In His Steps 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7x3OX6v5_o Wonderful Words of Life

Psalm 149 NIV

1 Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of his faithful people. 2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King. 3 Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp. 4 For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory. 5 Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds. 6 May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, 7 to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, 8 to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, 9 to carry out the sentence written against them— this is the glory of all his faithful people. Praise the Lord.

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In His Steps

There is a certain Swedish furniture company that creates products that you assemble at home. While in the store, customers see the assembled furniture and how good it looks. But, when they purchase the item, it arrives in a box containing the furniture broken down in pieces. It must then be assembled by the customer. Some say that just as this company’s name is a four-letter word, frustration often sets in while putting the new furniture together and people are tempted to say some other four-letter words in their anger while trying to assemble the pieces.

Why is it so hard to assemble this new furniture? There are several reasons. First off, there can be dozens or even hundreds of parts and pieces to put together. Each part must be installed in the exact right place at the exact right time. (Ever been here done this?)

Second, the instruction manual is not always the easiest to follow. Since this company sells their products to people around the world, they use pictures rather than words for the instructions. Each step has a picture of what is happening, but there are few or no words.

Finally, you are on your own to assemble the new furniture-the box does not come with a person to guide you each step of the way. There is no tech support to call to help you when you become confused.

God does something very different from this when he assembles our new life in Jesus. Unlike assembling new furniture, God is the one who puts together our new life in Jesus. The steps to new life are not steps that we take; the steps to new life are steps that God has made for us in Christ Jesus.

Joel is a great demonstration of why this is so key. Why we needed Jesus to come and provide our salvation. Last week, we found that Joel was calling his people to pray and repent for them to be released from a plague of locusts. They had become comfortable in their land. They prospered and as they did so, they fell into decadent lifestyles which included lots of drinking and partying. (This sounds vaguely familiar, you think?) God had allowed hardships to occur to get their attention, but it blew right by them in their drunken and self-centered lifestyles.

However, Joel has been in God’s Word. He recognizes that God is allowing this plague of locusts, drought, and interference by enemies to get their attention. They can turn things around if they just repent and turn back to God.

Today we come to Joel chapter 2, and we find Joel stating that this locust plague is symbolic of another kind of locust that will invade them IF they do not change their ways. Today’s text is Joel’s description of the future invasion he sees coming their way.

Joel 2:1–11NIV

1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand— 2a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was in ancient times nor ever will be in ages to come. 3 Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste— nothing escapes them. 4 They have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like cavalry. 5 With a noise like that of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle. 6 At the sight of them, nations are in anguish; every face turns pale. 7They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course. 8 They do not jostle each other; each marches straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks. 9 They rush upon the city; they run along the wall. They climb into the houses; like thieves they enter through the windows. 10Before them the earth shakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine. 11 The Lord thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty is the army that obeys his command. The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?

The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

The Steps to New Life

As I stated last week, no one really knows the time of the writing of Joel. Some believe it was during the reign of Joash, approximately 825 - 809 BCE. Others say it was during King Hezekiah’s reign and the army described is that of the Assyrian invasion around 701 BCE. There are others who believe that since Joel does not name a king that it must be sometime after the Southern Kingdom was returned from their Babylonian exile, but others just say no king was named as the people he was writing to knew who the king was. Whatever the case, we know there are multiple times in history that this could fit. None of those situations change the focal point of his message, which is that they have sinned, and they need to repent so that God would save and restore them from the consequences of their sin. They are living in a dark time when the people have not followed God’s instructions and it has led to judgement. Once again, we look at a period when we see man’s depravity leading to...

I. Darkness & Judgement Joel 2:1-11

Last week, Joel called for them to repent so God would save them from the plague of locusts that have invaded their land and were destroying it for who knows how long. But Joel does not stop there. He declares that a day is coming when there will be another invasion. It will be just as devastating and invasive as the locusts and even more so, as this invasion will include people struck down in death by a vicious human army. So, Joel cries...

A. Sound the alarm ! Joel 2:1

Joel begins by calling for the trumpets in Zion to be blown. This was typically done from the southwest corner of the Temple mount. It is believed that the sound would carry 15 miles as the crow flies, across the countryside. There were four reasons for blowing the shofar.

• To call an assembly

• To announce a special event

• To mark a religious festival

• To warn the people of war!

The first and the latter are Joel’s reasons for the shofar to blow this time. He calls this, “A day of the Lord.” In other words, this army is coming in response to God’s design due to the disobedience of the people to their covenant with God.

Joel 2:11NIV

11 The Lordthunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty is the army that obeys his command. The day of the Lordis great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?

