Thank you for taking the time to listen to one of the recent sermons preached at Wilton Baptist Church. It is our desire as a church to strive together in building a faith, family, and future that honors and glorifies our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If we can be a help to you in any way, please visit our website at wiltonbaptistchurch.com. Thank you for that good song today. Joel chapter 3 in your Bible. Joel, Old Testament. One of the minor prophets, because it's just a short book, doesn't mean it's less important, and we're gonna study this book over the next several Sunday mornings. Lord willing, you'll be here to learn from the prophet Joel, and I'm glad you're here this morning. Now, a lot of people are hurting today because of this shooter in Las Vegas, and so be praying for people there. Find out why does stuff like this happen. And it all goes back to our sin nature. And Adam and Eve in the garden, it all goes back to original sin. And so encourage people with the Bible truth that you know to help them with that. And we live in a day of choices, just like was so beautifully sung, we're all at a crossroads. Every day we make choices that impact us and impact other people. I'd like to introduce you to this Valley of Decision. It's a passage in Joel, and it's speaking about a day when God does the deciding. And we live in a time where we have more choices than ever, more liberty and freedom than ever before in the history of the world. At the same time, sin is praised, good works many times are laughed at, and people are encouraged to do whatever they want to do. We have more sinful options than ever before. With incredible blessings, even things like transportation and medicines to help and internet to surf and money to spend, sometimes those can be even enablers of pursuing more evil and more wrong. Last week we had Chaplain Lance that was with us, Hoan Streets, and he shared a story with us at lunchtime one of those days about a young man who had enlisted, and he grew up in a church much like ours with parents who loved Jesus. They would go to services, and he knew the Lord at a young age. And one day, he decided he would enlist. He got into the army, I believe, and it was one of those nights with one of his new army buddies that he went out on the town. He had never been out on the town before like that. They coaxed him into drinking that day. He had never had a drop of alcohol to that point in his life. The next morning, he woke up in a jail cell with a blood-stained shirt. He had no idea what had happened. That night, in the midst of his drinking, first time ever having alcohol, a fight broke out in that bar room, and he stabbed a man. And he stabbed that man, who then later on died. And now, at the age of 19, because of one decision, he is sentenced to the rest of his life in prison. We make decisions, some that may seem small, but ultimately they are large decisions. We all make meaningful decisions each and every day. I'll take you through these verses, we'll read them, and this is the place, the location there that you see on the screen where this valley of decision is located. Joel 3 introduces us to this in verse 12. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. For there will I set to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, get you down, for the press is full, the fats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. Just as we make decisions, God has made a decision, and it will be evident in this valley called the Valley of Decision. Now, by the time Joel is writing this passage of Scripture, Judah has lived in prosperity for quite some time. The kingdom had already been divided to the northern and the southern kingdom, and at the same rate, Judah was still blessed during that time. And they had prosperity, and they had money, and they had a rather wealthy and a good nation that they were living in, one that you could say was blessed. But there was a time when they started to even move away, like the Northern Kingdom, move away from Jehovah God. They started to follow after their false gods. They started to worship items and things and stuff instead of the one true God. And here we find that Joel is giving them a message. Now, aren't we the same way? This is true for humanity. We become very complacent because we have a lot of stuff. We get very complacent because we have a lot of prosperity, and we have a lot of opportunity still today, and we can be very, very complacent. That's what has happened in Judah and in Jerusalem. Now, I think the name Joel is just an amazing name, and Joel is actually two names of God combined together. It's a compound name. You have J-O, which stands for Jehovah or Yahweh, and then you have L, you may have heard People use the names of God, El Shaddai or El Elohim, things like that. So that's actually a name for God as well. So when he was named, they named him Yahweh is God. A combined name of the names of God. Now, Joel does not speak about the northern kingdoms of Israel. He speaks primarily to Jerusalem and the nation of Judah. And while he was writing this incredible, what's called a minor prophecy, but it has major teaching in it, by the way. It's called minor because it's a short