Untitled Sermon

Let me parenthetically park here, before we move forward to give you some background about this book written by the minor prophet Joel.

The prophets before and after Joel are warning the people of that day of the Lord’s coming.

· The prophets before and after Joel are warning the people of that day of the Lord’s coming.

· The message in particular is for God’s people and to those who would listen and heed the message.

· The prophet is dealing with a people who are so easily distracted by what’s going on around them and in the midst of being distracted on several occasions.

· They lost what they had trying to get what they wanted.

· Not realizing their worth and the wealth and the favor that God had given them.

· The people of Jerusalem were always surrounded by takers and robbers, you know, those who sought to capture and destroy them.

· So, the prophet is pleading with them to repent and turn back to God in such a manner that God would restore all that the armies had taken from them.

· The Prophet is speaking metaphorically to them.

· I hope that you will indulge me today from the though,

I’M GETTING IT BACK

· Is there anyone in the house today who has ever lost anything or feel like you’ve missed out on something.

· Is there anyone in here ever had something taken away from you or had something stolen?

· Have you ever had someone come into your life and strip you of the best of who you were?

· Have you ever been in the position where your life was going well, and then suddenly, without notice, that very life, seemed to slip between your fingers.

· I must encourage your heart this morning, that if you’d, ever been reduce by anybody at any time for any reason, there is a promise, there is a bright side, nestled within the scriptures of our lesson today,

· Verse 25, “I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.”

· This is a word from Lord today because it reminds us that we don’t have to spend the rest of our life worrying about what someone has taken from us.

· This text is a reminder from God that we do not have to spend our days in constant recollection, reliving, re capturing, replaying in our minds what somebody did to us.

· As a matter of fact, somebody, under the sound of my voice is going through some difficult situation, not because you’d wronged anybody, but because instead of reaching for their potential and their God given gifts, they rather rob you of yours.

· Many of us have lived long enough to know that this world is filled with takers.

· This world is full of men, women, friends, family, and foes who come in and out of your life and want take everything that you got.

· They never deposit nothing back into it!

· As a matter of fact, they have the nerve to look at you funny when you don’t have anything left to give.

· Am I talking to anybody…

· This word is for those who have had to survive

· Takers

· And Robbers

· And Thieves

· This word is for those who have to wrestle with the (arjooes) arduous task that required you to give more when you don’t have nothing left

· The Good news is that God said the years are coming back.

· Somebody is in the right place today

· You need to let every taker, every thief, every robber, who came into your life know what you meant for evil.

· God is about to take it and turn it around for your Good.

· Tell your Neighbor, I’m headed to my blessings.

· And my blessings are headed to me

· The blessing and joy of this text is that it frees us.

· It frees us from having to keep score.

· It frees us from having to catalog.

· It frees us from having to capture every heartbreak, every grief, every pain in our lives - you do not have to keep track of all the time you were messed over and left out,

· I can hear Grandmother right now, reminding me, that God isn’t sleep, nor is God Dead

· God saw, God heard, and God knows everything that others have done to you.

· God knows that it hurts, that it almost destroyed you, but our job is not to worry about it.

· Our job is not to keep score

· Our job is not to try and get even

· But our job is to keep on living

· Our job is to keep on being faith

· Even youth grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

· Some us build for ourselves monuments of pain and sorrow, due to the fact that we have had only takers in our lives.

· Now you’re sitting are around having a pity party for yourself

· Don’t you every give anybody that much power

· No one should have that type of power over you

· Tell your neighbor don’t you do it.

· God said that I will restore the years

· Therefore, you should still have

· A dance in your feet

· A clap in your hands

· A song in your mouth

· Joy in your heart

· And don’t you ever let the devil think

· That he or she can do more to you than what God for you

· You ought to declare I’m still blessed

· Blessed in the city and blessed in the field

· Blessed in my rising, blessed in my sitting

· There are a lot of people who are good at testifying about how broken they are how hurt they are, how much they’ve been through

· But is there anybody who can testify how blessed you are!

