We looked last week at Joel chapter one. We tried to get down to Joel to chapter two verse eleven. We didn't get very far because your teacher chases rabbits and chased a couple of rabbits and got off track. And so I'm going to make up for it tonight. So if you put your mental tennis shoes on about right now we're going to catch up on what we were last week and I want to get into chapter two much fewer verses much I believe even a more tremendous impact in chapter two, beginning at verse number 12, but we're going to, we're going to go back now and we're going to pick up and see just a few things in that other chapter. If you would, if you didn't have a scripture sheet, if you weren't here last week, didn't get one, or if you're here tonight and you don't have the one from the week before, raise your hand up right now and they're going to bring one to you. All right. Cecil, where's those extra sheets at? You got them right there. Now, these are the ones, this is from the lesson from last week called God, no, that's not this week. I'm still looking. What's it called? God's hand in national disasters. All right. So keep your hand up and I'm going to get started. They'll get one to you. And I want to give you those things you need to fill in there. If you haven't filled them in, the first thing on that sheet that it should say is God's message of disaster. That's the first thing you should fill in there. I believe. No, it was, is there anything minor about the twelve minor prophets? No. What is a priest? And a priest gets his position because of, who was here last week? How does he get his position? Birth, born into it. He doesn't have to live up to it. He doesn't have to do any of those things. A priest was born into his position. You can see how a person can become very lackadaisical as a priest because Only the children of Aaron could have been priest, and so he was born into it. So what is a prophet? A prophet got his position because of what? A direct call from God. Now the priest, he had the job of all of the receiving and the administering of all the sacrifices and so on there in the either tabernacle in the wilderness or the temple in Jerusalem. But the priest did something else. He had the ministry and the job of teaching the people. He was supposed to take the Word of God and he was supposed to teach it line on line, precept on precept, here a little, there a little, building one time after the other. It's sort of like the scope and sequence of Sunday school or Bible study or small group study. You take God's Word and you learn it little by little. And so a priest, that's what his job was there in the Old Testament. But a prophet, A prophet more than teach new material, a prophet was supposed to draw to attention things that people already knew and call them to obedience. He usually was a warning sort of a person. Most of the prophets of the Bible, in the Old Testament specifically, they were prophets of warning, judgment. They said, if you don't pay attention, if you don't do what God told you to do, if you don't give attendance to the commands of the Lord, then it is going to cost you. And so they were prophets of warning. Now the priest, very few of them suffered greatly during their time. There were some, there were 80 priests at Nob that King Saul killed all at once. I don't know how many of you remember that story. But most of the priests, they didn't get a whole lot of persecution, but the prophets did. The prophets, they didn't have any weekly allowance or monthly salaries. They weren't allowed to get the tithes of the Levites. They weren't supported that way. They didn't have a cushy job. I guess you could say the prophet. He was like Elijah. He got his food from Crows and Ravens and and drank water out of the brook and then when that ran out He had to go to the widows at Zarephath. We went to a widow there Right under right under the God F bail God took care of him in a special way So it was as I've said before chicken one week and feathers the next for him But because that's the way the prophet lived and so he was a prophet Joel, we're looking at his book, his name means Jehovah is God. It is divided up into two sections, largely. The first section is about the day of the locust. The second section is about the day of the Lord. And the day of the Lord is a key phrase in the book. It's talked about over and over and over. We mentioned some of the national disasters of our lifetime. California earthquakes back in the California earthquakes and fires and mudslides in 92, 93, 94. Terrible time. Katrina, who can forget that? How about the tsunami December 26th? A year ago, a little over a year ago now. Natural disasters. No one, I think, could forget 9-11 and what happened in New York. Big, huge disasters. The question we posed with our lesson last week is, does God ever use disaster as a tool to get our attention. And so we talked about number one, write them down as we go through them quickly. God's message of disaster in verse number two, chapter Joel one, verse two, hear this. You elders give you all you inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or in the days of your fathers? Tell it to your children. Let your children tell their children and their children, another generation. Here's the message. The message is, 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 has left, the consuming locust has eaten. Depicting several stages in the life of a locust, which doesn't live more than 60 or 70 days, but that locust goes through several different metamorphoses and he's eating all the time. So you had some that were crawling, some that were hopping, some that were flying, some that were just walking through, chewing everything in sight. And what happened was is that this locust invasion there in the land had left it barren, every leaf stripped, all the vines completely empty, no grapes, no beans, no tomatoes, horrors of all horrors, no tomatoes. How could you live without tomatoes? I don't know. I have to have tomatoes. And that's just a hint for all of you who have gardens out there and grow tomatoes. I'm just letting you know. But they didn't have anything. I mean the locust came through and ate everything. There was nothing. It was desolate. The land behind the locust was as if it had been burned by fire. It was white. And that's the way it was. Locust invasion. So the message had to be delivered. So tell this message to the elders. Always tell the elders. Those that are in charge. Tell the children. Don't hold it back from them. delivered to the grandchildren, the great-grandchildren. We talked about getting God's Word and His message to the next generation. It has always been a difficult task. At least the Jews failed more miserably at this one thing than any other thing that God gave them to do. Now, they broke all kinds of laws, but the biggest disaster was they just could not seem to get this message of God's love God's provision, God's goodness, God's wrath, they could not seem to get it to the next generation. We talked about that at length last week. Two passages we looked up were Deuteronomy 6, 3, Deuteronomy 11, 1. We even looked over in the book of Psalms, chapter 71, verse 14 and 18, Psalms 78, 1 to 8, that talk about, I will not hide from the next generation what the Lord has done. And so we were very purposeful about that. And so we're supposed to get this message of disaster and get it to everyone. Joel is given a message like a good prophet. He says to God's people, God told you to tell your children and obey his voice, but you did not do it. The message is so simple. Children do not learn by osmosis. I want you to know that there's not a child in this church that is just soaking up because of their presence here. soaking up the Word of God, the love of God, the care of God, the history of God, the Word of God. It is not happening just because they're in the building. It has to be intentional on the part of those that are teaching and preaching. It has to be intentional on the part of the parents, the grandparents, and the great grandparents to draw