book, it's a small book. It was written during the early years of King Jehoash, who at the time was seven years of age. The priest helped him lead, and they were serving him and helping him administrate the kingdom. And there are specific prophecies in chapter 1 and chapter 2, things that actually take place in the day of Joel. They also picture something that would happen in a future tense. And so it's very much a prophetic, a future tense type book. The specific prophecies include drought and pestilence, locusts. All of this was a result of sin. It was part of a judgment of God on the people. We can call it a foreshadowing. Bible scholars would call it a foreshadowing of things to come. Now let's look at the pictures on the screen here. This is where the Battle of Armageddon will take place. This is called Megiddo. Megiddo is a little town. They call it a tel in Hebrew speaking, so a tel or a town. And this was uncovered. This is actually where Magado is, the town of Magado. You walk up a hillside, and you can keep going up to the top. And remember Old Testament stories about the city gate? Here's an Old Testament-era city gate. And in behind this wall is another like cove on each side, and soldiers would stand there. If they got past the first guards, these guys would jump out. It's really interesting to walk around and look at that. So we walked up to the rest of the top of Magado, And here's the town on top. And it would have had houses and things built out of brick on top. Let's go back a little bit. I went too fast there. Then when you look out towards the west, you have the Mediterranean way off in the distance, kind of overcast there. So let's take a little bit closer look. This is the actual valley. This is the valley of Megiddo. The Bible talks about the Battle of Armageddon taking place at the place called Megiddo. And so this is the Valley of Decision. This is where thousands of years ago and hundreds of years ago before Christ, Joel was talking about the Valley of Decision. This is the place. Now look in Revelation 14, if you would, And today we're going to understand that the day of the Lord is going to be the worst day in human history. And we're speaking about the tribulation time. The tribulation time. I encourage you to freely submit to Christ now, or one day you will forcibly be bowing down to the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll show you those verses at the end of the message today. Revelation chapter 14, verse 14. And I looked, and behold, a white cloud. And upon the cloud one sat, like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap, for the time is come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven, also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire, and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God." Like a squashing, a crushing experience. And the winepress was trodden without the city. The blood came out of the winepress even into the horse bridles by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. So you talk about the height of a horse's bridle. That's pretty deep. That's pretty deep. length of this. So we have the depth and also we have the length of this blood bath, if you would, that Revelation is speaking of, and also that Joel is going to tell us about as well. In the Scripture, there are two main themes when it comes to prophecy. There's the day of Christ, which is rejoicing in heaven. The rapture takes place, there's the marriage supper of the Lamb, we rejoice, we're with the Lord Jesus Christ, we get to serve Him, we get to be with Him, we have our brand new bodies with no sin and no pain and no sickness. That's a great time. That's a joyful time, a time of celebration. And then there's the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is a time of sadness and sorrow and much pain and suffering and also much death. It's a sad day. While the day of Christ happens in heaven, the day of the Lord takes place here. on this earth. And that's the day that we're studying in the book of Joel. Joel mentions it several times, even in the text that we started out with this morning. Now, in this valley of decision, God is deciding, not man. Man, to that point, future tense, whenever that happens, man has already made his decision. And God has already decided, here's what's going to happen, because you're opposing me and actively working against me, here's what will take place. Isaiah 34, verses 1-8, if you want to jot down some notes, here's some references, you can read them later. And we may look at them in the coming weeks. Isaiah 34, verses 1-8, refers to this battle, this great battle, as the battle that the Lord hath sacrificed in Basra. He describes it as a great slaughter in the land of Endumia. Endumia is the land of Edom. And have you heard of Basra in the Middle East? Basra, the land or the city of Basra? That was the capital of Edom, or Eddumiah. That's Isaiah 34. In Isaiah 63, verses 1-6, we also get a picture of this final conflict of this battle, and this valley of decision is called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, because of some things that Jehoshaphat, the king, had done there. And then in chapter 3 of Joel, where we're at, we have this picture, this image once