RESTORED THROUGH REPENTANCE

Introduction

-{Joel 2}

-I think (and I would hope) that world events are weighing on our minds. Not the knee-jerk reactions proclaiming we’re in the end times (because we may or may not be–that’s not the point). But I would hope it would cause us to think deeply about what our faith has to say about these things, and what is our place in making a difference in the midst of these situations—offering gospel solutions. I would hope that we don’t just merely dismiss things like the shooting in Texas or the shooting in Buffalo or shootings elsewhere because they don’t directly affect us, or even merely dismiss them as political or philosophical issues—not something for Christians to bother with. These events affect people made in the image of God, and the world is waiting for someone to stand up and make sense of it and give some answers.

-The ultimate answers to these issues are NOT the points that political pundits try to make them out to be. It is NOT about guns, no matter which side of the issue you fall on. It is about the darkness and wickedness that displays itself in these actions, and why there was no light to dispel that darkness. Why are these things happening in a supposedly Christian nation? If you haven’t been asking yourself these types of questions, you’ve given yourself over to ignorance and apathy—you don’t know and you don’t care. But we can do better. We have to do better.

-I know that for a time even before these things happened I have been asking myself why in the world is the church of America, that enjoys so many freedoms and has access to so many resources, so anemic and powerless and shallow. Why are we that way? Why am I that way? Why is the church in America and why is our church and why am I not making any impact on the culture such that these kind of things are not prevented by the light that we proclaim to have? Could it be because we aren’t shining the light? Could it be that we have taken our light and hidden it under a basket through our prideful and selfish outlook on life?

-This world right now needs a church that is strong in the power of the Holy Spirit. The world does not need a group of spectators meeting to watch a show or hear a pep-talk. And I believe God is ready and willing (and we know He is more than able) to restore His church in America so that it does shine His light in this present darkness. The question is are we willing to pay the price to make it so.

-We are looking at the prophet Joel. Joel was a prophet in the southern kingdom of Judah. There appeared to have been a national tragedy of a plague of locusts that ravaged the land. But this plague was merely a foreshadowing, a picture, of a real army that would invade the land. These were some dark times that prophesied even more dark times for the land. But during these dark times, Joel laid out God’s path of restoration so that they, as God’s people, would have God’s power and blessing to shine His light. And that path was through repentance.

-What this means for us is that we, the church, can be restored to having God’s power and blessing to shine the light of the gospel in our dark and desperate times, and with that light dispel the darkness and lead people to the hope of Christ. My prayer is that we would seek this restoration that is available to us so that we make a difference and change in this world.

Joel 2:12–19 ESV

12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 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; and he relents over disaster. 14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. 17 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ” 18 Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. 19 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.

-The path for restoration is repentance, and God through Joel tells us about the type of repentance that it is going to take. We have to repent of our selfish, nonchalant attitudes. We have to repent of our me-centered living. We have to repent of putting Jesus and His gospel and His Word on the back-burner. We have to repent of living in the flesh instead of the Holy Spirit. We need to repent of watering things down to make us more comfortable. We can choose to ignore this message and continue to be completely and utterly useless and powerless, or we can become what we were always intended to be. Let’s look at some characteristics of this repentance.

1) The essence of repentance

-In v. 12 God says RETURN TO ME and in v. 13 Joel says RETURN TO THE LORD YOUR GOD. That is the essence of repentance. Repentance is returning to what you have left, returning to what you have forgotten, returning to what you have ignored, returning to what is of greatest importance and of highest value. Repentance is returning to God through Christ.

-We often connect repentance with initial salvation, and rightly so. Jesus died, rose again, and all those who believe in Him are saved. But in order to believe on Him you have to turn and return to Him. You won’t believe on Him if you head away from Him, you have to turn to Him and run to Him. But repentance does not stop there.

-As we find here in Joel, God’s own people have to go through times of repentance as well. We walk away from God and we ignore God and we remove God of His rightful place in our lives. We are the ones who have left Him, so now we are the ones that have to return to Him. If God and Christ have no part of your life other than having to come to church on a Sunday morning, then you have left Him and you need to return to Him. If the decisions that you make are driven by your own desires and wants and dreams instead of seeking His will and purpose, then you have left Him and you need to return to Him. If what you value in life has everything to do with you, then you have left Him and you need to return to Him. You need to repent.