attention to what is being taught. Whenever the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River and whenever they set up those twelve memorial stones, they were supposed to point to those stones and say to each successive generation, You see those stones? Let me take these stones as an opportunity to tell you what our God has done for us. They were supposed to tell them about slavery in Egypt. They were supposed to tell them about suffering under the hard bondage of Pharaoh. They were supposed to tell them all these things. But did they do it? No. Chapter 11, the book of Deuteronomy says, in forecast, in prediction, Moses said, when you get over there, you're going to get busy with your houses, get busy with your land, get busy with your flocks, get busy with your herds, You're going to get busy making a life, making money. You're going to forget to live your life and you're going to forget the stones. It is very important to point to things that your children are doing and seeing and participating in. Even it's as simple as what we did last week. Your children, your grandchildren, it was on purpose that we let all the children from five years old and up come to see what went on in the auditorium last week. A wise grandfather, a wise great grandfather, a wise mother or father would have went home and said, what did you think about what you saw? Do you understand it? Don't just assume they got it. You got it. You understood it. But did they get it? One little boy was going home this last Sunday, went out and told his dad, said he didn't like that program at all. And he said, this was last Sunday. And the father said, well, why didn't you like the program? It was very well done. He said, oh yeah. He said the actors and everybody was really good. He said, but I didn't like the way that program went because they weren't very nice to Jesus. Well, that was a great opportunity for that father to sit down and say, here's why they weren't nice to Jesus. You see the point? The point is, is we have to, on purpose, intentionally do these things. And so, deliver it to somebody else. And here's where we left off last week. I'm going to just move through this as quickly as possible. After you deliver it to the children and the great-grandchildren and so on, the next thing is, deliver it to the dissipate. You say, what are the dissipate? Well, I used a D because I want it to rhyme. Dissipation. The people who live the life of drunkards, those who think life is a party or a game. Now, listen to me for a moment. One of the greatest discouragements that I might have as a pastor and as a father and as an adult, as I look at the world in which we live, is to look at the next generation of boys and girls, especially teenagers. And I'm not trying to say this of our personal teenagers, because God is doing a work in our teenagers in our church. Young men are answering the call of God to a life of ministry in our church, and it's exciting to see. But listen to me. When I look at our generation that we're living in today, and I look at our young men especially, here is pretty much the summation of their thoughts toward life. Now, I'm just going to illustrate it to you. This is what life is all about for most young teenage men. Wasn't that fun? That's life. They're giggling and grinning their way through life. Life's a party. Life's a beach. Life's nothing but having a lot of fun. That's what it's all about. And they do not have a clue what life is all about. Whose fault is that? Well, it isn't God's fault. And second of all, it's not the child's fault. You know what? You've got to teach the next generation. And I am hammering this thing in our church. And our elders got an earful the other night at our elders' meeting. I'm hammering this thing because we're one generation removed from anybody being able to stand up and preach the truth of Jesus Christ and being able to get this message to the succeeding generation. We've got to be on target with what we're doing. The discipline. We live in a generation of people who think that life is a party. It's a game. When I read that, I saw that the alcoholism and the drunkenness was a problem in the days of Joel, just as it is a problem in the United States of America and the rest of the world. Do not think that alcoholism is native to the United States. I lived in Peru. They put wine in the mouth of their children when they're six, seven, and eight years old, and they get them started early, and they just teach them. That's their philosophy is, well, get them started early, and by the time they're an adult, they will have gotten over the desire to get drunk. Well, it just doesn't work, because on any given weekend, thirty-five, forty percent of them are drunk. It just doesn't work. It's a problem in America. It burdens my heart when there's so little spoken in the pulpits of our land today about the evil of alcohol and the dangers of drinking. The drunkenness and the alcohol creates tremendous problems in the United States. I'm just picking on one thing. We could talk about drugs. We could talk about all kinds of things, but this specifically is mentioning the drunkards in this passage of Scripture. Verse 5, Awake, you drunkards, and weep and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it's been cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up against my land, strong and without number, as teeth of the teeth of a lion." He took away what they wanted. It says down here, well, it just goes on and it talks about this, about the new wine, verse 10, is dried up and the oil fails. And it goes on, verse 12, the vine is dried up, the fig tree is withered, and so on. The drunkenness in alcohol creates tremendous problems in our country. A high percentage of highway accidents involve what? Alcohol. A high percentage of murders involve what? Alcohol, a high percentage of rapes and all sorts of sexual perversions always involve, not always, but many times involve what? Alcohol. And so come on up and defend it to me. I have people in this church who come to defend the consumption of alcohol. You're not going to get any sympathy from me. Not going to happen. Well, we just, we drink in moderation, you know? Okay, what you do in moderation, your kids are going to do in excess. They don't have your character. Period. Not going to work. Well, you can't show me a verse in the Bible, not one verse in the Bible that says it's a sin to drink an alcoholic beverage. Nope, I can't. But I can tell you very plainly that we're supposed to use the wisdom that God has given us. And the question is not, is it permissible? The question is, is it wise to tell your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren, go ahead and consume anything you want to. Is it wise? Pastor, have you ever been drunk? Nope, never had a chance to get drunk. Why? Because my daddy put the fear of God in me when I was so little. He scared me beyond belief that if I took one drink, I'd end up in jail. Was it true? Probably not. But guess what? I never ended up where? See the point? Wisdom. And so these people, they thought life was a game, a party. And so I encourage young people to never let alcohol cross their lips. I would rather have a rattlesnake in a baby's cradle than alcohol in my home. I'd rather have a maniac in an old folks home than have alcohol in my life. And if you think about it, alcohol in Washington, on our college campuses, in our boardrooms and staterooms, we are pickling America and Christianity is paving the way because nobody wants to say anything about it. I don't have a hobby horse here and I'm not pulling over to, but it just, it happens to mention it in the passage of scripture that I'm reading. And so I'm not going to dodge it. Use wisdom from God's word to avoid these problems in your life. The most important question is not, can I get away with something as a Christian? The best question ever asked is, is it wise? God gave us a whole book of wisdom called the Proverbs to help us make wise choices. Life is not a party. It is a project. And to accomplish the goal of godliness, we're