Chesed. We are in the fall, we are in Elpis,
however you want to say the Greek word for hope.
Chesed, that good Hebrew word, back of your throat,
is that steadfast love of God. And we're looking
at this kind of through two different lenses.
We're looking at one through the Minor Prophets.
We did Hosea last week, we're doing Joel this
week. These are all Minor Prophets, mainly because
of the length of the book. You can probably read
all of the Minor Prophets within a half an hour,
40 minutes or so. They are short. kind of quick
books. These prophets had a job to do. They went
in, did a job, kind of got out. These aren't
the Isaiahs or the Jeremiahs or the Ezekiels
that had much longer sustained kind of prophetic
journeys. And we're looking at a love or a chesed
that restores from the book of Joel. Restoration
is a funny thing. When we think of restoring
something, what do we think of? Again, if you're
a guest here this morning, I like to get a little
bit of interaction because there's a lot of wisdom,
right? A lot of wisdom in the seats and it doesn't
all need to be mine, right? You guys have that
and it's awesome when you guys give and sometimes
it's really funny with some of the things you
say as well. But when you think of the word restoration,
what do you think of? To make new. Absolutely.
Sure. Yeah. What else? HDTV. HGTV, right? And
HD, I guess it's high definition too. HGTV, why
that, Jess? Yeah, all restoration shows, right?
Like Home Makeover, they can do that in an hour,
right? My bathroom took a month, but they did
all that in an hour. Unbelievable, right? What
else? To bring it. Jess, don't try to get on
again. Henry, that was you, right? Kathy, can
you give him a high five? You can be joyful about
giving him a high five. That's your husband.
There you go. All right. See me in my office
afterwards. To bring it back. Wow. I love all
of you. I don't know if anyone's going to top
that, so we're just going to keep going. To bring
it back. Wow. Okay. We're going to bring that
back probably later. What Joel's going to remind
us is that God's hesed is there. God's hesed
is a reminder. God brings his hesed love back
when everything is gone. So let's enter this
space. Really, when someone's in need of restoration,
it's because they've been either beaten down,
they've beaten themselves down, things have broken
down. When I think of restoration, I think of
like a car, right? To restore a car is to make
new, to bring it back to its former glory, if
you will. So let's dive in this intro called
Everything is Gone. Some sins are quiet. Ones
that we could just kind of sneak in or kind of
hide. Some sins are catastrophic. Some of these
consequences of sin tend to creep in slowly over
time. They tear things down little by little
to the point where sometimes we don't even realize
it until that straw that breaks the camel's back
breaks. Other sins arrive like a storm. And leave
nothing standing. Total devastation. But Joel,
this minor prophet, speaks to a people who wake
up one morning to realize that everything is
gone. Again, prophets did not have easy jobs.
A lot of them were known as weeping. Because
they had to weep through what their prophetic
voice needed to say to a people. But God did
the preparation. God did the talking. God brought
the restoration. The prophet was just the vessel.
The people of Israel wake up, their crops are
destroyed, the economy has collapsed, worship
has stalled, and joy completely evaporated. Poof,
gone. And into the devastation, Joel declares
something that I think we need to hear in this
new year, and that is that God's hesed is not
only a love that pursues, like we talked about
last week, it's a love that restores. Hosea showed
us that God chases his wandering bride, us, the
church. Joel is going to show us today what happens
when the damage is done and what God tends to
do. This is a word that Munster Church needs.
Whether individually or collectively, this understanding
about grace. Because that's the other lens we
look at. The minor prophets and the canons of
Dort, one of our confessions that talk about
grace. Grace does not only forgive sin, grace
restores what sin has ruined. When I think of
something ruined, right, I think of something
that ultimately has to get thrown away, discarded.
It's broken beyond repair. It's gone, the former
glory, whatever it is, we need to toss it out.
God doesn't always see it that way. But let's
dive into the devastation first. When sin and
judgment strip everything away. We'll be in the
book of Joel, right? We're going to start in
Joel 1. Joel 1 verse 4. What the cutting locust
left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the
swarming locust left, the hopping locust had
eaten. And what the hopping, keep going, I'm
not done. I don't have it memorized. The destroying
locust has eaten. It's very repetitive. Okay?
Very repetitive. This is, and again, we may look
at this and go, okay, so locust has eaten stuff.
Great. Where are my farmers? You feel this, right?
I mean, do you battle locusts? Grasshoppers.
All right, that's the Hebrew for locusts is grasshoppers.
Good job. Yeah, so, but, I mean, we don't, like.
