[SPEAKER_00]: Family, we are on day one, eighty.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got the whole book of Joel today, but don't be intimidated.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't be scared.
[SPEAKER_00]: Joel is just three short chapters.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to knock it out in one day.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for context clues.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, first of all, let me say this.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you haven't done the reading, you go do the reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stop the audio, pause the video, go through the reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got three short chapters to read, should take you maybe ten, fifteen, twenty minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, somewhere in that range is not going to take long, but we believe that the Word of God is a daily diet, and then does it live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds to the mouth of God, we don't want this
[SPEAKER_00]: content to substitute for you reading the word.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to supplement your reading of the word.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you haven't done the reading, go do the reading for everyone that's done the reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to dive into the book of Joel today and I got a bit of a curve ball.
[SPEAKER_00]: Typically, I always give you context clues, nerdy nuggets and a timeless truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: The thing that makes the book of Joel pretty fascinating is that there are no context clues.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, there's a context of it's a prophetic book.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it fits the same format as all the other prophetic books.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Joel is is kind of eludes a lot of scholars.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like most scholars don't know when it was written, who was written to?
[SPEAKER_00]: It hasn't mentioned any kings by name.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when we get into the other prophet, you'll begin to see like
[SPEAKER_00]: Isaiah is very clear on like who he's prophesying to, whether he's prophesying to the northern kingdom of Israel or the southern kingdom of Judah, saying with Micah and Amos and Jose and all the prophets are gonna give us like a location or setting, where they're prophesying, when they're prophesying, and who they're prophesying to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Joel, for whatever reason, omits all of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are
[SPEAKER_00]: like, learned, educated, really smart scholars on both sides of the debate.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are, so I'll present both sides of the coin to you for the context for the book.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are a lot of really, really, really intelligent smart people who believe that Joel is written first, like it's, it becomes the prototype profit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So a lot of the themes that we're going to see in the book of Joel find their way into books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zefaniah, Zechariah, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: So the themes that we see in the verbiage, like the words that we see are going to find their way into other books, which could mean that other prophets are influenced by Joel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's a whole other group of scholars who believe that Joel is one of the last books to be written and that Joel is influenced by all the other prophets.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it could honestly go either way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like both arguments make total sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have probably spent way too much time listening to arguments for both sides.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am going to probably come down on it being
[SPEAKER_00]: in earlier profit, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm going to present it that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is why it's the first profit that we're actually going to look at.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only am I going to make the argument that it's written early rather than written late, but all of the themes that we find in the book of Joel, like become a prototype or an archetype for all the other prophetic books.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are eight elements that we're going to look at.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eight elements found in Joel's the book of Joel, the content of the book.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to give you those eight elements.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eight elements right here.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can write those down if you've got a notebook.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first is chapter one versus one to twelve is that there's an announcement that disaster is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is going to be seen in all the prophetic books.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, disaster is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: The, the Assyrians are coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Babylonians are coming, disaster is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we'll look at this in more detail in a bit, but one of the specific ways that Joel is going to talk about disaster is the day of the Lord, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's a second element.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number two, this is Joel chapter one verse thirteen to twenty is that the Torah predicts this
[SPEAKER_00]: So repent, like we shouldn't even be shocked that disaster is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Torah predicts that we will experience disaster if we send against God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Way, way, way, way back when we were looking at the prophets.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember telling you that prophets are not just foretelling, but foretelling.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the prophets are holding people accountable to the Torah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this line right here that the Torah predicts
[SPEAKER_00]: that this disaster is coming, the idea that the Torah predicts something.
[SPEAKER_00]: That helps you to kind of see the Torah and the book of the prophets as one cohesive whole.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number three, if we don't repent, the curses that are laid out in the Torah will come from Yahweh.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Joel chapter two, verse one to eleven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number four, so return to your king.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Joel chapter two, verses twelve to seventeen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Return to your king.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's kind of recap.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, disaster's coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: The torque on a predicted that disaster would come.
[SPEAKER_00]: So repent, change, change your ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't, the curse is from the Torah are gonna come from Yahweh.
[SPEAKER_00]: So return to your king.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number five.
[SPEAKER_00]: your king will restore you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But one of the big themes of the book of Joel is restoration, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: That the same God who has to chasing you or discipline you, the same God who has to send curses to reprimand you, is the same God who wants to restore you and who will restore you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number six, the spirit of Yahweh will be poured out upon you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number seven, and obviously number six is going to be huge for Pentecostals.
[SPEAKER_00]: That verse, that section is Joel chapter two verse, twenty eight to thirty two, that his spirit will be poured out upon you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter on the day of Pentecost actually quotes this section of the book of Joel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number seven, your enemies will be defeated.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Joel chapter three, verses one to sixteen, and then lastly, number eight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your King will dwell with you, which is the ultimate goal of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is God getting us back to the garden, back to Eden, where he dwells in harmony with Adam and Eve.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Joel chapter three, verse seventeen to twenty one.