-To turn and return to God means you have to turn away from some things. Whatever it is that is not pointing you toward Christ need to be left behind, and you then walk the path to your blessed Savior. The essence of repentance is to return to God.

2) The depth of repentance

-Notice in v. 12 that God says RETURN TO ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART and in v. 13 He says REND YOUR HEARTS AND NOT YOUR GARMENTS. God is saying that this repentance, this returning, is not to be some surface level, go-through-the-motions kind of thing. It is not enough to make empty promises: Oh, I’ll read my Bible a little more; Oh, I’ll pray a little more; Oh, I’ll volunteer a little more—and then even back down on those pathetic attempts.

-If we are going to see a great restoration in the church, God says to return to Him with your whole heart—everything that makes you you is to be part of this repentance. It is not quarter-hearted, half-hearted, or three-quarter-hearted—God says RETURN TO ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART. God cannot be mocked or fooled with empty words and trite attempts to pacify Him. You either return to Him or you don’t. And if you have no intention on returning to Him, then don’t go through empty motions. Don’t try to pretend that you will repent so you look all holy and Christian-like if you have no intention of repenting at all.

-That’s why He says to REND YOUR HEART AND NOT YOUR GARMENTS. The Jews would rend their garments in times of deep sorrow. You read a lot about the Jews tearing their clothes at times of tragedy or bad news or some other trouble. But sometimes it would just be for show. Sometimes it would be a spectacle to pretend that they really were affected. So, God says that going through empty ritual is not enough. Putting on a facade or a sad face and merely saying you repent is not repentance.

-True repentance starts on the inside and works its way out. Your heart is convicted and moved and changed. But then the heart that is rent will display itself on the outside. God says that this repentance is with fasting and weeping and mourning over sin. Your heart will have genuine sorrow over your sin and your selfishness and your pride and self-centeredness, and then it will show itself in the act of returning. So, repentance is a return to God that starts in the heart and works its way out. Repentance is a complete reorientation of both heart and body, thoughts and behaviors.

3) The basis of repentance

-As much as this talk of repentance seems like a negative thing, this is actually very positive because we are not returning to an angry God. We are not returning to a God who wants to berate us or scold us or belittle us. We are not returning to a God who will ultimately reject us and send us away with our bags packed, wanting nothing to do with us. God gives relationship through Jesus Christ that will never change. And God wants an unhindered fellowship with His children that is a blessing and uplifting to us. God is waiting with open arms for us to return to Him for He desires that from us.

-Listen to how Joel describes God in v. 13.

Joel 2:13 (ESV)

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

-That’s our God, and those same words are used to describe Him over and over again throughout Scripture. He is not some God that we have to try to appease. God is not looking for a reason to destroy us. God is looking to bless us. God is looking to use us. God is looking to empower us. The problem is not Him, it’s us. We’re the ones walking away from Him. We’re the ones that have built up a wall toward our fellowship with God.

-God is the Father in the parable of the prodigal son, constantly looking out in the distance to see if His child will come back to Him. And once He sees the child returning, He runs to that child and embraces them and fully restores them. But we’re the ones that have to return. If we want to see God’s light shine through us, we are the ones that need to return to our gracious, merciful God.

4) The extent of repentance

-Beginning in v. 15, Joel tells the people to call a solemn assembly where the whole congregation will set themselves apart for service to the Lord. But I want you to notice who is told to come to this assembly. It says to gather the elders and the children and the nursing infants. It says that the bridegroom and bride need to leave their marital chambers and be a part of this returning to God. You see, in Jewish culture after a wedding the bride and groom were exempt from the normal responsibilities and expectations of the Jews for a year. They didn’t have to go to war. They didn’t have to go to feasts. They were just to work on their marriage. But even they weren’t exempt from being a part of this call to repentance.

-Young and old and everyone in between, no matter who they were or what was their life situation, were to be part of this great repentance. There wasn’t anybody exempt from taking part in this call to return. As much as this was to be an individual return to God, it was also a congregational return to God. If God was going to use the people and shine through the people, then it was all the people who had to be a part of the returning.

-The same goes for the church. If the church as a group is to be used to make a gospel impact in the community and world, then it is the church as a group that needs to return to the Lord. It is the church as a group that needs to repent of wrong attitudes, words, and actions. It is the church as a whole, with no exceptions, that must be a part of this repentance. It will do us no good if only the pastor and staff repent. It will do us no good if only older adults repent. We need everyone of every age to return to the Lord with their whole heart.