A locust eats one of my plants. Who cares? But
for a farmer, it's everything, right? When you
wake up and crops are gone, right? I think we
have the Yukons, we have the Smedbergs, right?
There are farmers in the group, so you're going
to get picked on. Anyone else farm and I don't
realize it? And this isn't like you grow plants,
right? I know, wait, Cheyenne, you also have,
I mean, you do a little bit of vegetables, right?
I know. I've eaten those peppers. They're hot
and good. They're great. But you guys wake up,
so we'll go back to Smedberg's and to Yukon's.
You wake up and your fields are completely decimated.
How are you feeling? Bad. Yeah. Yukon's, how
are you feeling? Angry. Yep, absolutely. Destroyed.
Devastated. I think the word restoration for
them means something different. Because they're
looking out at their livelihoods and they're
going, how can we recoup? How can we receive?
How can this be restored? And this is a vision
of Israel. Joel is likely speaking to a post
-exile Judah. That northern people of Israel,
through the exact date, it's debated and it doesn't
matter. What's not debated is that a massive
locust plague has devastated the land. Locust
plagues in the ancient Near East meant total
collapse. These little locusts, or Smedbergian
grasshoppers, they total collapse. Economic,
social, spiritual. A lot of us, we can't... It's
hard to engage that because we don't understand
that mindset. So insert whatever profession you
have, you wake up and it's gone. It is totally
collapsed. So it's funny how if our livelihood
goes away, we collapse economically, socially,
and if we're being honest, spiritually. Grain
offerings and drink offerings have ceased because
there is nothing left. To bring. Let that sit
for a minute. You're feeling bad. You're feeling
angry. You're desperate. Because you have nothing
left to bring. This is not a minor inconvenience.
Like, when I was writing this sermon, I went
to, yeah, when we don't spray for mosquitoes,
it's super annoying. That is not what they're
feeling right now. At all. This is an existential
crisis for Israel. I'm not like making this super
dramatic. This is what they're feeling. This
is what Joel is called to speak into. And Joel
piles on with imagery. The drunkards have no
wine. The priests are mourning. The farmers are
ashamed. And joy has dried up. I've used this.
I've used this analogy before, or this kind of
vision before. I'm going to bring it back because
I think it warrants. It's a little bit of a rabbit
trail. But we all show up on Sunday, right? Let's
say next Sunday. We all show up, and our entire
campus is leveled. The highest point are the
tombstones in the back. How are we feeling? Probably
pretty devastated, right? I looked over at April
and she's like freaked out, right? I think I
would feel that way, right? I mean, we would
feel like what in the world? It would probably
cause us to not only pause, but it would shock
us. It would. This church has gone through that
before. People of this church, how many people
were alive and around when it burned? Only a
handful, right? Right? Some of you, you guys
were there. And some of you are like, wow, this
church burned? Yeah, after church. Go look. There's
pictures of it right there. Joel does something
important here, right? He refuses to minimize
the devastation. He refuses to just kind of pet
them like, it's going to be okay. He doesn't
minimize it because grace does not begin with
denial. In order for this understanding of grace
to really be implemented, we'll get there in
a second, this chesed love does not pretend everything
is fine. And for a lot of us, we like to do it.
It's going to be fine. We're good. It's going
to be fine. Everything's okay, right? That is
a way to try to mask denial in your situation.
And here's the thought. Joel interprets the disaster
theologically. This isn't random. This isn't
like, wow, that was a bad day. Wow, that's just
bad luck. Or it's just the climate. No, he looks
at this as a wake -up call from God. Verse 15,
alas for the day. The day of the Lord is near.
The day of the Lord is not just future judgment.
It is God breaking into history to confront sin
and call his people back. Here is another week
wrecker, right? Evan and the team gave us that
song. I'm giving you another one. The day of
the Lord can happen in your life tomorrow. The
day of the Lord can happen in your life this
afternoon. It might be happening to you right
now. That the Lord is coming in. He's breaking
into your history to confront your sin and call
you back. And that's the call. Right? We're going
to jump into Joel 2. The call is return to me.
It's a grace that summons repentance. That word
summons is important. Right? Summons, to me,
goes to that legal thing, right? You get a summons,
you have to show up to court. I think that's
how that works, right? Garrett, is that how that
works, if you get a summons? He's not here, but
Amy, you're married to him, right? You get a
summons, right? There's that lawyer, you know,
two become one. But understand, that's not like,
I'm not going to go, because I think that's when
the bounty hunters come after you. I probably
have that wrong, it doesn't matter. But understand
that when you're summoned, you have to respond.
And this is God summoning, right? This is grace
that summons repentance. Let's go to Joel 2.
