord and just come to understand the foolishness and futility of the accusation and it's got a stronger than I've got a smarter than me and I've got to work all things out only a fool would not turn to him and and trust in him and I mean you're the foolish one you think you can make it on your own good that's working out for you and so we don't we don't need to be concerned with that kind of an accusation towards us or a criticism about Christianity that God is my crutch yes God is my crotch can I got to crutches and I got a wheelchair and Dodgers all around me and he's carrying me through this thing so, you know if you got a problem with that then and if you think that's the only thing that God is doing for me while we can talk more about that too so we don't have to worry about it we see it here in the midst of all of this the cry goes up to the to God and that is right and that is fitting And that is appropriate the call-up to go up to God when we find ourselves hip and even though we're not hit we should always I mean part of the reason this is all going on because they have forgotten the Lord but we should always turn to the Lord in the good and the bad. We we lift up our voice to him to worship him and to follow him our Salvation is from God. We cannot do anything about it or salvation, you know Eternal salvation, but also our Salvation in life comes only from God. He is the only one that can do it for us some this is a real hard message, but it's a good message an important message rest and if I could focus on one thing it is the need for us and verse 14 like in 14 to come together as an assembly of Believers to cry out to the Lord together and I want to see that increase in in our church in the coming year. We had that one weekend of prayer and fasting I'm hoping that we can do that. Maybe once a quarter as we go through this new year and I'd like to see our Sunday night times maybe change and be dynamic as far as doing different things where we can cry out to the Lord together and come together and pray and and not just this one dimensional if you will, you know, what are your prayer request is pray for these things and kind of have a more Dynamic prayer time on Sunday nights. So we come together in order to cry out to God. We should any thoughts or questions or comments. adult after 1

armyworms

Coming through everything.

everything

steel mills in Pittsburgh

Frenchie dog

Kiersey or something?

ditch

it was a big he was doing.

Well, I guess that's nasty.

Yeah. Yeah. I know that Locust plagues where I don't know if they're still are coming over and you know, the the Middle East are in that part of the world North Africa and so on and I forget the dynamic of what it takes for a play, you know this swarm of locusts to come through but it happens not to this degree in me. Like I said here it's described in for waves. So you have like four right one, right after another of different kind of locusts that eat different kinds of things about the Enders like nothing left, but I would be kind of the extreme example, but even to this day you can help people experience these plagues of locusts. And wild Clay's, you know, it's a swarm of locusts a concern you got to take cover and not nearly as devastating as this but yeah, I never heard of the army worms. But all right good. Thank you any other comments Daniel.

Yeah.

Yen in Ultimate sense you have the the the door for the Wilderness of the size of sin, you know, there's no worship of God because of sin but then Christ has taken care of that but even more than that not on such a grand the grand scale you have our own periods of of a dryness, you know with respect to to the Lord where the Locust plague comes in as if that's why I related to, you know, the trouble that we face in life that it can even impact our our relationship to God. I mean, I mean how many times have you not gone to church because something hard was happening in your life. I mean don't answer that but it happens, you know, people will stay away because something hard is happening in her life when in fact a lot of times you're having a hard time with the place you need to be is in church not because anybody is going to necessarily Yeah directly minister to your particular need but because this is the place tourists to to experience the grace of God in life. And and so, you know, we have to make sure that we don't avoid the sacred assembly the coming together the body of Believers for the grace of God to be poured out upon us and so we can experience, you know, his presence in our lives and and this is a part of it. So as an individual we need our families and as families, we need the church as the church. We are the body of Christ and all of those those levels are important parts of our living as people. Under God through Christ here on this Earth You cannot do if you're if you're lacking in one of those things you are lacking in your life in some way. And is in an inescapable Sarah, so that's important. So that what Daniel said is, you know, we could apply to our Salvation and then what I've been talking about applies to us, as you know, Christians already know like there's relax when people have got here.

Log Cabin Yeah. Yeah.

Are there a few years ago was the stink bugs right? Cuz they were going through the apple orchards and they were turning the apples into all kinds of weird looking rude, you know, it's like down a second out the the juice from them and I remember people bringing me apples from you know around where they were these apples were just Dried and look like they have warts all over them and because of the stink bug and remember how many stink bugs we had there for a while. It was pretty bad. The Chinese were taking over for the stink bugs the same app with the connection was with some people are making that connection. But anyway something there's something else right if it's not the army worms than for the stink bugs now got this mop to worry about is going to come through. Yeah. I remember we grew tomatoes and all the sudden we had these big green where was about this big when they come from go to Tomato my backyard. We never had these green were caterpillars and I've sent here they were eating my tomatoes. How does it how rude and tests are always a problem. I need anything else.

All right for prayer requests. We want to remember a lot of people are sick.

So let's pray for one another.

Okay.