going to have to make wise decisions. Number two, God's methods of disaster. His message of disaster and now his methods. And what's his method? Locust? It's a small thing you think you could easily destroy. In fact, you could flick a locust with your finger and the locust is almost dead. Now, when there are billions of them, it is said that in one square yard of ground, whenever a female locust is laying her some odd 70,000 eggs, imagine that. Imagine what a locust invasion can look like. And so these locusts came. They destroy everything that grows. I was going to take time to read from Phillips tonight, You get the picture. If you've ever seen anything of a locust invasion, it's just unbelievable. One locust isn't anything. A drop of water isn't anything very much until God unites them in a flood that they can breach the levees in New Orleans and see. So one drop, two, five. These locusts, they were unbelievable because of the number of them. God uses all kinds of things to get our attention. He uses tiny bacteria to cause sickness. He uses airborne spores. They can cause things like anthrax, Ebola viruses. God has used small things to confound the mighty ever since the beginning of time. And there was a famous atheist that was ranting and raving one day out in a western city, ranting and raving about, you know, the fact that there was no God and that there's a God out here. And he just, as he wrapped up his sermon, raised his hand, shook his fist to the heavens and said, if there's a God in heaven, I dare you to strike me with a lightning bolt right now. And he went on bragging about this and that because God in His mercy didn't do it at that point. He went over and sat down on a rock and a black widow spider bit him and he died within the hour. Be careful. Interesting, isn't it? God doesn't need a lightning bolt. And so, God can use anything and God uses locusts. Number three, the world mourns in disaster. Verse five, the drunkards mourn. Verse 8, the bride mourns because she never made it to her wedding day. Verse 9, the priest and the ministers mourn because there's nothing to sacrifice. They want to do their ritual, their ceremony, and there's nothing to sacrifice. Verse 18 to 20, the animals mourn. I want you to look at that. It says how the animals groan. The herd of cattle are restless because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment. Oh, Lord, to you I cry out, for fire has devoured the open pastures, and a flame has burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field also cry out to you, for the water brooks are dried up. A fire has devoured the open pastures." Evidently, a dry time, and the locusts came through, and it was like fire. In fact, the description that Phillips had is when there's a dry season, a real bonafide locust invasion when they come through. The crackling of the jumping of their legs and the munching sounds like fire that's coming across a field. And so this is what happens. The world is mourning in disaster. I think it's very curious that the animals mourn because they haven't got any food either. It's curious that the animals have to suffer because of man's sin. You remember Jonah chapter 4, verse 11? In fact, you could probably just flip over there. Joel, Amos, Jonah. Look at chapter 4, verse number 11. When we were finishing that book up, it was interesting that the Lord said that actually he cared more for the animals than men do. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left? And look at the last phrase, and much what? Livestock. A lot of cattle. God was even concerned for the cattle. You know, there's a lot of people today that are talking about being concerned for the animals and all those kinds of things. Do you know what the greatest problem with animal life in the world is? The sin of man. Even the creation itself is groaning and suffering. The animals suffer because of sin. It started in the Garden of Eden. Not going to be changed for the animals either up until the redemption of the body of the believer. Romans chapter 8 verse 14 and following. And so God's instruction in disaster is what? Look at verse number 13. It's very important. What's God's instruction in the moment of disaster like this? Verse 13, gird yourselves and lament. Who's the very first group he tells to gird themselves and lament? Whale. What's the first group? Priests. Whale, 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. Consecrate a fast. Call an 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. Why? Because of the day of the Lord is at hand. The day of the Lord. And so the first people that are supposed to get right are the preachers. I've got a fellow preacher here tonight, Brother Warren. He's an elder at our church, but he's an ordained minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Brother Warren, I'm going to tell you right now, the biggest problem in America is not the people in the pew, it's the pastor in the pulpit. And when people like me get right with God, it's going to make a big difference. When preachers are willing to lament, weep, wail, pray, confess, and as we'll see in chapter two, repent, and there are going to be some people repent. So that's who the first call went to. The first call went to the leadership. When leadership is not right, the people can never be right. Would you agree with that on a national scale in the United States of America? It's a shame. It is a shame for a country that started out recognizing where all freedom and all good gifts come from. It is a shame the things that are done in our nation's capital in the name of freedom of expression, freedom of choice, and what they're pawning off on our people in our country. It is a shame for them to lead us down the direction. You know what? If our leaders feared God, people would fear God. Interesting, isn't it? Preachers get right. Next one, elders get right. Next one, people get right. 1 Peter 4, 17, it's time for judgment to begin with the family of God. And if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 2 Chronicles 7, 14, you've heard it many times. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my... Isn't it interesting what he said in 2 Chronicles 7, 14? Look what it said. When I shut up heaven so there's no rain or I command locusts, you say, who sent the locusts to in the days of Joel? Who sent them? God did. It even says so in chapter two. They were his ministers. Do you mean God would send disaster? Mm hmm. He would. Is it always because of sin? Nope. Sometimes it's for greater glory. We'll talk about that in this next lesson. Sometimes it is because of sin. In this book, it was definitely because of sin. So did my people who are called by my name will humble themselves. We can stop right there. We're not going to pray. We're not going to seek his face. We're not going to turn from the wicked ways and we're not going to hear from heaven because we've got to start with what? Humility. That's hard, isn't it? God's hand in national disasters. Let me jump to your next lesson. I want to get into this. God has a remedy for national crisis. That's that other lesson. You got that there in front of you? All right, let's jump right into it. Now, we're in Joel, chapter 2, and let me read Joel, chapter 2, down through verse 17. Listen to the Word of God. Isn't that something? I put them on to see you. I take them off to see that. 