Joel - Hesed that Restores | HESED

Chesed. We are in the fall, we are in Elpis,

however you want to say the Greek word for hope.

Chesed, that good Hebrew word, back of your throat,

is that steadfast love of God. And we're looking

at this kind of through two different lenses.

We're looking at one through the Minor Prophets.

We did Hosea last week, we're doing Joel this

week. These are all Minor Prophets, mainly because

of the length of the book. You can probably read

all of the Minor Prophets within a half an hour,

40 minutes or so. They are short. kind of quick

books. These prophets had a job to do. They went

in, did a job, kind of got out. These aren't

the Isaiahs or the Jeremiahs or the Ezekiels

that had much longer sustained kind of prophetic

journeys. And we're looking at a love or a chesed

that restores from the book of Joel. Restoration

is a funny thing. When we think of restoring

something, what do we think of? Again, if you're

a guest here this morning, I like to get a little

bit of interaction because there's a lot of wisdom,

right? A lot of wisdom in the seats and it doesn't

all need to be mine, right? You guys have that

and it's awesome when you guys give and sometimes

it's really funny with some of the things you

say as well. But when you think of the word restoration,

what do you think of? To make new. Absolutely.

Sure. Yeah. What else? HDTV. HGTV, right? And

HD, I guess it's high definition too. HGTV, why

that, Jess? Yeah, all restoration shows, right?

Like Home Makeover, they can do that in an hour,

right? My bathroom took a month, but they did

all that in an hour. Unbelievable, right? What

else? To bring it. Jess, don't try to get on

again. Henry, that was you, right? Kathy, can

you give him a high five? You can be joyful about

giving him a high five. That's your husband.

There you go. All right. See me in my office

afterwards. To bring it back. Wow. I love all

of you. I don't know if anyone's going to top

that, so we're just going to keep going. To bring

it back. Wow. Okay. We're going to bring that

back probably later. What Joel's going to remind

us is that God's hesed is there. God's hesed

is a reminder. God brings his hesed love back

when everything is gone. So let's enter this

space. Really, when someone's in need of restoration,

it's because they've been either beaten down,

they've beaten themselves down, things have broken

down. When I think of restoration, I think of

like a car, right? To restore a car is to make

new, to bring it back to its former glory, if

you will. So let's dive in this intro called

Everything is Gone. Some sins are quiet. Ones

that we could just kind of sneak in or kind of

hide. Some sins are catastrophic. Some of these

consequences of sin tend to creep in slowly over

time. They tear things down little by little

to the point where sometimes we don't even realize

it until that straw that breaks the camel's back

breaks. Other sins arrive like a storm. And leave

nothing standing. Total devastation. But Joel,

this minor prophet, speaks to a people who wake

up one morning to realize that everything is

gone. Again, prophets did not have easy jobs.

A lot of them were known as weeping. Because

they had to weep through what their prophetic

voice needed to say to a people. But God did

the preparation. God did the talking. God brought

the restoration. The prophet was just the vessel.

The people of Israel wake up, their crops are

destroyed, the economy has collapsed, worship

has stalled, and joy completely evaporated. Poof,

gone. And into the devastation, Joel declares

something that I think we need to hear in this

new year, and that is that God's hesed is not

only a love that pursues, like we talked about

last week, it's a love that restores. Hosea showed

us that God chases his wandering bride, us, the

church. Joel is going to show us today what happens

when the damage is done and what God tends to

do. This is a word that Munster Church needs.

Whether individually or collectively, this understanding

about grace. Because that's the other lens we

look at. The minor prophets and the canons of

Dort, one of our confessions that talk about

grace. Grace does not only forgive sin, grace

restores what sin has ruined. When I think of

something ruined, right, I think of something

that ultimately has to get thrown away, discarded.

It's broken beyond repair. It's gone, the former

glory, whatever it is, we need to toss it out.

God doesn't always see it that way. But let's

dive into the devastation first. When sin and

judgment strip everything away. We'll be in the

book of Joel, right? We're going to start in

Joel 1. Joel 1 verse 4. What the cutting locust

Joel 1:4

left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the

swarming locust left, the hopping locust had

eaten. And what the hopping, keep going, I'm

not done. I don't have it memorized. The destroying

locust has eaten. It's very repetitive. Okay?

Very repetitive. This is, and again, we may look

at this and go, okay, so locust has eaten stuff.

Great. Where are my farmers? You feel this, right?

I mean, do you battle locusts? Grasshoppers.

All right, that's the Hebrew for locusts is grasshoppers.

Good job. Yeah, so, but, I mean, we don't, like.