Joel 2 says, Yet even now, remember those three
words, declares the Lord, return to me with all
your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with
mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in
steadfast love, abounding in chesed, and he relents
over disaster. This is one of the most gracious
yet statements. found in Scripture. Everything
is ruined. The people deserve judgment. Yet even
now, God speaks. And notice, notice this morning,
God calls for three things. He calls not for
outward religion alone. He doesn't care about
the outward right now because when God is summoning,
when grace is summoning repentance, it doesn't
care about the outward. This is going right to
the soul. He's not calling for surface level
regret because let's be honest, surface level
regret for us is I'm sorry I got caught. He's
not looking for religious performance. God is
calling for true Not repentance, an inward turning,
not a staged display, which we all get PhDs in.
We love to put it on the outward, right? We love
to just, you know, the outward's all good, right?
We can put that face on, we can paint that face,
we can mask it, we can project it, but God is
not worried about the outward right now because
the outward's been destroyed. It's the inward
that God is working at. Grace 101 this morning.
That repentance is a gift of grace. So this is
head three and four, line three. Humans are incapable
of true repentance on your own. Type A alphas,
we don't like this. I want to have control over
my repentance. We can't do true repentance on
our own. We don't have it in us to do it. Second,
that God regenerates the heart, making repentance
possible. That God's going to go into the heart
and he's going to till that soil. He is going
to tenderize the heart to receive his message.
And for some of us, which is crazy, we don't
like that because that means we're not in control
of our own emotions. Friend, we shouldn't be.
If God's the one that created your emotions,
God's the one that can set it in the right place.
Joel's not preaching moral reform. He's preaching
grace -enabled repentance. Repentance is not
the price we pay to earn restoration. Repentance
is the door God opens so we can actually receive
it. Let me say that again. Repentance is not
the price we pay to earn restoration. Repentance
is the door God opens so we can receive it. This
is hesed in focus. Joel anchors his call to repentance
in God's character. For he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger abounding in hesed. This is covenant
language straight from Exodus 34. God's hesed
is the reason repentance is possible. You cannot
repent unless God loves. Did you ever think about
that? That God loves you. God wants that relationship
with you. God is desiring you and he wants you
to desire him in a way that is holy. In a way
that is not wrought with sin. God does not say
return because you've proven yourself. He says
return because I am who I am. I am. Sit in that
one with me for a second. God does not say, hey,
you've worked on yourself enough. You are not
worthy enough. You've proven yourself to return
back to me. No. God says return because I am
who I am. But there's the turn, right? The turning
point. God responds to repentance with compassion.
We're going to continue in Joel 2. Then the Lord
became jealous for his lands and had pity on
the people. The Lord answered and said to his
people, Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine,
and oil, and you will be satisfied, and I will
no more make you a reproach among the nations.
This verse marks the turning point in the entire
book. And again, it's not that long, but it's
the turning point. God seizes people, not with
irritation, but with compassion. The word jealous
here is covenantal. Where else do we hear that?
For I am a jealous God, returning the iniquities
of the generations of those who hate me. Where
is that found? We read it most of the time, last
Sunday of the month. Ten commandments. God, this
jealousy is covenantal. It is jealousy of a God
who refuses to abandon his people. Refuses to
abandon his people for more destruction. Now,
some of you are struggling, like, well, isn't
he the one bringing it? So why is he like, he's
a flip -flopper. Careful. God is God. We are
not. Right? This is a judgment. We don't like
that word. We don't as a church. We don't as
a people. Who are you to judge me? And you're
right. I should not judge you. You should not
judge me. Yet, we do it all the time. We should
hold each other accountable, right? When we see
something going on, brother to sister, sister
to sister, brother to brother, you know, pastor
to church, church to pastor, elder, deacon, everybody.
We hold each other accountable, but we're never
up here. We love to do that. But as I said, a
stance over someone is not a stance of Christ.
Guess who can judge? God. The creator. The sustainer.
The judge. If he's called to judge, guess what?
He gets to judge. God's jealousy is not an insecurity
of his. This is hesed in action. It's a fierce
love that moves towards restoration. And we see
it. We see it kind of visually, and I can appreciate
that as someone who needs it. The promises begin
to be poured back out where they didn't have
any. They have grain and wine and oil restored.
Their shame has been removed. The fear is now
replaced with joy. This is a staggering promise.
Let's go back to our farmers. However long, you
then wake up and your fields are full. What are
we thinking? We had anger and it's a bad situation.
Help me out, guys. Now what are you feeling?
Amazing. Joy. Did I tell you guys what to say?