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. There it is, the day of the Lord. For it is at hand, 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 seen, nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations. A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness. Surely nothing shall escape them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like swift steeds so they run. With a noise like chariots over mountaintops they leap, like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array. Before them the people writhe in pain, all faces are drained of color. They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like men of war. Everyone marches in formation. They do not break ranks. They do not push one another. Everyone marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, they are not cut down. They run to and fro in the city. They run on the wall. They climb into the houses. They enter at the windows like a thief. The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon grow dark. The stars diminish their brightness. And the Lord gives his voice before what? His army. For his camp is very great. For strong is the one who executes his word, for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can endure it?" You have the description of two things, the actual locust invasion, and I believe also the invasion of the armies of Assyria, because Assyria was just like this. They marched in mass, they came across burning, and they left everything in ashes behind them. They were horrible, and that is exactly who Jonah, if you remember, Jonah is going to prophesy to. The city of Nineveh, the Assyrians. Maybe that's why he was a patriotic prophet. He didn't really want to go there, but it's not up to him. God said that he wanted him to go there. Now look at verse 12. There's a call to repentance. Now, therefore, says the Lord, turn to me with all of your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. Surrender your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is a gracious and merciful. slow to anger and of great kindness, and he relents from doing harm. You ought to underline the word relent. Who knows if he will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering, a drink offering for the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Consecrate a fast. Call a sacred assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. Look at this verse. Gather the children. How young! And the nursing babes. Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room. Let the priest who ministered to the Lord weep between the porch of the altar. Let them say, Spare your people, O Lord, and do not give your heritage to reproach, that the nation should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God? Let me read on. Then, very important word, that's a change of time, then the Lord will be will be zealous for his land and pity his people. 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, but I will remove far from you the northern army." That's that Assyrian army. I 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. His foul odor will rise because he has done monstrous things. 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 open pastures are springing up, and the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength. Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the former rain faithfully. He will cause the rain to come down for you, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. So I will restore to you the years, but what a verse, circle number 25, I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust. My great army which I sent among you, you shall eat plenty and be satisfied. And praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel. I am the Lord your God, and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame." In chapter 1 of the book of Joel, God sounded the alarm. The locusts are coming. In chapter 2, he makes an appeal. Repent or else. Kind of sounds like Jonah chapter 3. And then in chapter number 3, we will see that God made an announcement, and we're going to describe that to you next week. Joel may have been one of the first writing prophets, and you say, why a writing prophet? What's the difference? Because there were many prophets in the Bible that never wrote a book. They were prophesied to kings, nations, and individuals, but they didn't write a book. Elijah and Elisha were not writing prophets. They were prophets. No one could deny it. But they gave messages to individuals at a moment in time, and other people recorded their message. Nathan was a prophet. He spoke to David. And so you see here that Joel's different. Joel speaks to people, but he also is writing a book. So remember, in the Old Testament, there are many prophets who never wrote anything. And then there are some who never talked to anybody personally, but they wrote something, you see. And so Joel is a writing prophet. We don't always know why disasters come. Sometimes it's because of evil. Sometimes it's because of greater glory. Take your Bible and look to Luke, if you would, chapter 13. We have a perfect example of this illustration here. Luke chapter 13. Why does disaster come? Luke chapter 13 verse 1 through 5. Jesus is going to speak and this is the setting. He says, But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no. Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And so it's not always because of a particular sin or particular people. The idea is repent. So Jesus's message and, of course, Joel's message here is going to be repent or perish. It may sound like a rough message for the day and age in which we live, but it is still the message that Jesus Christ used himself. So I want to tell you that in this passage of scripture now in Joel, chapter two, we're going to first of all, write this down. You have a place to write it. First of all, God has a prescription for repentance. And I talked to you last week, and I told you that not many people like to talk about repentance or believe that repentance is a subject we want to talk about. It's not comfortable, but it is God's prescription. So God has a prescription for repentance, and His prescription is repentance. That's always His prescription for sin. And it's because of the sin of the people in Israel that this, in this case, that this terrible plague had come. John the Baptist came and preached repentance because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus' first message was a message of repentance. Many New Testament preachers preached the message of repentance. The Bible says there must be repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And repentance is the first approach of our soul to God in turning from sin. And it's not an easy or simple or pleasant prescription that God gives us, because repentance is not an easy matter. Repentance, now watch this now, is a change of mind. It is a change of mind about your sin. It is a change of mind about yourself. And it is a change of mind about the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we truly repent of our sins, now you just watch this now and find out if what you think has been repentance in the life of yourself or other people, see if it is. Repentance, when we repent of our sins, we will number one, abhor our sins in our mind. We will abhor them. We won't fondly think of When a person talks with deliciousness about the sins of his youth and looks back on them with a cackle, then he's not sorry for the sins that he had in his youth. He just grew out of them. We will abhor our sins in our mind. We will abominate our sins in our heart. And the third thing is most important, we will abandon our sins because of our own will and volition. That's what true repentance is all about. It's not a trot down the aisle at the church to get fire insurance or for a deal-making session with God. Repentance is a cleansing work of God and a complete yielding of our will to Him. Repentance is the message of John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, the Apostle Peter, and all of the Old Testament prophets. Repent. Change your mind about the direction you're going, the thoughts you're having, the activities that you're engaging in. And then let that change of mind bring about a change of action. Some things to write down. First of all, repentance takes time. Look at verse number 12. Now, I love that little word. Now, therefore, says the Lord, turn to me with all of your heart, with fasting and weeping and with mourning. Now, repentance takes time and the time that it takes is now. There's no sense talking about what we're going to do, how we're going to repent. In my ministry, all of my life, people have been saying, you know, Pastor, one of these days, you know, I hear