Lessons From Joel

Text: Joel

Introduction:

Ø Example of restoration:

Ø Smithsonian principle is to keep it just as it is, nicks and all without allowing it to deteriorate further

Ø Others prefer to restore things as much as possible to their original condition

Ø My pinball restorations

o Small metal parts are tumbled

o Large metal parts are de-rusted and buffed

o Playfields are completely stripped, cleaned, touched up

o Cabinets are repainted using stencils

o Cracked or broken parts are replaced with new, and when possible, original parts

Ø The goal is to bring the item into like new, or even better than new condition

Ø Some copies look better than originals

I. The World Has a Wrong View of God

A. They considered the Israelites’ God as impotent

1. He couldn’t protect them from the locusts (when in reality He was the one who sent the locusts)

a) The world considers God mean-spirited when He is really longsuffering and merciful

b) The world

2. Their wrong view of God was partly caused by the Israelites disobedience

a) The Israelites disobedience caused God to send the locusts in the first place

b) If they had remained obedient, the locusts would have never been sent

c) When we sin, we cause the world to have a distorted view of God

d) Our sin hurts not only ourselves, but God

e) We are to be lights to the world, but sin is darkness and dims our light

B. Wrong views of God

1. Benevolent grandfather

2. Vending machine

3. Cosmic Kill-joy

4. Everything will be alright Excuser

5. It doesn’t matter WHAT you believe as long as you BELIEVE

C. They judged God by their standards instead of by His standards

1. We ask, “How could a loving God send someone to hell?”

2. God asks, “How can a holy, righteous God let a sinner into heaven?”

3. We ask, “What’s the harm in a little sin?”

4. God asks, “What is a little sin?”

5. We ask, “What right does God have to judge me?”

6. God asks, “what right does the clay have to question the potter?”

D. God is in Control

1. Circumstances are not necessarily an indication of God’s lack of love or His presence

a) He may allow negative circumstances to teach us a lesson or to chastise us

b) Trials are used to mature us, not to cause us to doubt

2. Circumstances must be interpreted in light of God’s revelation

a) They may be used for chastisement

b) They may be used for maturity

c) They may be the natural result of the presence of sin in the world

d) Scriptural storm illustrations

(1) Jonah was in a storm for chastisement

(2) The sailors experienced the storm to bring them to God

(3) The disciples were in a storm to teach them maturity when Jesus said, “Peace be still.”

(4) Paul was shipwrecked in a storm as a testimony to the others on board

e) We must determine as best as possible the exact reason God has placed us in the storm and then do His will from there

II. Repentance and Service Should Be God-centered

A. We were created for the glory of God

B. Our lives should be God-centered, not man-centered or self-centered

C. The whole of our growth is the changing of the center of our attention

1. Kids start life with themselves as the center of attention

a) They walk through stores oblivious to others

(1) You have to teach them to look out for others

(2) You have to teach them to say “Excuse me”

b) They want schedules built around their lives

2. Part of maturity is changing the focus of attention

3. John the Baptist, “He must increase, but I must decrease”

a) “I must be lifted up”

b) “Ye must be born again”

c) “He must increase and I must decrease”

D. Examples of man-centered religion

1. The carrot-on-a-stick approach

2. “God, if you will do ??? then I will serve you”

3. The health, wealth, and prosperity gospel

4. The entertainment encroachment

a) The early church had no concerts

b) The early church had no buildings as monuments to men or their ministry

c) The early church had no comedians

d) The early church had no gyms

e) Entertainment is not wrong in itself unless it is sinful entertainment

f) Entertainment is not necessarily wrong on occasion at church meetings or fellowship meetings

g) Entertainment is NOT the PURPOSE

(1) Many will only go where they are entertained

(2) Many will not go where they are given the truth and made to feel “Woe is me”

h) The danger of television and ministry is that television is an entertainment medium and thus, anything is interpreted as entertainment or must be entertaining in order to survive

III. Restoration is Possible

A. God will restore

B. Samson’s hair began to grow

C. Restoration involves getting back what you lost

D. Repentance Precedes Restoration

1. The seven churches in Revelation 2-3 were told to “repent” or lose their candlestick

2. If chastisement was due to sin, then it only seems natural that to remove the chastising hand of God one must quit what brought on the chastisement