again, it's called the Valley of Decision. The Valley of Decision. When we put all these locations together, we find that this battle of Armageddon, this war of all wars, if you would, begins in the plain of Esdraelion, or Megiddo, where we just showed you the pictures. It goes down through the Valley of Jehoshaphat, through Jerusalem, and then on to Edom to the south. So here's a map of Israel, and I think you can see that pretty good. Here is the valley or the plain of Estrelaeon, and so the valley's up here and up down here, all through this area, kind of a lighter color, kind of a lighter color. That's the location, and that's the furlongs that we just were speaking about, from top to bottom, north to south. Here's the area where it all begins, the plain of Estrellion, and then check out the depth of this. That's the extent of it. And all of that is gonna be filled with the blood of men. You say, wow, I came to church today, I wanted to be encouraged and helped. Hey, this is one of the most dreadful things we could ever talk about. because there are going to be millions and millions of people who get any type of armament and things they can shoot, throw, hurl missiles, whatever you can get, and they will be gathering at this place in Megiddo. But when you think about all the armies of the earth, because that's what the Bible tells us in Zechariah 14, verse 2, that all the armies of the earth are going to gather there. This is a massive thing. You could think about staging. A staging area would be the entire nation. They're in their tanks, they're in their airplanes, their helicopters, you have the artillery, you have all the soldiers, foot soldiers. I mean, anything you could think of. This is a tragic time in Earth's history. When you put all this together, And when you do the measurements, a furlong is 220 yards or about an eighth of a mile. If you do the math for that, it adds up to 200 plus miles. Estriol currently stretches 263 miles from north to south. And so God is giving us this image and this description so that we can know how terrible this day of the Lord is on this earth. Zechariah 14, three, four, I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle. The city shall be taken, the houses rifled. They've come to destroy Jerusalem in particular, and that's when God shows up and the battle of Armageddon then takes place. Now the day of the Lord, begins with, it's the trigger event for that, is the rapture. And then you have the false prophet, the beast, and the antichrist. They start to set up and do their thing. That would be a study for another day. But just know this today, the day of the Lord will be the worst day ever in human history. We should freely submit to God today. If you've never trusted Christ, be saved today. If you're a Christian, have a good attitude about the Lord Jesus Christ and do something with the gospel. Do something in the work of the Lord, because this is a terrible and a tragic day. Now, by the time we get through chapter 1, we'll find the devastation events in Joel's day. There were things that happened in his day, and things also, it's a foreshadow of things that would happen. Chapter 2, there's a warning for the future day of the Lord. Chapter 3, there's the only hope that's described, and that's in chapter 3. So, let's make some notes and look through this incredible passage. Let's go back to chapter 1 of the book of Joel. Joel chapter 1, here's a description of the devastation. The description of the devastation. Verse 1 through verse 12. Notice how this is a distinctive day. the word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Bethuel. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children and their children another generation." Four generations are impacted in that verse by the events that are happening. And God is telling Joel, Joel is talking to the old men that were living there in Jerusalem, and said, have you ever seen a day like this? And there was a day of devastation that they were going through, that he was prophesying they were about to go through, and that they actually did go through. There was no point. No day like that to that point in history in Jerusalem. Now, you and I have different experiences that we go through and have gone through already that maybe our children have not yet gone through. If you are here today and you are over the age of 76, thank God for you. You are alive during Pearl Harbor. I've always heard about it. You know how I know about it? People told me about it. We passed down the information. God is telling Joel, you need to be talking about this day. There's been no day ever like this in the history of Judah and Jerusalem. Now, we have some young people here that we tell about 9-11-2001. They weren't even alive. They have no idea. We talk about terrorists. They're like, what's a terrorist? We talk about towers falling down. They have no clue unless we tell them what took place. That's the same thing that Joel was telling these people. We need to talk about these things. I've lived through a hurricane before, blizzards, even small earthquakes. Those are things that have happened perhaps in your life, and they're meaningful events that you can tell to other people. So that's why it's