-Youth, you are not exempt. God gave you a great challenge and calling at camp. Don’t just let it go in one ear and out the other. Return to the Lord. Senior adults, don’t think that you served your time and you can just sit back and do nothing. Return to the Lord with all your heart. One more aspect about this repentance I want to touch on:

5) The prayer of repentance

-In v. 17 Joel calls on the religious leaders to lead the people in a prayer. This is to be the cry of our heart in our returning to the Lord.

Joel 2:17 (ESV)

“Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”

-When we return to the Lord we pray that God would not make us something that unbelievers ridicule. In our repentance we ask that God spare us from His judgment and that we would not be a stumbling block to those who don’t yet know Christ.

-It makes us think of the churches in the first two chapters in the Book of Revelation. Five out of seven churches have some problems and are called to repent. And Jesus gives them this ultimatum. He tells them that if they don’t return to Him with their whole heart, He will snuff their candle out—meaning, He will shut their doors and they will be no more. While God is gracious and merciful, He will not suffer with unrepentant churches forever. There will come a time when the church is doing more harm than good to the Kingdom and to the world and He will just make them disappear. If a church is not walking close with Him and is not allowing itself to be a receptacle of His light, then what good is that church? What difference is that church making? How is that church dispelling the darkness? It’s not.

-Let’s all make the choice not to be passive spectators who go through motions of church, and let’s be the church that the gates of hell cannot withstand. But know this, if you don’t return to Him, you will not be salt and light and you will not see Him working in wonderful ways in your midst. You will continue to go through monotony after monotony and drudgery after drudgery.

Conclusion

-How do we know we have truly repented? One theologian listed several manifestations, saying that there is: self-humiliation; sorrow for sin; confession of sin; self-abhorrence; turning from sin; turning to God; restitution if needed; conversion if needed. Yes, there is a complete change. Returning to God will never leave us the same.

-But listen to what God does when we repent and return to Him. He then restores us and makes us bountiful. Not bountiful in the getting a lot of stuff here on earth, but bountiful in that we are spiritually enriched and empowered and making a difference. Beginning in v. 18 and then going far past where I had read, Joel tells us that God will be jealous for His people again and will have pity on them. When God’s people repent God will restore them to a place of Kingdom usefulness. It talks about God making them fruitful again. It talks about supernatural protection that God gives. It talks about supernatural empowerment for Kingdom work on the earth. It talks about being radiant, shining the glory of God into the darkest corners of the world.

-THIS IS WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS RIGHT NOW. No more anemic, self-centered, mamby pamby, cream puff church. If the state of the modern church and the state of our church doesn’t bother you, then you’re part of the problem. Some people might say, OH, THAT’S HARSH. No, that’s reality. We are so in love with this world and so in love with ourselves that we don’t care one iota about eternal matters. If people cared about the things of eternity, then our Wednesday night studies and prayer meetings would be as full as on a Sunday morning. People would be out sharing the gospel. People would have longer seasons of prayer. But as it stands, we just frankly don’t care until it affects us personally somehow. And all the while the world is falling farther into darkness.

-I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of going through motions. I am sick and tired of not seeing God’s supernatural power on display in our church and lives. I am sick and tired of darkness seeming to always have the upper hand.

-This world needs a spiritually strong church that is in tune with the work of the Spirit, but that will not happen until the church repents. God wants to restore us to a place that makes an impact in the world. The question is, will we return to Him. Are you willing to walk the path of repentance? Then come to the altar and begin the journey.

-But maybe you can’t begin the journey because you haven’t even taken the first step of believing in Jesus. Jesus is the Savior who cleanses you from sin and He will if you turn from living for self and believe that He is the Son of God who died and rose from the dead for you. So, during the invitation, come up and trust in Jesus.

-As I close the sermon in prayer, I pray the prayer of the great preach George Whitefield:

Turn us, O good Lord, and so shall we be turned. Be favorable, O Lord, be favorable to your people, who turn to you in weeping, fasting and praying; for you are a merciful God, full of compassion, long-suffering, and of great pity. You spare, when we deserve punishment, and in your wrath think upon mercy. Spare your people, good Lord, spare them, and let not your heritage be brought to confusion. Hear us, O Lord, for your mercy is great, and after the multitude of your mercies look upon us, through the merits and mediation of your blessed Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!

George Whitefield