that, I know that God's watching and He's paying attention and one of these days I'm going to have to repent, I'm going to have to change, I'm going to have to give my life to the Lord and I'm going to have to be saved, but not now. Nope. The time is now. The time to get right with God is now when you know there's a problem. And as Christians, we should not store up offenses, but confess them as they're revealed to us so that we can be forgiven and walk in forgiveness. The time is now and the time is plenty. I do enjoy this thought. He says now. If you have a King James Version, it says therefore now. And the idea is that he has pronounced all of this stuff that's coming on in the day of the Lord. He says the locusts are already here. They've already done their thing. Now then the Assyrians are coming and they're going to come and they're just going to walk through this land. They did walk through the Northern Ten Tribes when they got to Jerusalem. Thankfully, when Sennacherib and all of them got to Jerusalem, The king of the city, Hezekiah at the time, he understood the warning, he understood the message. And what did they do? They spread it out before the Lord. They told the Lord, look at their threatenings, look at what they're saying and doing, what they're talking about. God, we're your people, we're the only ones, we throw ourselves on you. Who can defend us against them but you? The next morning, 185,000 Syrians were dead. And that's why the stench rose up. They couldn't even get them all buried before they were rotting. You see, they there is time. What I love about this is there's always time to repent. There is, you know, and God is like that. God is not willing that any should perish and that all should come to repentance. He is patient. It's not too late. Sometimes people think it's too late. It's never too late. A person may think they've gone too far. You've never gone too far. He he says repent. And so there's the time for repentance. Then there's something else to write down there. Repentance is heart rending. Heart rending. Look at verse number 12. Now, therefore, says the Lord, turn to me with all of your what? Heart. Without any doubt, the heart of the matter is the matter of the what? Heart. The heart of the matter is always the matter of the heart. Turn to me with all of your heart. Let me ask you a question. What breaks your heart? When we did chapter four of the book of Jonah a few weeks ago, pretty powerful message, I said, what makes you what makes you mad and I ask you what makes you glad and I ask you what makes you sad and then I ask you what makes you bad. Then I'd ask you another question. What does it take to break your heart? Jonah wouldn't have passed this test. What does it take to break our heart? Interesting. Do you does getting caught doing wrong break our hearts? Did you ever get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, so to speak? Ever get caught that way? Repentance is brokenness over the offense, not only sorrow over getting caught. Think about that for a moment. Now, let that thought dwell in your hearts. Contrition, a broken heart, is supposed to be because we did wrong, not because we got caught doing wrong. When you have children that are Growing up in your home, you know if the relationship between you and your children is on the right track, if the child is as broken hearted because they disappointed you and disobeyed you as the very fact that they got caught doing what they're doing. If they're broken hearted because they got caught instead of broken hearted because they broke your heart. Then they have not come to the place of brokenness. Repentance involves a broken heart. Repentance involves a heart matter. It involves, I offended the one who died for me. I offended the one who gave me my breath. I offended the one who, I don't know about you, but in my marriage, when I've done something that I know, if I've smarted off or I've given a quick answer, I've done something that I know was a wound to Bonnie, and she calls my attention to it. At first, I get angry because she caught me. And then I get hurt because I know how bad it hurt her. And I don't want any impediments in the relationship with Bonnie. Do you understand that? I want no impediments in the relationship with my children. I want no obstacles, no walls, nothing between me and my God. And brokenness is when a person is brokenhearted because of the offense that God has received instead of the fact that we have gotten caught. That's a big thought. Broken hearts. Interesting. So what does it take to break our hearts? David was repenting of his sin. He got caught. Psalm 51 17. It says the sacrifices of God are a contrite spirit and a contrite and broken heart. God, thou will not You know the Bible says that David was a man after God's own what? Heart. Was he perfect? That's the question. Was David a better person and a more righteous and sinless person than everybody else? Was he? No. Uriah the Hittite was more righteous than David was at the time that David decided he wanted his wife and killed him. And a prophet came and stuck his long bony finger in his face and told him a story about this king who took a sheep and killed it, and it was the mascot of the family that he took it from. They're only sheep. And David, in a rage, said, Who has done this? He's worthy of death. And that prophet stuck his finger in his face and said, You are the man. What did David do? Confess, repent, and acknowledge what he had done. God's not looking for people who cannot live perfect lives trying to boast that they are. He's looking for repentant people who know they can't, who admit it, and He loves their heart when you confess. Interesting, isn't it? Do you know that in the modern, fast-paced, success-oriented world, it has dictated to the church that we have to have success and be success-oriented too? I knew I was going to say this. That's why I didn't want to tell you how many people are here on Sunday. But usually, churches are all gauged by how many, how big, how much money. How's things going? God's not going to measure according to this scale of success, but God's going to measure according to the scale of repentance, not according to the scale of riches and possessions and how big your budget or buildings are. God doesn't measure that way. None of that impresses God. How do you impress God with a big budget? You impress God with a contrite heart. Isn't that something? God knows everything. We're going to get to something really, really, really interesting in a minute. If I don't get finished today, I'm at least going to get to this one point. And I want you to really meditate on what I'm talking about. Repentance. The third thing you need to write down is repentance is not found in ritual. Look at verse number 13. Rinse your heart and not your garments. You say, Pastor, what does that mean? Well. The Jewish people were famous for what we read in this passage of scripture. Many times they would show outward signs, they would have some sort of sign of remorse or sorrow or repentance and they would tear their garments. Many people did this. In fact, wicked king Ahab tore his garments. Manasseh, talked about him a few weeks ago, probably the most wicked king in the history of Israel, sacrificed his children to Molech. the despicable God of the Moabites, and he offered them to Chemosh, the wicked god of the Ammonites. They burned his children in the fire. But you know what Manasseh did when he understood? He confessed, he repented, and he tore his garments. Mordecai, how many of you know the story of Queen Esther and who Mordecai was? Mordecai was the uncle of Esther, and he was a righteous man. And he stood outside the gate, Vicki, remember? Whenever the great decree from Haman, the enemy of God and the enemy of the Jewish people, came along and tricked the king, Xerxes, or Ahasuerus, into making this rash edict to kill all the Jews, Mordecai understood the severity of the situation, stood before the palace wanting to talk to his niece, And he wanted to talk to her, and he did it how? He did it