happening here. God wants us to teach our kids. We should teach them how to respond in times like that. how to react, how to behave, what to expect, how to think and process, how to respond to disaster, how to manage our money or our resources in times of distress, how to resolve relationships, and ultimately, how to love Jesus. These are things that our kids look to us to in times when, well, we've never had anything like that happen before. We should learn from it and teach our kids during those times. It's a very distinctive day. It was a destructive day. Verse 4, that which the palmer worm hath left or left hath the locust eaten, and that which the locust hath left hath the canker worm eaten, and that which the canker worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten." Alright, what's this talking about? A lot of destruction. There are four varieties of locusts that Joel lists here in this verse. The Hebrew words mean this, first shearer, then swarmer, then a lapper, then a devourer. Locusts have all kinds of varieties. There are 80 varieties of locusts. There are four specific ones that are listed here in this text. Locust swarms, they commonly number in the millions. sometimes billions. And each succeeding group of locusts eats whatever is left by the previous invasion. That's the picture that we're getting here. God says, here's what's going to happen. These locusts are going to come, they'll eat, some more locusts will come, they'll eat, some more locusts will come, they'll eat, and then another wave of locusts will come, and they'll eat any little bit that is left. Now here's a picture of a locust just for you who want to see what one looks like. Did it load up on it? Let's see what we got here. Is it coming? No, it's not coming up. It should be the next one. Let me tell you about the Rocky Mountain locust swarms that hit the United States in the 1800s. The 1800s. This is difficult for us to grasp. Listen to this. Western settlers tell us in different book accounts that you can find that the locusts, there were so many of them, they were blocking out the sun. Laura Ingalls Wilder. You remember that name? You've heard that name before? Okay, she wrote this. The cloud was hailing grasshoppers. The cloud was grasshoppers. Their bodies hid the sun and made darkness. Their thin large wings gleamed and glittered. The rasping whirling of their wings filled the whole air and they hit the ground and the house with the noise of a hailstorm. Within a span of just a few hours, locust swarms could blow in and devour everything a farmer had. Listen to this. Total consumption. fabric, clothing. Farmers tried in vain. They used fires, metal scoops covered with tar or molasses, but it was just catastrophic. The locusts soon scoured the fields of crops, the leaves of the trees, every blade of grass, the wool off the sheep, the harnesses off the horses, the leather harnesses, the paint off of wagons, and the handles off of pitchforks. There were some hungry locusts back then. These locusts that God is telling us about consume everything that's consumable. They take it all. In 1875, the largest swarm in recorded history over the Midwest, about almost 200,000 square miles was how many locusts. They consume that area. For reference size, the state of California covers almost 164,000 square miles. That's how much devastation these creatures have done in the past. They say that they're extinct today, but God says there's gonna be some more locusts. At least those Rocky Mountain variety, they say, are extinct. Notice then, verse five, what happens. There's nothing left to eat. There's nothing left to eat. all the produce, if you would, verse 5, awake ye drunkards and weep. Why would they be drinking in such devastation? Why do people drink to get rid of their problems or to think they're getting rid of it, to not think about what is happening in my life? Notice, awake and weep, and how, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation, and this is a word nation, it has to do with these locusts again. For a nation has come up upon my land strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath laid waste my vine waste, and barked my fig tree, he hath made it clean bare. and cast it away. The branches thereof are made white." And so here we have this drinking day, if you would. The locusts have destroyed anything edible and all the vines and the grapes and there's nothing to drink. And there's nothing really then to eat. By the way, drunkenness, there's one of those locusts. Drunkenness is the only sin, drinking is the only sin found or listed in the book of Joel. the only one out of all of the potential ones somebody could list. Just a few weeks ago, the NFL football season kicked off and alcohol consumption increased 30% in just one day. That's the United States that we're living in today. And so a day of drunkenness is a day of dying. a day of dying. Remember, this is the tribulation, the day of the Lord. Such a terrible time. Verse eight is a picture for us to consider. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for her husband, the husband of her youth. Folks, if you read that, you just think, oh, she lost her husband. They didn't have time to consummate the marriage. It was that fast. They got married. He was dead before their honeymoon. Sudden destruction. was coming upon them, a vast destruction. Now, there's a triad, a traditional triad of major catastrophes listed throughout scriptures. There's pestilence, sword, and famine. The fact that given a choice of one of these, David chose pestilence, some people say, well, maybe he chose pestilence because it's the least damaging or destructive of all the other ones, the sword and the famine. That's very possible. If pestilence comes, you know that it's something that God sends. I think it may have had something to do with that. So, the other two. Lamentations gives a preference of the scale of suffering towards famine, describing famine as being even more devastating than war or the sword. That's in Lamentations 4, verse 9. So, this would indicate to us, and a lot of Hebrew people and people who study the Old Testament would say that famine is perhaps the greatest evil of all. And in the next few verses, by the time we get to the end of the chapter, we see that this triad of major catastrophes are being unleashed. Now, all three are specified. Pestilence, chapter 1, verses 1-12. Famine, 17-19. And the sword, then, is described more in chapter 3. This is a terrible day. It's a depressing day. Look at verse 9. The meat offering and a drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord. The priest, the Lord's ministers mourn. So they had nothing to give. They couldn't take grain, they couldn't take animals, they couldn't even squeeze out some grape juice and take a drink offering. They couldn't do any of those things. The field is wasted. the land mourneth, the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ashamed, O ye husbandmen, how, O ye vinedressers, for the weeds and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished, the vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth, the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field are withered, because joy is withered away from the sons of men." Here are some men that are giving up. It's a depressing day. The joy is withered away. Joy means cheerfulness. Specifically, it has to do with rejoicing. They said there's nothing to be joyful about. This is such a terrible time. Even if their ball team would win, they wouldn't be happy about it. I mean, we're talking about major suffering. There was no hope during this time. No hope in sight. A person in a tribulation has no hope. And they have no reason to live in many ways. That's why if you study the Bible further, many people hide themselves and run to the mountains and hide. And many people will actually take their own life because the devastation is so terrible. Such a tragic time in human history. Everyone will be suffering. The description of devastation, the response of devastation then is in verses 13 and 14. And we need to learn from these verses. Gird yourselves and lament. Here's Joel's solution to these people before the pestilence and famine was coming, because that was a part of God's judgment on Judah. He says, gird yourselves and lament, ye priests, how ye ministers of the altar come, lie all night in sackcloth. Ye ministers of my God, for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord." Job tells the people how to respond in their day, and it's something that we should learn from and apply in our lives today as well. He says, "...gird yourselves." It means to gird like a belt. Sometimes they would gird on their armor around them. It means to put on. Get dressed to meet with God. Gird yourselves. Get ready to meet with God. And then he describes lamenting and howling, which we could use the term repenting because that's what's illustrated in this passage. So they had nothing else to give. They had no money, they had no oil, no wine, no grape juice, they had no sacrifices, no grain they could give as an offering to the Lord, nothing else. So God says, I want you to come and I want you to repent, to lament, to weep and to cry. Lament means to tear the hair, to beat the breast. I've never cried that hard, I don't know about you. We don't know what it is to cry that hard. Lament, to tear the hair. To howl, means to howl with a wailing tone, to yell with a boisterous tone, to be howling. To lie then, all night. To lie means to stop in one place. What he's saying is, you put your sackcloth on, and you stay still, you remain in one place, and you cry out to the Lord. Put all this together, stay in one place, stop everything else in your life, and repent with sackcloth that demonstrates humility. In other words, just give your whole self to God. Give your whole self to the Lord. You see, they had nothing else to give. they had to give themselves. By the way, isn't this true in the Christian life? Sometimes we, I'm not talking about salvation, I'm talking about people who already saved. Thank God for your salvation. What does God want from me now? He wants you to be a living sacrifice. He wants you to give your life to Him. That's a daily proposition. Today, Lord, this is the day you've given to me, I give it back to you. This is something that God wants from us on a daily basis. Sometimes, however, we throw money at our personal service. We give. give the obligation to