[SPEAKER_00]: These eight elements, like just those eight ideas, are going to be found in all the prophetic books.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe not in the exact same order, but those elements, those ideas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, disaster's coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, the Toraxic Preset, like predicted this disaster.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to repent.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we don't repent, the Torracurses are going to come true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Return to the King, return to Yahweh.
[SPEAKER_00]: The King wants to restore you.
[SPEAKER_00]: His Spirit will be poured out upon you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your enemies will be defeated and your King will dwell with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That announcement of disaster and then there's a chance for repentance.
[SPEAKER_00]: And after repentance comes restoration, and restoration gets spelled out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Restoration looks like his spirit being poured out.
[SPEAKER_00]: The enemy's being defeated and him actually dwelling with his people.
[SPEAKER_00]: That format, that kind of flow, we are gonna see that over and over and over and over and over.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so in terms of context clues, we don't really have like hardcore context clues.
[SPEAKER_00]: because we don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can take our best guess as to whether or not Joel is prophesying early or late.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is he one of the first prophets?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is he one of the last?
[SPEAKER_00]: That debate is gonna happen until Jesus comes back.
[SPEAKER_00]: The best thing for us to do is go, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if we don't know when Joel was written or who was written to, there's a clear format that's found in this book.
[SPEAKER_00]: that is gonna then be reflected in the other profits.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for that reason alone, it's actually worth studying it first.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I know that's a different way of talking about context clues, but it's the way that we're gonna talk about context clues today because Joel is such a curveball.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get into nerdy nuggets.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, the day of Yahweh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the day of Yahweh, or in your English translations, the day of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is going to be a theme that's going to get repeated, not just in Joel, but through a lot of the prophets, the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the day of the Lord is actually any day, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: where Yahweh breaks into human history.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anytime he showed his sovereign hand over Israel and the nations, this could be in terms of salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when Yahweh judged Egypt and the Exodus and saved his people, this could be seen as a day of Yahweh or day of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, if Yahweh judged his people, so it could be a day of salvation, but it could also be a day of judgment.
[SPEAKER_00]: If Yahweh judged his people,
[SPEAKER_00]: like during the judges' period or the split of the kingdom, the northern kingdom of Israel, and the southern kingdom of Judah.
[SPEAKER_00]: That could be seen as the day of the Lord as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so it's a little bit like the Antichrist in the Book of Revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there just one Antichrist or does every moment in history kind of have an Antichrist?
[SPEAKER_00]: and that there's always gonna be an anti-Christ figure that may culminate in one anti-Christ figure at the end of the age, the day of the Lord works the same way, that there are multiple days, multiple times where God is broken into human history, and those can be referred to as the day of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then we believe that Jesus is going to return, that He is going to come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: and that for some that day will be a day of judgment and for some that day will be a day of ultimate salvation or a culmination of salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we look at the return of Jesus as an ultimate day of the Yahweh or day of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: So day of the Lord has any time where Yahweh breaks into human history, but we believe that Yahweh will break into human history one final time and that one final time will be when Jesus cracks the sky when he returns.
[SPEAKER_00]: when he comes back, reciproates the sheep from the goats where he calls people to he judges the living in the dead where the window of opportunity to receive him as Lord closes where every knee will bow in every tongue will confess whether it's of their free will volition or not and that will be a day of salvation for a lot of people but it'll also be a day of judgment.
[SPEAKER_00]: for a lot of people.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, therefore, throughout the prophets and definitely in Joel, the day of the Lord gets used for days of salvation and for days of judgment, because it's ultimately pointing to an ultimate day of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little bit like the signs in the book of John.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, all of the signs are pointing to the ultimate sign, which is the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then that ultimate sign is pointing towards the person of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the signs point to us sign, a definitive sign, and then that sign points to the ultimate reality, which is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: the day the Lord works the exact same way.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's important for us to understand what the day the Lord means because you're gonna hear it and almost all the prophetic books.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna hear or read the day of the Lord over and over and over and over and over.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the other big themes, another nerdy nugget, are going to be locusts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you remember the eighth play from the book of Exodus, their Joel is going to pick up on that judgment theme.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to talk about locusts.
[SPEAKER_00]: So locusts are going to kind of be if there was, if there was a poster, if Joel was a movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: you know and and there was a poster for the book of Joel it would definitely be a sky turning black with locus and it'd be the moon turning the blood you know like that would be the movie poster for the book of Joel I actually want to bring you to a verse that has met a lot to me I want to bring you to Joel chapter two verse twenty five this is an amazing verse I remember studying this verse while I was reading the Bible
[SPEAKER_00]: five times in nine months when I was living in the UK and this verse, just like, I don't know, this verse hits my heart in a real way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Says this, I will repay you for the years the locus have eaten.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want us to stop right there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will repay you.
[SPEAKER_00]: for the years the locus have eaten.
[SPEAKER_00]: That for a lot of us, the number one thing that the enemy does take in a way is time, not the money that the locus have eaten or the flocks that the locus have eaten or the stuff that the locus have taken away, but the years that when the enemy is able to attack us, he actually takes away our most valuable thing, which is the time that we have, the time that we have on this planet, the time to live out our human existence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, I want to just point out is God is saying, wait a second, I will repay you for the years of the look of the beaten, the great locust and the young locust, the other locust and the locust swarm, get this my great army that I sent among you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you were disobedient in order to discipline you or to punish you for your disobedience, I sent locust, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: You were disobedient, I sent locust.