A locust eats one of my plants. Who cares? But

for a farmer, it's everything, right? When you

wake up and crops are gone, right? I think we

have the Yukons, we have the Smedbergs, right?

There are farmers in the group, so you're going

to get picked on. Anyone else farm and I don't

realize it? And this isn't like you grow plants,

right? I know, wait, Cheyenne, you also have,

I mean, you do a little bit of vegetables, right?

I know. I've eaten those peppers. They're hot

and good. They're great. But you guys wake up,

so we'll go back to Smedberg's and to Yukon's.

You wake up and your fields are completely decimated.

How are you feeling? Bad. Yeah. Yukon's, how

are you feeling? Angry. Yep, absolutely. Destroyed.

Devastated. I think the word restoration for

them means something different. Because they're

looking out at their livelihoods and they're

going, how can we recoup? How can we receive?

How can this be restored? And this is a vision

of Israel. Joel is likely speaking to a post

-exile Judah. That northern people of Israel,

through the exact date, it's debated and it doesn't

matter. What's not debated is that a massive

locust plague has devastated the land. Locust

plagues in the ancient Near East meant total

collapse. These little locusts, or Smedbergian

grasshoppers, they total collapse. Economic,

social, spiritual. A lot of us, we can't... It's

hard to engage that because we don't understand

that mindset. So insert whatever profession you

have, you wake up and it's gone. It is totally

collapsed. So it's funny how if our livelihood

goes away, we collapse economically, socially,

and if we're being honest, spiritually. Grain

offerings and drink offerings have ceased because

there is nothing left. To bring. Let that sit

for a minute. You're feeling bad. You're feeling

angry. You're desperate. Because you have nothing

left to bring. This is not a minor inconvenience.

Like, when I was writing this sermon, I went

to, yeah, when we don't spray for mosquitoes,

it's super annoying. That is not what they're

feeling right now. At all. This is an existential

crisis for Israel. I'm not like making this super

dramatic. This is what they're feeling. This

is what Joel is called to speak into. And Joel

piles on with imagery. The drunkards have no

wine. The priests are mourning. The farmers are

ashamed. And joy has dried up. I've used this.

I've used this analogy before, or this kind of

vision before. I'm going to bring it back because

I think it warrants. It's a little bit of a rabbit

trail. But we all show up on Sunday, right? Let's

say next Sunday. We all show up, and our entire

campus is leveled. The highest point are the

tombstones in the back. How are we feeling? Probably

pretty devastated, right? I looked over at April

and she's like freaked out, right? I think I

would feel that way, right? I mean, we would

feel like what in the world? It would probably

cause us to not only pause, but it would shock

us. It would. This church has gone through that

before. People of this church, how many people

were alive and around when it burned? Only a

handful, right? Right? Some of you, you guys

were there. And some of you are like, wow, this

church burned? Yeah, after church. Go look. There's

pictures of it right there. Joel does something

important here, right? He refuses to minimize

the devastation. He refuses to just kind of pet

them like, it's going to be okay. He doesn't

minimize it because grace does not begin with

denial. In order for this understanding of grace

to really be implemented, we'll get there in

a second, this chesed love does not pretend everything

is fine. And for a lot of us, we like to do it.

It's going to be fine. We're good. It's going

to be fine. Everything's okay, right? That is

a way to try to mask denial in your situation.

And here's the thought. Joel interprets the disaster

theologically. This isn't random. This isn't

like, wow, that was a bad day. Wow, that's just

bad luck. Or it's just the climate. No, he looks

at this as a wake -up call from God. Verse 15,

alas for the day. The day of the Lord is near.

The day of the Lord is not just future judgment.

It is God breaking into history to confront sin

and call his people back. Here is another week

wrecker, right? Evan and the team gave us that

song. I'm giving you another one. The day of

the Lord can happen in your life tomorrow. The

day of the Lord can happen in your life this

afternoon. It might be happening to you right

now. That the Lord is coming in. He's breaking

into your history to confront your sin and call

you back. And that's the call. Right? We're going

to jump into Joel 2. The call is return to me.

It's a grace that summons repentance. That word

summons is important. Right? Summons, to me,

goes to that legal thing, right? You get a summons,

you have to show up to court. I think that's

how that works, right? Garrett, is that how that

works, if you get a summons? He's not here, but

Amy, you're married to him, right? You get a

summons, right? There's that lawyer, you know,

two become one. But understand, that's not like,

I'm not going to go, because I think that's when

the bounty hunters come after you. I probably

have that wrong, it doesn't matter. But understand

that when you're summoned, you have to respond.

