When The Joy is Gone
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2 Hear this, you elders, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children about it, Let your children tell their children, And their children another generation.
4 What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.
7 He has laid waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white.
12 The vine has dried up, And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate tree, The palm tree also, And the apple tree— All the trees of the field are withered; Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.
12 The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; The pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, Even all the trees of the field, are withered: Because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
Title
Our Theme this week has been
Awakening
Awakening
31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
We must Awaken in Prayer
++Consistency
++Compassion
++Signs & Wonders
++Unity
We must Awaken in Prayer
++Global Connection
++Intercession and Evangelism
++Passing revival to the next Generation
How do we do this effectively?
Today the call to a greater intimacy with God thunders louder and louder as the challenge to that intimacy is greater and greater.
God has called His followers to be a people of Prayer
God has called His followers to be a people of Prayer
14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Life challenges that call
Life challenges that call
7 All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counselors and advisors, have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree, that whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.
Daniel recognized the significance of Prayer
Daniel recognized the significance of Prayer
10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.
Last week we spoke of the relationship that God established with man in creation.
Man walked in perfect communion with God
Man walked in perfect communion with God
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Man was bless by God in three areas
Man was bless by God in three areas
God gave man
++Fruitfulness
++Effectiveness
++Authority
Man as given the capacity
++To be fruitful
++To multiply
++To fill the earth
++To have dominion
Man had fellowship with God
Man had fellowship with God
Joel is witnessing a natural disaster
Joel is witnessing a natural disaster
Nothing like this before
Nothing like this before
Israels crops are
++Being decimated by Locust
++Nothing is being spared
Joel was a Prophet of God
Joel was a Prophet of God
He was not commissioned
++To provide a whether report
++To give a crop forecast
++To tell them what they new
He would give them the word of the Lord
He would give them the word of the Lord
The word of the Lord
++Brings Clarity
++Brings Confidence
++Brings Hope
When you are faced with a crisis moment
When all hell breaks loose around you
God is trying to tell you something
God is trying to tell you something
2 Hear this, you elders, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children about it, Let your children tell their children, And their children another generation.
Look carefully at what has happen
Look carefully at what has happen
4 What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.
The prophet opens the book with an observation.
++It was a complete devastation
++An unceasing devastation
++It was instinctive
It was by the influence of a carnal nature that the prodigal felt it necessary to choices that would take him away from his father.
Today we to are in a battle
++To be with our Heavenly Father
++Be consumed by our carnal choices.
This destruction
++Was not instant
++Was a process
++Came over time
12 The vine has dried up, And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate tree, The palm tree also, And the apple tree— All the trees of the field are withered; Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.
What do you do?
When the Joy is Gone
When the Joy is Gone
When the things that brings you joy have been taken
++You get married
++Have kids and grand kids
++You have worked hard to build a family
++You are happy
The kids grow up an leave
++Things get rocky in marriage as you reset
++Retirement is not what you expected
This too is a natural process.
++None of things caused the challenges
++Somewhere you have lost your joy
Promise of Restoration
Promise of Restoration
21 Fear not, O land; Be glad and rejoice, For the Lord has done marvelous things!
23 Be glad then, you children of Zion, And rejoice in the Lord your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, And He will cause the rain to come down for you— The former rain, And the latter rain in the first month.
Do not fear but rejoice
++The Lord is still working
++The rain is coming.
25 “So 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.
26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame.
Joy Restored
Joy Restored
The power of a restored joy is not
++in things
++situations
++circumstances.
It is the redemptive story of God
It is the redemptive story of God
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.
29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
God’s Restoration come with a seal
++Sealant preserves the work
++Extends the life of the restoration
God sends his spirit as a seal of restoration.
God sends his spirit as a seal of restoration.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God,
22 who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.
4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
32 Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
33 And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.