[SPEAKER_00]: and I'm still gonna repay you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember when this reality hit me because I felt like there were certain decisions that I'd made in my life where I was no longer deserving of like God's ideal for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like there are decisions that I'd made.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are sins that I've committed.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: that I just got involved in.
[SPEAKER_00]: People like dated, dumb people I hung out with, habits I formed, and I thought like, man, I'm gonna be stuck with Ishmael forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not, I'm no longer eligible for the Isaac that God promised me because I got distracted by the allure of an Ishmael in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember God saying, as I begin to read Joel, he said, well, you are disobedient.
[SPEAKER_00]: I set locus.
[SPEAKER_00]: The locus robbed you of years, but I'm still going to repay you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That that's how God disciplines.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't just discipline, but he restores after he disciplines.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember feeling like I don't deserve for God to give me the ideal, even though I fall in short.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember God saying grace,
[SPEAKER_00]: isn't just me restoring you to where you were, it's restoring you to where you should have been, had sin not gotten in the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: It actually derailed your growth and derailed your progress.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you want to know what I begin to pray?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is actually a season where to be very blunt and honest.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had wasted a lot of time dating people and I've just felt like, man, there's no way that I'm on track.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I'm late.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't feel like I'm on schedule for the call of God on my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember God saying as I began a study Joel, remember the Lord saying, I'm going to accelerate your time that I'm able to restore to you the years that sin ate, the years that disobedience ate up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm able to restore to you the time that you wasted doing dumb stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm able to not just cause the locus to attack you to discipline you, but then I'm actually the God that brings you back to exactly where you should have been.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't just restore you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll put you back on schedule.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for anyone who was like me, who's very like, where should I be by twenty-five?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where should I be by thirty?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where should I be by forty?
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's not you, but I'm like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm very much like, well, where should I be by fifty?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a certain pace to life that I want to maintain.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God says, even though your disobedience derailed you, I'm going to restore you so that it's almost as if you didn't even waste five years being an idiot or who waste
[SPEAKER_00]: five years doing something that I definitely told you not to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this verse has a lot of value for me in that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the last nerdy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Last nerdy nugget.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the last nerdy nugget.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll get into our Thomas truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a Thomas truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to go to Joel chapter two again in the two verses that I want to look at.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first one is this.
[SPEAKER_00]: verse thirteen, rend your heart and not your garments, return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relates from Senate calamity, rend your heart, not your garments.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Judaism, when you were in mourning, when you wanted to repent, you tore your clothes,
[SPEAKER_00]: and you began to take on sackcloth and ashes, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a way to show that you were mourning.
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyone who's been a part of any religious system for any late-to-time knows that stuff that is genuine could be performative, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's some people who fall out in the spirit because the spirit's actually moving.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's some people who fall in the spirit because they just know that that's the culturally appropriate thing to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've done both by the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, no judgment.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, God says, hey, don't just do the thing that's performative.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, rend your heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care how much you tear your clothes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care how much it looks like you're in mourning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the God who doesn't just see what you do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the God who sees your heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God says, by renting your heart, by tearing open your heart, by being vulnerable, that that renting of the heart is a return to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the last verse that I'll leave you with as our timeless truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we got a double timeless truth today is Joel chapter two verse twenty eight.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says this, and afterwards I will pour out my spirit on all people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, this is the Pentecostal verse right here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love this verse.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even all my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's one thing I need you to see that I will pour out my spirit on all people, your sons and daughters, that's male and female, sons and daughters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even all my servants, both men and women.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will pour out my spirit in those days.
[SPEAKER_00]: So verse twenty eight twenty nine, have a focus on men and women receiving the spirit of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is why pentacostals believe that women should preach right here right here in Joel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is why Baptists, if you don't believe that the Holy Ghost has been poured out, if you don't believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are active for today,
[SPEAKER_00]: that doctrine leads you to also believing that women can't be actively involved in ministry.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you were ever wondering, why is it that pentacostal churches platform women and churches that are not spirit filled, don't platform women, it's right here because rooted in pedacostal theology is a belief.
[SPEAKER_00]: that God spear it, his spirit which empowers us to preach, his spirit that empowers us to lead, his spirit is been poured out on all people, sons and daughters, men and women.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're a penicostle and you just need to know some penicostle distinctives, this is one of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's found right here in the book of Joel, and Peter is actually going to quote it in Acts chapter two on the day of Pentacost.
[SPEAKER_00]: that day of Pentecost being the day that the Spirit gets poured out, which makes us Pentecostal.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I gave you context clues, nerdy nuggets, and our time was truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, tomorrow is day one, eighty one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get on a streak.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't skip.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll see you right here as we continue to dig into the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope that this adds value to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so proud of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're on a streak, I'm super proud of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love you so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll see you tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peace.