in sackcloth and ashes and with torn garments. It's a sign of mourning. But you know what? If you're not careful, routine ritual can become nothing more than routine ritual. We can sing the songs of Zion, sing the songs of God, and sing, Oh, How I Love Jesus, without one single heartfelt thought in the whole thing. Did you know that? We can't. We can give tithes ritualistically. We can do it now. I'd rather you give it ritualistically than not at all. But we can give our tithes and give them to the Lord and really not stop to thank God you've given to me and I'm giving back to you. We can do that. God's not impressed with ritualism. He's not impressed with routine. We're not careful. That's what can happen in spiritual matters. We have things like national days of prayer. Got one coming up. and a national day of prayer. I've been invited every year to go down to the governor's prayer breakfast here at which they pray hardly not at all and some people who know not our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ get up and talk about the needs and about spurious things and they talk about all kinds of stuff and hardly a prayers ever lifted lifted but they call it a national day of prayer their prayer meetings even the Lord's prayer our father which are in heaven how to be that name my kingdom come that will be that we just command and we can say in a hurry you know But it's ritualistic. You say, well, I wouldn't do that. I don't even pray that. You know, good Baptists like we are, we don't do that kind of thing, you know. How about supper time? Dear Lord, thank you for this food and wine. You've been a blessing to everything you've done for us today. Amen. Do you have any rituals that you really don't mean? Think about that. There's no repentance in ritualism. They were tearing their garments. They looked. You know, they were just, they're really repentant, according to the way they looked. God looks at the heart. He knows. Interesting, isn't it? There has to be a change, not only in the outward ceremony, but also in a lifestyle to illustrate that a person has genuinely repented. A person hasn't repented unless their behavior has changed, unless they've quit doing things that they were doing that were wrong and they turned back to the Lord. Because remember, to obey is better than to what? Sacrifice God really is interested not in the fat of rams and all these beasts as if he was hungry Or if he was needy He is looking for obedience repentance next one is a step toward God. I love this one like it was number 13 So rinse your heart and not your garments look at that next word return To the Lord your God repentance is a step toward God God hadn't gone anywhere. You know that don't you? I told you before, but I love this story. Old man, old woman riding down the road to pick up trucks, same pickup truck they've had for all of their marriage, 25 years of marriage. Why would I say old man, old woman? I've been married more than 25 years. I got to change that story. 50 years. Well, truck wouldn't last that long. So they're going down the road and here they are, the guy's behind the wheel and the woman's all the way against the door over there and the window's down. She's hanging her head out and the hair's flying. She's looking. She looks over and says, honey, you know, it's not like it used to be. We don't sit by each other in the truck anymore. He looks where he's sitting and looks where she's sitting and says, says, honey, I didn't move. I'm sitting where I was 25 years ago. Look where you are. She was all the way over there. The question is, is God that the story is God hasn't moved. He hasn't gone anywhere. Return to the Lord. Look what it says. He's gracious, merciful, slow to anger, full of great kindness. He relents from doing harm. The great incentive for us To repent on a personal basis is the character of God. Exodus 34 says the same thing. Numbers 14.8 says the exact same thing. God is gracious. He is kind. He is merciful. And that is the greatest incentive for us to repent. We have a God who loves us. We have a God who puts up with a lot. If you and I got what we really deserve, we would all be where? We'd be in hell. Because we deserve it. We're sinners. We're separated from God because of our sin nature. We were separated by choice. Because we chose to sin, we were separated by birth because we were born sinners and by practice because we live like sinners. And sin is the reason that Jesus had to go to the cross. And so if we got our just desserts, we'd be in hell. Repentance is something else. This one you might not realize. Look at verse number 15. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Consecrate a feast. Call a sacred assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. Gather the children and the nursing babes. Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber and the bride from the dressing room. Let the priest, and it just goes on. You know what it's doing? Calling a general assembly. Everybody. Next one. Repentance should be, you're not going to like it, public. You say, Pastor, we've got to come up and tell exactly what we've done? No. But boy, when there's a time to repent, you know what? There are people in this room that have not been to an altar to pray since you got saved. You don't need it. Oh, I know I am really bothering you people right now. There's an opportunity to come to the altar and to get on your face and talk to your Heavenly Father or to go into a private room and pray or we call for a prayer meeting or a certain thing and we just don't need it, you know. Hey, I'm cool. Everything's good. You know, my kids are healthy. I'm healthy. Everything's good, you know, the house is almost paid for, got the car paid for, the insurance is up, you know, no problem, everything's good, you know, it's fine. Thanks God, yeah. We assume that things going good means we don't need to pray, we don't need to confess, we don't need to examine ourselves. Huh. It was a clear day when the tsunami hit Southeast Asia, wasn't it? Think about that. Interesting. Repentance public. Look what he said, blow the trumpet. Next, fast. You know, when people decide that they're going to fast because of their sin and because of those kind of things, you know that things are serious. Esther knew how serious a threat was to her nation because of Haman. She called for a fast. Today in Christianity, the only thing fast is the amount of time between the time we throw up a prayer and we expect God to answer it. That's the kind of fast we like. We like, oh God, help me, I'm hurting. Okay, thanks. Fast. We want it like that. But this kind of a fast is where you are so concerned about the sin of our people, the sin of our nation, the sin of our city, the sin of our state, the sin of our church. You say, Pastor, are we a wicked church? Not more than other churches. Pastor, are there a lot of bad things going on? No, I don't know nothing. But I know what people write emails about and call about and come in and talk about, and I know But there are sins that people are practicing that they need to confess and forsake and repent of because of the power of God. You know, Pastor David and I used to talk a lot. We used to ask each other. I remember one time that he was sitting at his desk and tears streaming down his face. And he said, I wonder what God would do with a church like this if we really understood what it was to repent and live a holy life. Never forgot that. Let me go on. Repentance public says get the people together. Who is it? It goes on. I'm repeating the elders lead the way. Leadership must be right, must be righteous. The children need the elders to lead the way and set the example. When I say elders here, I don't mean the office of elder. That's not to the New Testament. We're talking about those that are older in the Lord, those that are the parents, those that are aged, those that are leading the people. The elders need to set the example. Have your children and grandchildren ever seen you serious about prayer and repentance? Pastor, how old should a child be when they are exposed to Christian things? Look at God's Word. Don't ask me, ask the Bible. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders. Verse 16, gather the children and the who? Nursing the babies. You say, Pastor, You know, I hear it all the time, Pastor. You know, I would come to church over there and everything, and my children just have a hard time behaving. And, you know, sometimes they just get bored. Well, you know, somebody needs to teach the children. Teach your children that it's not always romper room. Now, I'm not going to take the gospel of Jesus Christ and bore children to death with it. And when it's Sunday school time and it's children's church time, It's wonderful. Use every media, every opportunity, things that you can to teach the children. But children, you grandparents, teach your children to teach their children that it is not always romper room. It's not always a circus. And there is a time to recognize. It's time to be still, listen, pay attention, look up there. That's half the problem with public education today. Because nobody wants to say, behave yourself. Nobody wants to say that. You know? Nobody wants to, you know, we don't want to make enemies of our children. You know what? It's time for parents and grandparents to stop trying to be buddies and start being parents to their children. Say, Pastor, did it work for you? I don't know. My kids don't hate me. I don't hate my mom and my dad. I'm going to get a chance to go down and see mama before Mother's Day, and I'm going to tell her again, say, Mama, thank you for spanking my little hiney when I was a kid and I needed it. I'm going to tell her again. I tell her every time I see her. You know why? Because the Bible's real clear about those kind of things. A rod of correction will drive foolishness from a child. And I was full of foolishness when I was a kid. You know, we've got a generation and a culture that is absolutely brainwashing us. for swallowing at hook, hook, line and sinker. It's interesting. Well, I don't want to delay there. Pastor, how old should they be when they're children? Something else that you've just got to see in this passage of Scripture there, and that is, it says, verse number 16, gather the children and nursing babes, let the bridegroom go out from his chamber and the bride from her dressing room. You say, what's that? Stop the show. Can I ask you a question? Does repentance or the need to confess or do business with God ever stop your show? Think about that. Stop the show for once and get right with God. Put the wedding on hold. Put off the vacation. Put off building the new deck and get right with God. What a deal that would be. You know, 9-11 stopped us. The churches were full. Whether we wanted to stop or not, it stopped us. Did you know? That they put off some baseball games and horror of all horrors, they actually canceled a college football game or two? Can you believe that? This country lived without a baseball game, without an airplane in the air, and they lived and existed without a college football game for two weekends and we made it? Because people were greatly concerned about what was going on. They were scared to death. Terrorism had hit. Well, you know, the terrorism of New York on 9-11 was horrible, and I minimize it not, but it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. Did you know that? Stop! Put things on hold! One of the reasons that the Jews had the Sabbath in the Old Testament was to stop it all. They had a Sabbath. Six o'clock on Friday night until six o'clock on Saturday night. No commerce. Now, they finally ended up breaking this law. No buying and selling. No purchasing. There was no cooking. There was no games. There was no running and playing. There was a time to stop, have fellowship with the family, talk to one another, pray to their God. Just stop and look at the blessings of the Lord. You know, we're always looking over the picket fence at what we might get and what we might want. If we just look behind us, we'd already see what God's already done for us. And that's what the Sabbath was about, to stop and to be thankful for all the things that God had done. I hate to say this one, but sometimes we need to stop the church show. I don't know how to do this, really. There are great expectations here. Sometimes on a Sunday morning, to tell you the truth, I would like to come to the pulpit and say, you know what? We're not ready to hear God's because we have not gotten the filth out of our lives. So this morning, we're not going to hear a sermon. We're going to stop and repent. Think about that. Preachers like me are the biggest hindrance to revival sometimes. We got to keep the show going, you know. Programs, pushes. I wish I knew how to obey that little verse in the Bible that says, be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46. You know, we gather to celebrate. We talk about that all the time. We gather to celebrate Sunday to Sunday, and we should. We celebrate the Lord Jesus' resurrection. Praise the Lord. We celebrate forgiveness of sins and freedom from the power of sin and from the penalty of sin. But I just wonder, sometimes instead of coming for a celebration, we ought to have a service of humiliation. You say, what does that mean? What if I stood up this Sunday and said, OK, folks, next Sunday is Humiliation Sunday? I'd go over good, wouldn't I? Instead of saying, hey, y'all all come out and celebrate with us and we'll just rejoice. You know why I say that? Because sometimes we come and we rejoice and we lift hands and lift voices and sing songs with our hearts full of wickedness, unforgiveness, hate, envy, jealousy, pride. We're mad at people. We're angry with people at work. We're angry with wives and with children. And we're mad and we have unconfessed sins. And we just come in and grin and, oh, how I love Jesus. And we sing some chorus, you know. You know, the Bible says I would, Paul said in the New Testament, I would that all men everywhere pray, lifting what? What did he say? Lifting what? Holy hands. Oh, I wonder how many, if God would say, and he was looking down on us when he said, lift up those holy hands and everybody puts them up. What if he said, no, you put it down, you put it down, you put it down, you put it down. What would that be like? Think about it. Say, Pastor, did you eat some persimmons or a dill pickle or something? No, I didn't. I'm just telling you that Joel preached a powerful message of repentance. And you know what I'd kind of like before I die sometime to see a church that had more power than a firecracker. I'd like to see a church that just rocks a city because of the power of God in its presence. Interesting, isn't it? Next Sunday, Humiliation Sunday. How about if I say, next Sunday we weep and wail over our sins and the sin of our nation. Y'all come. I'll probably have to write an apology letter to get anybody back coming next week. Listen to God's Word, 1 Peter 5, 5. God resists the what? Proud. But he gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care on him because he cares for you. We need to repent sincerely of our offenses and our commissions and our omissions. I've got three minutes and I want to finish this. We need to repent. Look at the next thing. God gives a prescription for repentance, but when we do repent, He gives some unbelievable promises. What are the promises? Well, that's verse 18 through the end of where we read. And the first thing, the first promise it is, and I want you to write it down, is that God relents when we repent. I've said that before, but it's worth saying again. God relents when we repent. He was going to destroy Nineveh. But when they repented, even these wicked people, He said, oh, look at them. They're repenting. I'm not going to destroy them now. And they went on for a couple of hundred years before they actually were destroyed. That generation and the next went on. God relents when we repent. Look back at verse 14. Verse 13. He relents from doing harm. Verse 14. Who knows if he will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him? Who knows? Repent and God can relent. Another promise is God promises prosperity when we repent. Write that down. Look at verse 19. The Lord will answer and say to his people, behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil. Verse 21. Fear not, O land, but be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things. 