No, the answer to that is no. Okay. I will restore
you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.
I will restore. Not just crops. Not just resources,
years. This is a grace that rebuilds what sin
destroyed. So now we're in the muck. Now we're
in the mire. Now we're in that sin that's been
realized, received, and now we need to reject
it. Friends, we need to reject sin, yet we love
it and we do it. and we live in it, but we need
to reject it. This is one of the most hope -filled
verses in the entire New Testament. God does
not say, I will give you something new to distract
you from the loss. He says, I will help you cope
with what's gone. I will restore. This is chesed.
This is grace. Grace 201. The canons of Dort
teach us that God's grace does not merely rescue,
it sustains and it renews. Verses 1 -3 of head
5. Believers may fall into serious sin, but God
preserves them. Head 5 -7. God renews repentance
and restores fellowship. Leave that one up there,
Cheryl. If we are renewed, We've repented that
restoration. It doesn't happen like that. It's
over time. What sin has destroyed over time,
yes, God can make new in the moment. 20 years
into this, 40 years into life, that takes time.
Because guess what we tend to fall back into?
Our sin. Even the sin we just repented from,
even in our restoration, we can fall back into
that sin. But what does the canons teach us?
That God renews repentance, restores fellowship.
Yes, even the person in this room that has burned
you. Even that person that you have burned. Fellowship
can be restored. We can all worship again together.
Does that happen practically? Not all the time.
Not all the time. Sometimes that's because of
the level of the sin that we either caused for
somebody or they caused on us. But Joel here
shows God's chesed. God's chesed meets us in
the devastation. He calls us, summons us back
to repentance. He rebuilds what sin and judgment
have torn down. You're not building it. Balcony
folk, you're not building it. Church virtual,
you're not building it. I'm not building it.
Elders and deacons aren't building it. Pledge
drives aren't building it. Plans, visions, missions
aren't building it. God's the one that builds
it back up. Why? Because grace isn't fragile.
Grace is not temporary. Grace is restorative.
To go back to Henry. Henry, what did you say
in the very beginning? What does restoration
mean to Newt? It brings it back to a God who
always has been. Grace isn't fragile. It's not
temporary. It restores. It brings it back. Joy
restored. God dwells among his people again.
Joel's restoration ends with worship. I love
that. And I love that because it reminds me I
need to do that more. There are times, yeah,
I'll walk through a situation. I'll walk through
a season of life. I'll repent of it. I'll work
through restoration. And I... Just sit there
and go, and my pessimistic mind, some of you,
glass full, right? A lot of you, optimistic people.
Some of you, pessimistic people, you know, glass
half empty. Mine, glass falling over. And sometimes
I just sit there and I go, Lord, thank you for
bringing me through that. I know I'm going to
fall into it again. And I think that's probably
a lot of us. And I think part of that is because
we don't trust ourselves. I'm a pastor. I know
God's grace is abundant. His mercies are new
every morning. Like, I get all of that. I get
all of that here. Heck, I probably even get that
here. But I just don't trust me. Joel speaks
into that as well. He is restoring me just as
he is restoring you. And that restoration takes
time. Because I know that I know that I know
when I'm met with that temptation again, there's
going to be a lot of me that wants to go right
into the sin. When God's going, no, go left into
my grace. But instead of just sitting and dwelling,
what if I turn that dwelling and that mourning
into worship? Because guess what? We feel better
when we worship. Right? We should. And if you
get so upset because that song wasn't done by
organ, you're making the song about you, not
about the song and worship, just like we do both.
Find joy in the words. Find joy in the singing
of understanding what God is doing. You can do
that with the organ. You can do that with the
drums. You can do that in your car by yourself.
And that's okay too. If we respond to that restoration
with worship, guess what? We're creatures of
habit. We're going to want to do that again.
Right? It's why we call camp highs, camp highs,
retreat highs, retreat highs, conference highs,
conference highs. Right? It's not because you
go there and smoke, but it's because of the joy
of the Lord coming to you. I remember growing
up, I had camp highs all over the place. Right?
You get done with a week of camp, Camp Manitoba,
you want to take on the world. I wanted to go
around and just beat the devil wherever he was.
Probably look like a psycho doing it, but guess
what? High school, junior high, high school gym,
two weeks later, oh, she's cute. Wait, God, you
restored me from that? Don't care. We can't live
in that high and the low because God is everlasting
upon everlasting. I'm trying to do it by my strength.
That's never it. Joy is restored because of God,
not because of us. The ultimate sign of restoration
is not prosperity. It's renewed praise. You go
through that low economic time in your life.