And this is God summoning, right? This is grace

that summons repentance. Let's go to Joel 2.

Joel 2 says, Yet even now, remember those three

words, declares the Lord, return to me with all

your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with

mourning, 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, abounding in chesed, and he relents

over disaster. This is one of the most gracious

yet statements. found in Scripture. Everything

is ruined. The people deserve judgment. Yet even

now, God speaks. And notice, notice this morning,

God calls for three things. He calls not for

outward religion alone. He doesn't care about

the outward right now because when God is summoning,

when grace is summoning repentance, it doesn't

care about the outward. This is going right to

the soul. He's not calling for surface level

regret because let's be honest, surface level

regret for us is I'm sorry I got caught. He's

not looking for religious performance. God is

calling for true Not repentance, an inward turning,

not a staged display, which we all get PhDs in.

We love to put it on the outward, right? We love

to just, you know, the outward's all good, right?

We can put that face on, we can paint that face,

we can mask it, we can project it, but God is

not worried about the outward right now because

the outward's been destroyed. It's the inward

that God is working at. Grace 101 this morning.

That repentance is a gift of grace. So this is

head three and four, line three. Humans are incapable

of true repentance on your own. Type A alphas,

we don't like this. I want to have control over

my repentance. We can't do true repentance on

our own. We don't have it in us to do it. Second,

that God regenerates the heart, making repentance

possible. That God's going to go into the heart

and he's going to till that soil. He is going

to tenderize the heart to receive his message.

And for some of us, which is crazy, we don't

like that because that means we're not in control

of our own emotions. Friend, we shouldn't be.

If God's the one that created your emotions,

God's the one that can set it in the right place.

Joel's not preaching moral reform. He's preaching

grace -enabled repentance. Repentance is not

the price we pay to earn restoration. Repentance

is the door God opens so we can actually receive

it. Let me say that again. Repentance is not

the price we pay to earn restoration. Repentance

is the door God opens so we can receive it. This

is hesed in focus. Joel anchors his call to repentance

in God's character. For he is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger abounding in hesed. This is covenant

language straight from Exodus 34. God's hesed

is the reason repentance is possible. You cannot

repent unless God loves. Did you ever think about

that? That God loves you. God wants that relationship

with you. God is desiring you and he wants you

to desire him in a way that is holy. In a way

that is not wrought with sin. God does not say

return because you've proven yourself. He says

return because I am who I am. I am. Sit in that

one with me for a second. God does not say, hey,

you've worked on yourself enough. You are not

worthy enough. You've proven yourself to return

back to me. No. God says return because I am

who I am. But there's the turn, right? The turning

point. God responds to repentance with compassion.

We're going to continue in Joel 2. Then the Lord

became jealous for his lands and had pity on

the people. 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.

This verse marks the turning point in the entire

book. And again, it's not that long, but it's

the turning point. God seizes people, not with

irritation, but with compassion. The word jealous

here is covenantal. Where else do we hear that?

For I am a jealous God, returning the iniquities

of the generations of those who hate me. Where

is that found? We read it most of the time, last

Sunday of the month. Ten commandments. God, this

jealousy is covenantal. It is jealousy of a God

who refuses to abandon his people. Refuses to

abandon his people for more destruction. Now,

some of you are struggling, like, well, isn't

he the one bringing it? So why is he like, he's

a flip -flopper. Careful. God is God. We are

not. Right? This is a judgment. We don't like

that word. We don't as a church. We don't as

a people. Who are you to judge me? And you're

right. I should not judge you. You should not

judge me. Yet, we do it all the time. We should

hold each other accountable, right? When we see

something going on, brother to sister, sister

to sister, brother to brother, you know, pastor

to church, church to pastor, elder, deacon, everybody.

We hold each other accountable, but we're never

up here. We love to do that. But as I said, a

stance over someone is not a stance of Christ.

Guess who can judge? God. The creator. The sustainer.

The judge. If he's called to judge, guess what?

He gets to judge. God's jealousy is not an insecurity

of his. This is hesed in action. It's a fierce

love that moves towards restoration. And we see

it. We see it kind of visually, and I can appreciate

that as someone who needs it. The promises begin

to be poured back out where they didn't have

any. They have grain and wine and oil restored.

Their shame has been removed. The fear is now

replaced with joy. This is a staggering promise.

Let's go back to our farmers. However long, you

then wake up and your fields are full. What are

we thinking? We had anger and it's a bad situation.

Help me out, guys. Now what are you feeling?

Amazing. Joy. Did I tell you guys what to say?

No, the answer to that is no. Okay. I will restore

you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.