22. 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. Jesus put it this way. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you. Prosperity goes along with repentance. You say personal? Well, I believe God's going to supply our need. He may not supply our greed, but he will supply our need. But we're talking about a nation here. Now, I want to say something to everybody here. There's a lot of folks that have a pride that they don't even know they have. When you make a statement like, I've worked for everything I've got, I want you to know I'm not lazy like a lot of other people. And I tell you what, I just work. And my work has made the difference. And that's why I'm successful. Well, God bless you for your work and your discipline. But what if you were living in a country where you could work yourself silly and not get ahead? You know why? Your work pays off because we have a country that the work ethic was greatly rewarded originally and we're still reaping the benefits of it. Yes, indeed. You apply yourself, you work, you do the best you can, you become an expert in your craft, like Proverbs says, and you'll stand before kings. You'll make a huge difference and you will do well. That's Proverbs. It's just one end of the other. But do you know why that works in the United States of America? Go try that in Peru. Go try it in Ecuador. Go try it in Bolivia. You can work yourself until you're absolutely nutty and you're not going to get ahead. unless somebody who has the strings of manipulation lets you in. Different situation. Now listen to me. Listen to what we're talking about here. God promises prosperity as a nation. God promises protection, verse 20 and 21. Where is the security of America? Well, I'll tell you what, it's in the Star Wars technology out there. I'm going, you know what? Praise God, I'm for anything they can do to help keep us safe, but our safety does not depend upon our technology. Our safety depends upon God Almighty in heaven. God promises continuing prosperity. If we repent, 23 and 24, he gives the former and the latter rains on the land. You say, what's that about? Well, when you plant, you've got to have some rain around the time of planting. And when you harvest, you've got to have some rain before the harvest in order to fill out the grain. You've got to have it. Who's going to give that rain? God. God is going to have to give it. And then God does the greatest thing. I've got to finish right here. God promises to do something else. Look at verse number 25. It's almost beyond understanding. So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locusts have eaten. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locusts have eaten. Think about what that says. You say, you mean he's going to give them those years back? No. Not in a literal sense. But he is going to make the future and the productivity and the blessing and the goodness seem so great that they're not even going to be able to compare the lack that they had compared to the blessings that God has given them. God promises to give back the past when we repent. Did you know that God is the only person who can do anything about the past? Stop and think about that. God is the only person who can do anything about the past. You can weep, cry, wail, turn over a new leaf. You can start a New Year's Resolution. You can do anything you want to. That has to do with today and tomorrow. It doesn't have anything to do with the past. That's why doing good works doesn't save your soul, because you can't change the past, you see. And so God gives back the past. What the locusts of life have eaten, God can give back. The years you lose in sin, God can make a thing of the past. The years you lose in self-absorption, God can make you forget that no more barrenness. Remember, the land was barren, but now it's going to be fruitful. No more fruitlessness. It's going to be full of fruit. No more shamefulness. Only God can do something about the past. The locust of the past, and you listen to some of these, the locust plagues of the past, public sins, might be addictions, habits, hate, envy, strife. Unforgiveness, self-absorption, selfishness, all public things that you can see. And there might be private things. Know the message that we need to hear. Pornography, physical and mental fornication, unfaithfulness, indifference, apathy, lost opportunity. A man asked a boy, son, is your mom a Christian? He said, yes, sir. Is your daddy a Christian? Yes, sir. But he's not working at it much. Think about it. Blowing your life is not living your life. God and God alone can do something about our past. And what does He do? Verse 26, He gives us contentment. What does He do? He gives us a reason to praise, verse 26. And then I love this in verse number 27. It says there, Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, I am the Lord your God, there is no other, and my people shall never be put to shame. He's the only one that can take away our shame. Take it away. Just take it right out of the prognosis, right out of the future. No prediction of shame for those that are walking in his ways and obeying him. You know, God can change the past. I had the chance last week to speak to celebrate recovery upstairs and saw all kinds of people come up there, wonderful people, all of them just as honest as the day is long. So what do you what's going on in your life? Well, you know, I'm a drunk or somebody. Well, you know, I was in all kinds of terrible things. You know, I stole this and somebody else. There was one person that I met that was in there because they had has some sort of statutory rape and I mean these people are just honest and broken hearted and they know that they've sinned and and everything under the sun and you know what I can stand up and I can say to those people upon the third authority of the Word of God you know what those locusts and the worms and the crawling and the creeping and the hopping and all those kind of locusts have done to you in your life because of the choices you made the ignorance that you the ignorance that you experienced and that you gave the lack of training that you might have had and the lack of opportunity to know the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ what the locusts have eaten He can return. Now you stop and think about that. What the locust have eaten, the locust of foolishness and all of these things that I might mention and many more. Only God can do something about our past. I'm looking at a lot of people here who have a past. And whether that past is dreadful or whether it's beautiful, only God deals in the past. And He can wash away our sins and make us white as snow. Now, I'm going to tell you when I stand up and I know that we live in a generation where there's so many young ladies and young men that lose that precious flower of innocence before they ever get to the marriage altar. And it's a travesty, it's a tragedy, and I know the culture speaks against it, but I'm going to tell anybody who's had the locust eat that up because of bad choices they made in their life, I'm going to tell you that God can restore. He can restore what the locusts have eaten, and He can take away those sad, horrible memories and guilt of the past, and He can give you a bright today and a better tomorrow. That's what God's Word teaches. I can't wait until next week to tell you about the young men dreaming dreams, and the old men having visions, and the young women prophets. And all the women prophets, raise your hand here tonight. Any prophets that are women? Everybody is scared of me. Scared of me to say this. God bless us. Use us. Help us. To be who you want us to be. Thank you for that little tiny book called Joel and the power that it packs. In Jesus name. Amen.