You miss a payment. All of a sudden you get those
collector calls and you freak out. And then something
happens, whether you can explain it or not. It's
usually God anyway, right? And all of a sudden
you've made it through. Guess what we tend to
do? Go back to worrying about when it's going
to happen again. What Joel is reminding us is
don't live in that. Live in the restoration that
God has done it. We should praise him. Oh, and
here's a little rabbit trail. And I'm saying
this first to me. I even recognize at times that
it's God giving me that. That that praise, wow.
And I have the audacity to say, God, when you
bless me next time, can you bless me with more?
I'm glad you're laughing at me because we do
that, especially those that have been in the
church for a long time. Or, and this is just
coming to me now, we have the audacity to look
at the blessing and go, that's it? Friend, Jim,
me, we can't go there. We can't go there. Right?
Let's say we get the $2 million in a couple weeks.
I'm going off book. I apologize. Praise the Lord.
Job's not done. Right? We're not going to show
up the next Sunday and boom, there's the new
building. No, there's a lot more things that
we have to work through. Let's turn it the other
way. Two weeks, the $2 million's not there. What
do we do? Do we just shut it down? Do we just
come in and our anger, our disappointment just
takes sledgehammers to everything? No. No, we
sit and go, okay, God, if not here, if not now,
what? Because is God caged by our $2 million?
Never. Is God bigger than $2 million? Oh, yeah.
And we worship. And we praise. Last Sunday of
this month, if the money doesn't come in, are
we going to shut down worship? If we ever do
that, we just shouldn't be a church. Because
we are now conditional to that junk. And that
should never be the case. Because what Joel is
teaching, right, what the ultimate sign of restoration
is, is renewed praise. Joel 2 .27, you shall
know that I am in your midst. That's the heart
of hesed. It's not gifts. It's not just blessings.
It's God himself dwelling with his people. God
will dwell in us whether we're worshiping here
in a bigger building or we're worshiping in a
strip mall somewhere. They started the church
there. They started it in a local business in
Munster. It wasn't in a building, but it grew
and it grew and it grew. Great. This points us.
God himself is dwelling. Remember, this is Old
Testament. And what these prophets are doing
is they're pointing to New Testament. They're
pointing to Jesus, the outpouring of the Spirit,
Pentecost, and ultimately Christ dwelling with
his church. So where do we go from here today,
friends? What does Joel teach us about living
out this hesed today? First, God can restore
what you thought was gone forever. Here's a list.
I'm just going to welcome you to it. Some of
you today are carrying regret, spiritual dryness,
relational fracturing, lost years, seasons marked
by failure. And what Joel declares over you today,
no loss is beyond the reach of God's restoring
grace. Second. Repentance is not shame. It's
hope. Repentance is not God rubbing our nose
in the failure. That's what we think God does.
And maybe if you need that, maybe God rubs that
a little bit. Maybe God meets you there and goes,
okay, if you need to sit in that, sit in it.
But I'm sitting in it with you. Repentance is
not God rubbing our nose in failure. It's God
opening up the door. For renewal. It's God looking
at you in the midst of your sin and saying, I
did not create you for that. This is so much
better. Third, restoration leads to worship and
gratitude. Grace that restores produces a life
of praise, humility, obedience. God brings you
through that season, write a song. That's what
the Psalms are. Write a song. Maybe you're the
only one that will ever see it, but write it
out to God in a song of praise, in a song of
heartache. Fourth, the church must, must be a
place of restoration. If God restores his people,
all of us, Church virtual, if God restores us,
what does this mean? Oh, here's the final week
record. We must be patient with one another.
We must be slow to write people off. But pastor,
they hurt me. They stabbed me in the back. They
stole from my business. They hurt my family.
Doesn't God have the right to do that for us?
Doesn't he ultimately, can he ultimately say
to us, Munster Church, you put my son on a cross?
But he doesn't, so we shouldn't. Third, if God
restores his people, we must be eager to walk
with repentant sinners. Everybody look to your
right, not awkwardly. Everyone look to your left.
Everyone look behind you. Some of you tried to
do that without actually moving. That was awkward.
Everybody look here. We all walk together. This
is what hesed looks like in the midst of community.
And those two words, and I'm going to end it
here, even now. If Hosea teaches us that God
pursues us when we wander, Joel teaches us this.
Even now. after the damage, after the loss, after
the failure, God's hesed still speaks. The candidates
at Dort remind us today that repentance is God's
gift, restoration is God's work, and perseverance
is God's promises. And hear this. If you don't
hear anything else, hear this. That is good news
for a church on a journey. Yet even now, return
to me. That invitation will always be available.
Let's pray.