I will restore. Not just crops. Not just resources,

years. This is a grace that rebuilds what sin

destroyed. So now we're in the muck. Now we're

in the mire. Now we're in that sin that's been

realized, received, and now we need to reject

it. Friends, we need to reject sin, yet we love

it and we do it. and we live in it, but we need

to reject it. This is one of the most hope -filled

verses in the entire New Testament. God does

not say, I will give you something new to distract

you from the loss. He says, I will help you cope

with what's gone. I will restore. This is chesed.

This is grace. Grace 201. The canons of Dort

teach us that God's grace does not merely rescue,

it sustains and it renews. Verses 1 -3 of head

5. Believers may fall into serious sin, but God

preserves them. Head 5 -7. God renews repentance

and restores fellowship. Leave that one up there,

Cheryl. If we are renewed, We've repented that

restoration. It doesn't happen like that. It's

over time. What sin has destroyed over time,

yes, God can make new in the moment. 20 years

into this, 40 years into life, that takes time.

Because guess what we tend to fall back into?

Our sin. Even the sin we just repented from,

even in our restoration, we can fall back into

that sin. But what does the canons teach us?

That God renews repentance, restores fellowship.

Yes, even the person in this room that has burned

you. Even that person that you have burned. Fellowship

can be restored. We can all worship again together.

Does that happen practically? Not all the time.

Not all the time. Sometimes that's because of

the level of the sin that we either caused for

somebody or they caused on us. But Joel here

shows God's chesed. God's chesed meets us in

the devastation. He calls us, summons us back

to repentance. He rebuilds what sin and judgment

have torn down. You're not building it. Balcony

folk, you're not building it. Church virtual,

you're not building it. I'm not building it.

Elders and deacons aren't building it. Pledge

drives aren't building it. Plans, visions, missions

aren't building it. God's the one that builds

it back up. Why? Because grace isn't fragile.

Grace is not temporary. Grace is restorative.

To go back to Henry. Henry, what did you say

in the very beginning? What does restoration

mean to Newt? It brings it back to a God who

always has been. Grace isn't fragile. It's not

temporary. It restores. It brings it back. Joy

restored. God dwells among his people again.

Joel's restoration ends with worship. I love

that. And I love that because it reminds me I

need to do that more. There are times, yeah,

I'll walk through a situation. I'll walk through

a season of life. I'll repent of it. I'll work

through restoration. And I... Just sit there

and go, and my pessimistic mind, some of you,

glass full, right? A lot of you, optimistic people.

Some of you, pessimistic people, you know, glass

half empty. Mine, glass falling over. And sometimes

I just sit there and I go, Lord, thank you for

bringing me through that. I know I'm going to

fall into it again. And I think that's probably

a lot of us. And I think part of that is because

we don't trust ourselves. I'm a pastor. I know

God's grace is abundant. His mercies are new

every morning. Like, I get all of that. I get

all of that here. Heck, I probably even get that

here. But I just don't trust me. Joel speaks

into that as well. He is restoring me just as

he is restoring you. And that restoration takes

time. Because I know that I know that I know

when I'm met with that temptation again, there's

going to be a lot of me that wants to go right

into the sin. When God's going, no, go left into

my grace. But instead of just sitting and dwelling,

what if I turn that dwelling and that mourning

into worship? Because guess what? We feel better

when we worship. Right? We should. And if you

get so upset because that song wasn't done by

organ, you're making the song about you, not

about the song and worship, just like we do both.

Find joy in the words. Find joy in the singing

of understanding what God is doing. You can do

that with the organ. You can do that with the

drums. You can do that in your car by yourself.

And that's okay too. If we respond to that restoration

with worship, guess what? We're creatures of

habit. We're going to want to do that again.

Right? It's why we call camp highs, camp highs,

retreat highs, retreat highs, conference highs,

conference highs. Right? It's not because you

go there and smoke, but it's because of the joy

of the Lord coming to you. I remember growing

up, I had camp highs all over the place. Right?

You get done with a week of camp, Camp Manitoba,

you want to take on the world. I wanted to go

around and just beat the devil wherever he was.

Probably look like a psycho doing it, but guess

what? High school, junior high, high school gym,

two weeks later, oh, she's cute. Wait, God, you

restored me from that? Don't care. We can't live

in that high and the low because God is everlasting

upon everlasting. I'm trying to do it by my strength.

That's never it. Joy is restored because of God,

not because of us. The ultimate sign of restoration

is not prosperity. It's renewed praise. You go

through that low economic time in your life.