give the gospel to other people, but the fact is, it's all of us to give the gospel. It's all of us to partner with missionaries. It's all of us to share Jesus with those around us. We don't pay people to do that in our place. Now missionaries go to places we may not go, but we still give the gospel where we are at. And so we too give ourselves to the Lord. Now at salvation, Jesus gave himself to you. Aren't you glad for that, the gift of salvation? Christ now dwells within you. At salvation, he gave himself to you. When it comes to dedication, you're giving yourself back to God. That's your service. That's the daily sacrifice that God would have from us. I heard a preacher say just a couple days ago that in America today, that Muslim people are winning 14 people to Islam for every one person that we lead to Jesus Christ. Fourteen to one. Let me tell you something, they're serious about what they're doing. We need to be more serious. They're motivated for what they're doing. We should be more motivated. When you look at this day of the Lord and this devastation, it's not to discourage us, Christian friend. We're not going to be here. Thank God for that. You don't go through the wrath. You don't go through that. But in the meantime, with whatever time we have left on this earth, we should give out the gospel today. Notice he goes on, he says, sanctify, call, and gather. Set aside means, or to sanctify means to set aside. To set aside a time, a specific time to meet with God. Then they called people to join them. Come on in, we're going to meet with God. We're going to repent ourselves, but we're going to meet corporately with the Lord. Gather in one place at the time that you set aside to meet the people or meet with the people that you called. That's what they were doing. Today we do something very similar. We call that church. We call it a church service. We have a set time, we call people, hey, come on in, this is the time we want to meet with the Lord. As a church, we meet on a regular basis. In this passage, these people had rebelled against God for so long, God was preparing to judge them. They had run after false gods, they had erected false idols, they started to give their lives, their kids, their families over to pagan-type things and idolatry, and God said, there's judgment coming, now's the time to turn back. before it's too late. You see, it would be better to stay with God than to run away to begin with. Sometimes people need to return to the Lord. Aren't you glad that God always accepts you? He always will accept you back. I don't know where you're at in your Christian life. Maybe you need to come back to God and say, Lord, I repent. I've been living for myself. I've been putting up these false idols. There have been things more important than serving you. And you can get that right with the Lord today, and he'll have you come back. Thank God for that. I think about our revival meeting we have annually. It's a time of refreshment because we're repenting, we're renewing our walk with the Lord. Don't miss revival meetings. Do everything you can to be at those because they are what's happening in this passage. It's a good example right here that we follow on an annual basis as well. Notice how they're crying. It means to shriek from anguish or danger. to cry out like that, to cause to be proclaimed, and they're crying unto the Lord. Their collective cry is to our God. Now, prayer is needed in everyday life as well. Tonight, in our message, we'll talk about prayer and look at the model prayer that Jesus gives in the Sermon on the Mount. Notice the description, the response, all this devastation, now the future devastation. Verses 15, through the end of the chapter. Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes? Yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God. The term meat there has to do with food, so we don't have any food, there's no joy, there's no gladness, none of those things. The seed is rotten under their claws. The garners are laid desolate. The barns are broken down for the corn is withered. How do the beasts grow when the herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pastor? Yea, the flocks of the sheep are made desolate. O Lord, to Thee will I cry, for the fire hath devoured the pastors of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. Joel was saying this is what happened and what will happen and it happened in their day. Now the future day of the Lord is pictured in what we just read. Much of Bible prophecy can be understood like one mountain. And we have mountains over in Vermont, and you can get close to those mountains, and then realize if you go up on one mountain range, there's a valley in between. And when you're looking at Bible prophecy, there'll be this major event that you see in Scripture, and we don't always know that there's more to that mountain. There's a valley in between. Then there's that next prophetical event. That's how you understand Bible prophecy when we're looking at it from before it happens. Joel gives us one of the pictures of this valley of decision, and he tells us throughout this book, then, of Armageddon, especially chapter 3. So notice, in the cry of the world, the people are suffering on the