We have already seen in Habakkuk how God will sometimes use the wicked for His purposes to get His people’s attention. If you do not believe this, look a moment at the situation with the Assyrian army. Hear what King Sennacherib of Assyria said to King Hezekiah and the people of Judah in 701 BCE.

2 Kings 18:25NIV

25 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the Lord? The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’ ”

Note King Sennacherib’s use of the covenant name of God which is LORD in our Bibles. I do not believe this is a mistake. This would really strike home in the hearts of Judah. It is not a god, but it is their God who King Sennacherib is talking about.

This coming “day of the Lord” will be marked with...

B. Cosmic displays revealing it is an act of God. Joel 2:2, 10

Joel 2:2NIV

2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was in ancient times nor ever will be in ages to come.

Joel 2:10NIV

10 Before them the earth shakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine.

These could be caused from natural sources of a huge army coming forth in mass numbers, kicking up dust, smoke from fires set, horses galloping causing a tremor sensation, etc… Or these could be miraculous actions on God’s part. Either way, these were believed in ancient times to be signs of God’s judgement.

Then Joel describes...

C. A massive army much like a large swarm of locusts coming down upon Jerusalem. Joel 2:3-9

This coming invasion must be sometime after the locust invasion as he describes the land being like the Garden of Eden, lush, green, ripe with foliage, now being rendered as bleak as it was after the locusts. His description is so descriptive that we can visualize it as we read. No author of fiction could do it better. I cannot help but think that as Joel watched those locusts in their devastating masses crawling over the land, that God gave Joel a vision of the army to come. Perhaps this is what motivated Joel to begin his appeal to the people.

As you read, you can visualize this large dark shadow moving over and down the mountain in a thunderous roar. They stomp all vegetation in their path to the ground leaving a dark and bleak landscape. They are so massive and in full order. There is no room for any man to fall as he is supported by every man around him (it recalls to my mind that turtle formation of Rome we have talked about in the past. If this is post-exile, perhaps that is who it is). They cascade over the wall of the city, over and through the windows of homes. They kill, ravage and pillar as they go leaving next to nothing in their path. They burn and destroy the gardens and crops as they go leaving nothing unscathed.

Joel moans, “Who can endure it?” This day of the Lord!

We see in the people of Judah a perfect example of humanity. People who believe in God but continually drift away from God. People who believe they can make a good life for themselves without God until something goes awry. Like those customers who go into the store of my beginning illustration, and see the beautiful furniture, they think, “I can do that. It shouldn’t be that hard to put it together and create a beautiful piece of furnishing for my home.” Only to realize later that it is much harder and seemingly impossible to do so from the pictures.

No matter how hard we try to do the right thing, we continue to fail. Sin just seems to overcome us. Think back to the beginning of the Hebrew people. They are slaves in Egypt. God frees them from their slavery in a fantastic way. Each plague was a challenge to the gods of Egypt. God was literally showing that these idols that Egypt worship were useless. They had no power! They were only carvings, but the God of the Hebrews was the real thing.

Of course, this was not just for the Egyptians to see. God was displaying this for His people as well, so they would see and know He was the one real God. There was nothing He couldn’t do. But look how quickly they turned away to create an idol of their own? The very fact that they are standing at the foot of this mountain free of Pharaoh so soon after being slaves was proof of God’s power and reality, yet it did not take long for them to create an idol.

God gives them repeated chances to succeed with Him. They obey for a while and then they slowly (or quickly) drift away from God and the covenant which basically protects them and provides for them is left in the dust. Let’s place Joel on the earliest date which would have been King Hezekiah’s day. By this time, 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel have failed God so miserably, that they have been carried off by the Assyrians and will not be restored.

The other two tribes, that being the Kingdom of Judah, are doing some better but not much. Hezekiah repented and it was enough to preserve them for the moment from Assyria, but Hezekiah did not do enough to get them past his own rule. The very next king took them right down another wicked path. They bounced back and forth between following God and not following God for another 200 years before they were carried off to Babylon.

These things are recorded for us to see and understand. We cannot do what is right on our own. We cannot fix our lives and make them holy. Sin will always win out in us.

This paints a bleak and dark picture. We can look at history and must confess that we have done no better. Earthly powers continue to shift. Humanity continues to turn to “the dark side” if you are a Star Wars fan. 😊Sin just continues to grow and becomes more perverse. Each generation seems to lower the bar a bit more.

However, we do not have to live in fear of this bleak and dismal picture. God knew we would be unable to fix things and turn things around, so He provides the...

II. Light and Salvation Titus 3:3-8

This world needs…

Titus 3:3–8NIV

3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

From these verses we learn that...