· Bless beyond a Thousand mid-nights

· Bless beyond all the spans of the seas

· Let me give you something to think about

· Your bed Vs. the hospital bed

· Conciseness Vs. induce Comma

· Breathing on your own Vs. Breathing on respirator

· Walking cane and wheel chair Vs. amputee

· amputee and prosthesis Vs. the grave

· I wasn’t trying to go there

· But every now and then we forget how bless we really are

· Well the heart of the message this today is

· That God promise to restore the lost years

· Many of us have lost years years years

· We can do stuff in minuets that will take us years to get out of

· I’m a witness that some things would be different in my life had I not made some questionable decision

· Had I not followed some of my friend’s advice, or emulated their actions some things I would have done differently

· Had I listened to wisdom rather than foolishness I would be years ahead

· The prophet Joel declared thus said the Lord

· I will give you back the years, not just the stuff, but the years.

· My sister and brothers, we have been taught that time is an unredeemable resource

· We been taught that once time is gone it has been lost forever

· But, the prophet is declaring that God is about to reach into Chronos, and pull out seconds.

· Reach into seconds and pull back the minutes.

· Reach into the minutes and pull back the hours.

· Reach into the hours and pull out the days.

· Reach into the days and pull out the months

· Reach into the months and pull out the years.

· Shout! It’s coming back!

· Our biggest problem, is that our lives are wrapped up in Chronos hours, minutes, seconds, days, months, and years.

· However, this is where most try to trap God!

· God is not Chronos or Kairos, but God is eternal!

· For us there is a past, present, and future

· But with God there is before and after

· That is what happen before the Blessing

· And what happen after the blessing

· Well there are 4 things or 4 kind of people or 4 situations

· that will try to destroy or attack you and seek to robs your years

· the prophet Joel lays it out like this

· The metaphor of Palmer-worm is the cutting locust eats away at the wood

· The enemy does not always attack us where we are weak

· Sometimes the enemy attacks us in our strength or our strong place the place where we are the most gifted

· To make us feel insecure in the areas that we are gifted, so that the best qualities about us become the things we are most insecure about.

· The palmerworm did not attack the flower but it attacks the wood.

· Some of us have people in our life that have made us second guesting the vary thing that God has call us to do.

· And thus, we find ourselves seeking encouragement when we have inside of us what it takes to encourage ourselves.

· Then there is the Locust, the swarming locust

· The swarming locust will smoother you with their over whelming numbers

· We have people in our life who smoother us

· With their issues, with their problems and their attitudes, with their needs and desires

· Thus, you became surrounded and smoother by other people, and becoming and doing what they wanted

· That in the midst of their smothering you lost who you were and where you were headed

· Am I talking to anybody

· Then there’s the Canker-worm the canker worm are the hopping locust they are to small to fly

· Some of our problems are that we are dealing with small people, small ideals, small issues, small problems, small things that don’t matter

· Having to have small conversations, when you where crated by God to do big things, have big dreams, and big plans

· And now you are reduced to arguing over foolishness

· Look at the Untied States and the political climate

· Look at our churches and Schools and communities we have focused more on small things that did not matter

· that the things that do matter are way out of control

· we went to sleep and we got to stay woke

· then there is the Caterpillar the caterpillar is the killing worm

· it sought to kill and destroy the caterpillar ate up everything

· Please understand that there were and are people in your life who wanted you to die

· and they would’ve come to your funeral just to make sure that you were in the casket

· But, God promised to give back that which was taken

· God said I’m going to reach into the Palmerworm and make it give you back your strength

· I’m going to reach into the Locust and make it give you back your time

· I’m going to reach into the Cankerworm and make it give you back your size

· I’m going to reach into the caterpillar and make you give back your life and your future

· You are going to get it back because locust don’t live long

· You are going to get it back because can’t nobody curse what God has blessed

· It coming back

· Your peace

· Your hope

· Your confidence

· Your strength

· Your child

· Your money

· Your health

· Your home

· Your job

· the kingdom of heaven suffered violence,

· and the violent take it by force.

· Take it back

· Take it back

· You going to get it back because God is a promise keeper

· You going to get it back because God is a way maker.

· You going to get it back because God is a light in the midst of darkness.

You going to get it back because God is a light in the midst of darkness.