earth. Even the animals are suffering, as we just read. The earth itself is suffering during the time of tribulation. The crying is too late. In verses 19 and 20, they start to cry out that the decisions have already been made. Here's the most important decision a person would ever choose, whether today or in the future. It's what will I do with Jesus? Will I accept Him as my Savior? Will I believe in the gospel? Will I believe in the death, burial, and resurrection? Will I accept the sacrifice and express to God my belief in prayer and accept the gift of eternal life? I'm thankful. A man this week trusted Christ for salvation. I'm thankful for that. Now he knows for sure, there's nothing between me and God. I am born again, I'm saved. You can have that same peace and same assurance today. Will I believe Him or will I reject Him? Listen, to reject Him, if you say, well, maybe later, that's a present day rejection. And when these things take place, it's too late for these people. When a rapture takes place, that's God's call. He says, come on up in Revelation 4, verse 1. And if you're here this morning listening to this message, and if you're listening maybe by way of recording later on, I'm glad you're listening to it, but God holds you accountable for what you do with Jesus. Some people during the tribulation trust Christ. They didn't hear the gospel like we do today. That's what the witnesses are witnessing. That's a message for another day. Those who've heard the gospel, God says, God sends a strong delusion that they might believe a lie. So God is the one who's actually doing the deciding by the time the day of the Lord and by the time this battle of Armageddon takes place. Whatever happens in chapter 3, verse 14, that's the Lord. Notice, multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withhold their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the hope of His people. and the strength of the children of Israel." There are three different terms throughout this book. Jehovah, Almighty, and God. It's God who is the one doing the deciding. So today you can make a choice. What will you do with Jesus? What's your hope in today? What's your life pursuing as a Christian? This idea and this truth of Bible prophecy, the Battle of Armageddon, the day of the Lord. It should compel us. It should motivate us because we love God and we follow through on that second to the great commandment. We love other people to tell people about Jesus today. We teach our kids a lot of things. We teach basketball and baseball and ballet and band. We need to teach them the Bible. We teach our kids about sports and shows and things like that, but we need to support services, church services too. Your kids need to see your priority is in Jesus Christ. Part of Satan's plan is to keep us busy doing good things so that the godly and the best things are neglected. So what should I do today? If I'm not saved, I need to be born again, I need to be saved. If you're a Christian, examine the priorities of your life and do everything you can to be the witness to your kids that you need to be, to show the priority of the Bible and Christianity in your daily choices, because we're all making choices. They see that. And then we need to take the gospel to the people around us, loved ones and neighbors and coworkers and classmates. Freely submit to God now. Freely submit to God today. For it is written, Romans 14, 11, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. That'll happen. That'll happen. So confess Him today. Believe in Him today and let's live our lives for Him today as well. Let's bow together in prayer. Thank you for your good listening here today. We'll have what we call an invitation. where we invite you to respond to the preaching of the Bible and for however the Holy Spirit is. working and challenging your life. Maybe there's a friend here today, and you say, I need salvation. You talked about having forgiveness of sins. I would like to know how to be saved from my sins today. No one's looking around. The invitation is a personal time. I want to look, and I want to pray with you. If you would acknowledge, I need salvation. I would like to know more about how I can have my sins forgiven. Is there anyone like that? Just raise your hand. I just want to pray with you. Anyone at all? All right, thank you. Our next question, Christian. Christian, are you submitting your life to God? Have you been distracted, preoccupied, going after other things? Then talk to God about that. In a moment, we'll have an opportunity. You can kneel where you're at. You can come forward if you like to kneel down before God and pray. Maybe say, well, you know, I'm upset about this or I'm upset about that. Maybe I complain about this or complain about that. Folks, if you're saved today, you don't have to go through the tribulation. This day of the Lord, this time of sorrow, you won't be there. No matter how bad life may be today in your life, your hope is in Christ. And so maybe things are difficult right now. Turn your thoughts to Jesus and be a rejoicing Christian. Then our last idea is this, will I meet with God and with God's people to pray and to praise the Lord on a regular basis? That's the response we must have. There's