The God Who Will Restore (2)
Notes
Transcript
The God Who Will Restore
Scripture: Joel 2:25-30
No matter where you are in life, what you have gone through, what you are currently experiencing. We serve a God who will restore!
Background:
· Joel is the pastor to Judah, a time when they are separated and divided
· He has been given the assignment to prophesy to the side of Israel called Judah
· Judah means praise
· He is prophesying to them with a word from God because they have strayed from God
o They have been disobedient to God, and as a result, they have experienced some traumatic occurrences in their life
o They have drama going on
The Drama is: That God has sent locus in, and they have chewed up and consumed everything.
· The crops have been chewed up
· The branches
· The bushes
· The cattle are dying
· And it's not just one set of locusts; when one finish, here comes another one matter of fact, if you still have your Bible’s open vs. 25 says:
o The crawling locust,
o The consuming locust,
o And the chewing locust,
o Devastation has taken place
o And it all boils down to the fact that God's people have chosen to disobey God
· Maybe you haven't noticed all the drama that's going on throughout the world is because of disobedience
o One storm after another storm
o One Virus after another virus
o One shortage after another shortage y'all remember last year about this time. They said it would be a toilet paper shortage, everybody ran out bought up the toilet paper, including me, and as a matter-of-fact truth be told, I still some of that paper from last year I bought.
o We just saw last week in the news where the hackers had hacked into the pipeline of the gas company on the East Coast should gas down from Houston to New Jersey over 5000 miles of pipeline people ran out it was buying up gas like they never have gas again.
o Issues after issues
· And anytime you read about locus in the Bible, it is a signal of God's judgment
o Exodus 10: 3-6: So, Moses and Aaron came into Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me. Or else, if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory. And they shall cover the face of the earth so that no one will be able to see the earth; and they shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field. They shall fill your houses, the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians—which neither your fathers nor your fathers’ fathers have seen since the day that they were on the earth to this day.”
o Deut. 28:42: Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.
o Amos 4, and 7 the locust devoured the crops
o And here in Joel
Joel 1:2-7 says: Hear this, you elders, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it, let your children tell their children, And their children another generation. What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. Awake, you drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. He has laid waste My vine and ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white.
· Everything has perished vs9-12: But the thing about serving God is that He always gives us another chance.
Point #1 Joel 1:13-14
· God calls for repentance and for us to cry out to the Lord
Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you who minister before the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you who minister to my God; for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. 14Consecrate a fast, call a 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.[1]
We live in a time where we see devastation taking place, and by the time they get to chapter 2:1-2, it says:
“Blow the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand:[2] A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for many successive generations.[3]
· God is saying to them that if they don’t repent, He will send an army greater than them.
· He is giving them an opportunity to repent.
Why would God give us an opportunity to repent, time after time? Go to vs18 of chapter 2.
Then the Lord will be zealous for His land and pity His people.[4]
· God gives us another chance because of His pity
o He has a feeling of sorrow and compassion
Vs19 says: The Lord will answer and say to His people, “Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, and you will be satisfied by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.[5]
· He is saying you ought to cry out to Me, and I will answer you!
· When you repent and turn around, I will answer!
· He says I will remove the reproach from you
Vs20: “But I will remove far from you the northern army and will drive him away into a barren and desolate land, with his face toward the eastern sea and his back toward the western sea; His stench will come up, and his foul odor will rise because he has done monstrous things.”[6]
· God is saying: I will take your enemies and move them far away
· I am going to remove that army and drive them to a barren land and a desolate land
o They tried to fire you… they got fired
o They wanted to hurt you, and they got hurt
o God will drive your enemy far away from you
Vs21-22: Fear not, O land; Be glad and rejoice, For the LORD has done marvelous things!
Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field; For the open pastures are springing up,
And the tree bears its fruit; The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
· God is saying to them, fear not, don’t be afraid, be glad and rejoice. The animals will be glad; I will restore the grass in the pastures, the fig trees, and the vines will give their full yield.
· God is going to do miraculous things.
Vs23-27: 23 “Be glad, O children of Zion,
and rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given the early rain for your vindication;
he has poured down for you abundant rain,
the early and the latter rain, as before.
24 “The threshing floors shall be full of grain;
the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
25 I will restore to you the years
that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
my great army, which I sent among you.
26 “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
and praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has dealt wondrously with you.
And my people shall never again be put to shame. [7]
You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
and that I am the Lord your God, and there is none else.
And my people shall never again be put to shame[8]
Point #2: God is saying, I will bless you and restore everything that the enemy has taken from you!
· Your joy is coming back
· Your dance is coming back
· Your career is coming back
· Your blessings are coming back
· Your hope is coming back
· God’s church is coming back
· Your ministry is coming back
· God will restore everything that the enemy has taken from you.
He says:
· I am going to repair it
· I will fix it
· You’ve been frustrated long enough
· No more crying
· God said this is the day and time for restoration!
The locust was considered unstoppable; they would eat up everything and destroy it.
· God said I will restore and give to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over
· God is about to restore!
· God is about to repair!
· Everything you thought you would not get back!
· Everything you thought could not be fixed!
· Everything that the enemy has taken!
God will restore!
· Everything that has been broken
· It’s about to turn around!
Vs28- 30: 28 “And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
29 Even on the male and female servants
in those days, I will pour out my Spirit.
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. [9]
[1] The New King James Version. (1982). (Joe 1:13–14). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[2] The New King James Version. (1982). (Joe 2:1). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[3] The New King James Version. (1982). (Joe 2:2). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[4] The New King James Version. (1982). (Joe 2:18). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[5] The New King James Version. (1982). (Joe 2:19). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[6] The New King James Version. (1982). (Joe 2:20). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Joe 2:23–26). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[8] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Joe 2:27). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[9] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Joe 2:28–30). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.