You miss a payment. All of a sudden you get those

collector calls and you freak out. And then something

happens, whether you can explain it or not. It's

usually God anyway, right? And all of a sudden

you've made it through. Guess what we tend to

do? Go back to worrying about when it's going

to happen again. What Joel is reminding us is

don't live in that. Live in the restoration that

God has done it. We should praise him. Oh, and

here's a little rabbit trail. And I'm saying

this first to me. I even recognize at times that

it's God giving me that. That that praise, wow.

And I have the audacity to say, God, when you

bless me next time, can you bless me with more?

I'm glad you're laughing at me because we do

that, especially those that have been in the

church for a long time. Or, and this is just

coming to me now, we have the audacity to look

at the blessing and go, that's it? Friend, Jim,

me, we can't go there. We can't go there. Right?

Let's say we get the $2 million in a couple weeks.

I'm going off book. I apologize. Praise the Lord.

Job's not done. Right? We're not going to show

up the next Sunday and boom, there's the new

building. No, there's a lot more things that

we have to work through. Let's turn it the other

way. Two weeks, the $2 million's not there. What

do we do? Do we just shut it down? Do we just

come in and our anger, our disappointment just

takes sledgehammers to everything? No. No, we

sit and go, okay, God, if not here, if not now,

what? Because is God caged by our $2 million?

Never. Is God bigger than $2 million? Oh, yeah.

And we worship. And we praise. Last Sunday of

this month, if the money doesn't come in, are

we going to shut down worship? If we ever do

that, we just shouldn't be a church. Because

we are now conditional to that junk. And that

should never be the case. Because what Joel is

teaching, right, what the ultimate sign of restoration

is, is renewed praise. Joel 2 .27, you shall

know that I am in your midst. That's the heart

of hesed. It's not gifts. It's not just blessings.

It's God himself dwelling with his people. God

will dwell in us whether we're worshiping here

in a bigger building or we're worshiping in a

strip mall somewhere. They started the church

there. They started it in a local business in

Munster. It wasn't in a building, but it grew

and it grew and it grew. Great. This points us.

God himself is dwelling. Remember, this is Old

Testament. And what these prophets are doing

is they're pointing to New Testament. They're

pointing to Jesus, the outpouring of the Spirit,

Pentecost, and ultimately Christ dwelling with

his church. So where do we go from here today,

friends? What does Joel teach us about living

out this hesed today? First, God can restore

what you thought was gone forever. Here's a list.

I'm just going to welcome you to it. Some of

you today are carrying regret, spiritual dryness,

relational fracturing, lost years, seasons marked

by failure. And what Joel declares over you today,

no loss is beyond the reach of God's restoring

grace. Second. Repentance is not shame. It's

hope. Repentance is not God rubbing our nose

in the failure. That's what we think God does.

And maybe if you need that, maybe God rubs that

a little bit. Maybe God meets you there and goes,

okay, if you need to sit in that, sit in it.

But I'm sitting in it with you. Repentance is

not God rubbing our nose in failure. It's God

opening up the door. For renewal. It's God looking

at you in the midst of your sin and saying, I

did not create you for that. This is so much

better. Third, restoration leads to worship and

gratitude. Grace that restores produces a life

of praise, humility, obedience. God brings you

through that season, write a song. That's what

the Psalms are. Write a song. Maybe you're the

only one that will ever see it, but write it

out to God in a song of praise, in a song of

heartache. Fourth, the church must, must be a

place of restoration. If God restores his people,

all of us, Church virtual, if God restores us,

what does this mean? Oh, here's the final week

record. We must be patient with one another.

We must be slow to write people off. But pastor,

they hurt me. They stabbed me in the back. They

stole from my business. They hurt my family.

Doesn't God have the right to do that for us?

Doesn't he ultimately, can he ultimately say

to us, Munster Church, you put my son on a cross?

But he doesn't, so we shouldn't. Third, if God

restores his people, we must be eager to walk

with repentant sinners. Everybody look to your

right, not awkwardly. Everyone look to your left.

Everyone look behind you. Some of you tried to

do that without actually moving. That was awkward.

Everybody look here. We all walk together. This

is what hesed looks like in the midst of community.

And those two words, and I'm going to end it

here, even now. If Hosea teaches us that God

pursues us when we wander, Joel teaches us this.

Even now. after the damage, after the loss, after

the failure, God's hesed still speaks. The candidates

at Dort remind us today that repentance is God's

gift, restoration is God's work, and perseverance

is God's promises. And hear this. If you don't

hear anything else, hear this. That is good news

for a church on a journey. Yet even now, return

to me. That invitation will always be available.

Let's pray.