going to be troubles today, but we're not in the tribulation. And I'm thankful for that. So how will you respond? Let's keep being faithful. Let's keep praying. Let's keep meeting together. Let's keep encouraging one another as we see this day approaching. Father, we pray that you bless this time as we respond to your word. We ask for your help as we commit these decisions to you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you please stand? The piano's playing. However God's working in your life, would you come? Maybe you want to kneel and talk to God for a moment. You want to commit a decision to Him. Would you respond? Pray where you're at. Priorities have been out of order. Let's get those right with God today. Father, we thank you for this passage in Joel and the incredible teaching that you have given to us in advance. We pray that we would take these truths about future things and make relevant and real decisions today that would impact those around us and in our homes and family, that our decisions, Lord, would honor you. And whenever this valley of decision takes place, Lord, help us to have already done everything you've called us to do before the rapture and before all these events so that others would know you. I pray you bless each person as they have considered this message and these truths, that you would take their decisions, that they would continue to honor and glorify you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. It's been a terrific Sunday today. We have one more exciting thing. Charles Arbor, if you would come on up to the front here. and stand right beside me. And Charles is coming to join our church today. He's going to share his testimony. And so you can be seated for just a moment. Go ahead. Good morning, Wilton Baptist. So as he said, my name is Charles Armour. At the age of 10, nine years old, I was saved in a little, a little church in Millington, Tennessee named First Baptist Church, Millington. And I had been going there for a pretty regularly every so often with my parents. And I continued going there. into high school. I went there when I could drive. I went there Wednesdays and Sunday mornings. And into college, I started going to Bellevue Baptist Church. And the pastor over there is Steve Gaines, formerly Adrian Rogers. And so Steve Gaines is now the leader of the Southern Baptist Convention. And I also served in a little church called Miracle Redemption Church, where I was assistant to the pastor, helping out with youth studies, leading a Bible study. And I joined the Navy shortly after college when I got into grad school, and it's led me here. And I believe the Lord has led me to become a member of this church and bloom where I'm planted and just help out where I can. I may be here five, six months, but however long the Lord has me here, I want to help serve and help people and help further along God's mission. That's right. That's terrific. So Charles is one of our Navy men. We appreciate the Navy and they come in and out. So thank you for your service as well. Now, we're an independent Baptist church, but I'm familiar with the Southern Baptist church that he mentioned there as well. And so we're thankful for you and your mindset to bloom where you're planted. And so can we accept him into our church membership today? Amen. Amen. Congratulations. Thank you. Be sure to greet him on the way out today. He'll be by the back door. Let's all stand. We'll sing our closing song after a couple of announcements here. This Friday begins our couples retreat up in the Lake George area. And for those of you who are looking for that, we are starting at around 1130 to meet there at the Lake George Steamboat Company. And so you can park there. They have some parking there for us. and then we'll board the boat and then have a great lunch cruise. So plan on being a part of that this Friday and Saturday. And then coming up next Tuesday, a week from this Tuesday, is the Pastor's Fellowship. If you could help out with anything, anything from steaks to potatoes and different things like that, there's a sign-up sheet back there on the Back Bulletin Board. If you can look at that and help us out with any of those things, that would be a great help. And then coming up in a couple weeks, we will be having a baptism service. We have three people who will be baptized. If you have been saved recently, Or maybe you know that you need to be baptized. If you would see pastor myself, we'd be glad to add you to that group and be glad to see you baptized as well. And then the last announcement is our Harvest Festival. This is a yearly event that we have coming up at the end of October. And there's also a sign up sheet for that if you can help with some small things, some prizes for the kids and those kind of things. But we'll have a great time with a chili cook off and things like that. And plans are underway for that. So make plans, invite those in the community. This is an outreach, this allows us to be able to just introduce some people to our church, and so if you want to be a part of that, again, see that sign-up sheet, but plan on attending from 11 o'clock to 2 o'clock there on the 28th. All right, let's sing our closing song, What a Day, Glorious Day That Will Be.