A. Salvation is not through our works ! Titus 3:5

As we hear in Titus 3:5: "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy." Putting together a new bookshelf is work that we do:

· We follow the steps.

· We turn the bolts.

· We exert our effort to create a new creation.

Putting together eternal salvation is something that we cannot do:

· We are incapable of following the steps ourselves.

· We cannot turn back the deadbolt of sin.

· No human effort can ever create a new creation free from sin.

Now we can...

B. Thank God for providing a means for our salvation ! Titus 3:4-7

Thanks be to God, however, that he did not leave us to despair in a mess of parts and pieces with no way to put them all together. Rather, in Christ Jesus, God has taken the steps of new life for you. We hear in Titus 3:5-7 that "according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

God has completed all the steps that are needed for new life in Jesus. By the power of the Holy Spirit, God shines the light of truth on our lives so that we come to realize that apart from Jesus, we are in the dark. God took an audacious step of love by stepping into a broken world as he was born in human flesh in the Incarnation. Jesus willingly journeyed to the cross to shed his blood for the sins of the world and become the ladder linking heaven and earth together again.

God got his holy hands dirty as he worked to heal the mess of sin and bring about a new creation. Since God has completed the steps to new life, the work has been done. The newness of life that we have in Christ is by grace and not by works. It is already done, not something yet to be done. The good news of the Gospel does not come with a tiny disclaimer- "some assembly required.” Instead, the good news of the Gospel comes with a large promise: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

God designed the plan; Jesus did the work and now it is extended to us as a gift to receive. We can either choose to accept the gift or we can walk away from the gift. Titus 3:7 says, “so that being justified by his grace we might becomeheirs according to the hope of eternal life." This work that has been accomplished is only ours if we desire it. Revelation 3:20 says.

20‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

When we accept that invitation, God gives us the Holy Spirit to regenerate and renew us. By bringing us to new life in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit enlivens us to walk in his steps. Instead of making our own path in life…

C. God now has the means to guide us. Titus 3:8; Luke 9:23

Jesus invites you to follow Him in His cross-focused steps:

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

Jesus has done the work of assembling new life for you, so in the newness of life, you now walk in his steps! God does not give you new life by handing you a box of parts and a complicated instruction manual. God has not left you alone with some tools, some vague instructions, and a lifetime of trying to put it all together into something sturdy enough to withstand the storms and temptations of life. Far from it!

Instead, God has put the pieces of righteousness together himself. God got his holy hands dirty in Christ Jesus as he accomplished all the steps needed to win new life for you through the cross and empty tomb. And God has sent the Holy Spirit to you to make this gift of grace yours. When we follow in Christ’s steps...

D. We are now new people with a new life .

2 Corinthians 5:17 MSG

17 Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!

Now, regenerated and renewed by the Holy Spirit, we can walk in his steps knowing that he has assembled newness of life for us! Following Him daily from that point on becomes a great adventure. There are still bad days and tough times. Sin still exists in the world, and sometimes we suffer from the fallout. But now He directs and guides us through those times in ways that continue to build that new life stronger, healthier, and fuller. There is purpose and confidence of our eternal placement.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 (NIV)

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Conclusion:

What is happening in your life these days? Is your way dark and heavy? Are you suffering under the weight of circumstances from trying to assemble your life by yourself? If you have not yet accepted God gift of salvation, I encourage you not to wait another day. God does not always instantly remove all the consequences of our sin, but He does help us to find a way to through the consequences into better days. He can also lead you to better choices in the future.

Just this past week, I had an opportunity to share with someone once again, how God moved in my life. I thought I had the right motives and the right idea of how to run my life for God. That is correct, I had the best intentions of living a life for God. However, I failed to ask God what His exact plan was. I quickly found that my idea was not the right path, even though it was with the best intentions. That sinful pride in us can lead us down a wrong path even when we do love God. Despite my best efforts, I still ended up in a dark place. When I gave up my ideas of what my life would be like and what I was wanting to do, I found out that God had the better plan. I have never regretted it! Life is still hard at times. I still fail more than I wish. But God is always there to pick me up, dust me off, and assure me He still loves me and will see me through to the end. I have full confidence that when the end of this life comes, I will be with Him. There is no doubt in my mind.

Do not wait any longer. If you are in a dark place, ask for God’s help. If you have never done so before, ask Him to give you that new life. If you have done so, ask for His help to find the right path for you today.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, putting together the parts and pieces of life is more than we can do. Open our eyes to see how you have come in Christ Jesus to give us newness of life, already assembled. Send your regenerating and renewing Holy Spirit to us so that we can walk in your steps now and for all eternity. Amen.

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