Making Up for Lost Years

Joel 2:18-27
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Pastor Colin explains that while it is impossible for time itself to be restored, God promises to compensate for the years lost in various situations, such as financial loss, broken relationships, illness, and missed opportunities. He emphasises that the promise of restoration is a divine mystery and highlights how God offers renewal and abundance in ways that surpass human understanding.

The sermon outlines different types of “locust years,” including fruitless years, painful years, selfish years, loveless years, rebellious years, misdirected years, and Christless years. Pastor Colin encourages listeners to reflect on their own lives and consider how they have been affected by these locust years.

Pastor Colin highlights that this promise is given to those who feel their need for God’s mercy and who desire for God’s name to be honoured. He underscores the importance of coming to God with humility and a heart seeking mercy and honour for His name.

He then explores how God can restore lost years by deepening one’s communion with Jesus Christ, multiplying one’s fruitfulness, and bringing long-term gain from short-term loss. Pastor Colin encourages the congregation to pray and ask God for restoration, expressing confidence that God can bring about a greater abundance and deeper relationship with Him, despite past losses.

The sermon concludes with the assurance that Jesus, who was cut off for our sins, offers us restoration and invites us to experience the fulfilment of God’s promise. Pastor Colin calls on God to do His restoring work for the sake of His name.

1 00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:06,160 You are listening to a sermon from Pastor Colin Smith of Open The Bible. 2 00:00:06,160 –> 00:00:16,520 To contact us call us at 1-877-OPEN-365 or visit our website openthebible.org 3 00:00:16,520 –> 00:00:17,660 Let’s get to the message. 4 00:00:17,660 –> 00:00:19,040 Here is Pastor Colin. 5 00:00:19,040 –> 00:00:26,080 Now please open your Bible at Joel Chapter 2 as we move forward in this marvelous Book, 6 00:00:26,440 –> 00:00:34,619 Joel Chapter 2 in verse 25 where God says I will restore to you the years that the 7 00:00:34,619 –> 00:00:40,020 swarming locust has eaten. 8 00:00:40,020 –> 00:00:48,980 And today we’re going to gaze into the mystery of an amazing promise. 9 00:00:48,980 –> 00:00:56,040 And I describe it as a mystery because restoring years is obviously impossible, cannot be done, 10 00:00:56,040 –> 00:00:57,139 impossible. 11 00:00:57,139 –> 00:01:01,259 You lose money and there are different ways in which money can be restored. 12 00:01:01,259 –> 00:01:03,220 Property can be restored. 13 00:01:03,220 –> 00:01:08,199 You can restore an old car, you can restore a painting, you can restore an old house. 14 00:01:08,199 –> 00:01:09,320 Relationships can be restored. 15 00:01:09,320 –> 00:01:12,940 Forgiveness, reconciliation, wonderful. 16 00:01:12,940 –> 00:01:17,940 But one thing that cannot ever be restored is time. 17 00:01:17,940 –> 00:01:25,639 Time flies and it does not return, years pass and whatever stage of life you are at you 18 00:01:25,639 –> 00:01:29,900 never get these years back. 19 00:01:29,900 –> 00:01:36,959 And so here we find, that’s why I say we’re staring into a mystery because God is promising 20 00:01:36,959 –> 00:01:39,440 the impossible. 21 00:01:39,440 –> 00:01:46,900 I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten. 22 00:01:46,900 –> 00:01:52,080 Now, the immediate meaning of this wonderful promise is very clear. 23 00:01:52,080 –> 00:01:59,320 We saw last time that God’s people had suffered the complete destruction of that entire harvest. 24 00:01:59,320 –> 00:02:03,120 It had come through this invasion of locusts. 25 00:02:03,120 –> 00:02:07,980 Great armies, swarms of locusts that had kind of marched their way through the crops row 26 00:02:07,980 –> 00:02:14,639 by row, field by field and had destroyed the entire harvest of the country, not in one 27 00:02:14,639 –> 00:02:19,559 year, but we saw most likely in four consecutive years. 28 00:02:19,619 –> 00:02:25,259 And as these armies of insects are moving forward, they’re simply multiplying themselves 29 00:02:25,259 –> 00:02:29,220 week after week as they move. 30 00:02:29,220 –> 00:02:33,899 And with four years of devastated harvests, the people of the Promised Land, God’s people, 31 00:02:33,899 –> 00:02:38,660 were brought to their knees in more ways than one. 32 00:02:38,660 –> 00:02:43,839 And we read in chapter 2 and verse 18 that the Lord became jealous for His land, and 33 00:02:43,839 –> 00:02:49,559 He had pity, compassion, mercy on His people. 34 00:02:49,559 –> 00:02:55,000 And God said, Behold, I am sending you grain, what they hadn’t had for four years, and wine 35 00:02:55,000 –> 00:03:00,679 and oil, and you will be satisfied. 36 00:03:00,679 –> 00:03:05,039 And from verse 19 onwards, you see that the good that God is going to do to His people 37 00:03:05,039 –> 00:03:08,080 continues, line after line in this wonderful promise. 38 00:03:09,080 –> 00:03:14,779 The enemy who has come from the north, an enemy that has taken advantage of the weakness 39 00:03:14,800 –> 00:03:20,039 of God’s people and has encroached across the borders, that enemy is going to be pushed 40 00:03:20,039 –> 00:03:21,199 back, going to be removed. 41 00:03:21,199 –> 00:03:25,520 The animals that were groaning, we saw that last week. 42 00:03:25,520 –> 00:03:31,199 Without adequate sustenance, they no longer have the grief that they have experienced 43 00:03:31,199 –> 00:03:37,500 because the pastures of the wilderness that were a wilderness have now become green. 44 00:03:37,600 –> 00:03:41,339 And then verse 23, you see the children of Zion, they also can be glad. 45 00:03:41,339 –> 00:03:47,460 There is joy for these children because the rain has returned and now it is nourishing 46 00:03:47,460 –> 00:03:51,600 what for years has been very, very parched and dried ground. 47 00:03:51,600 –> 00:03:57,639 And all of this line after line of God’s wonderful promise leads up to its climax in verse 25 48 00:03:57,639 –> 00:04:06,440 that’s our focus today for God says, I will restore to you the years that the locust has 49 00:04:07,259 –> 00:04:08,600 eaten. 50 00:04:08,600 –> 00:04:13,399 And what this meant for these people of course was that God would give back harvests that 51 00:04:13,399 –> 00:04:15,259 had been destroyed. 52 00:04:15,259 –> 00:04:20,540 The coming years, God says He was going to give an abundance that would really make up 53 00:04:20,540 –> 00:04:22,839 everything that had been lost. 54 00:04:22,839 –> 00:04:26,480 Verse 24 the threshing floor is going to be full of grain. 55 00:04:26,480 –> 00:04:31,380 The vats are going to over flow with wine and with oil. 56 00:04:31,380 –> 00:04:38,660 Verse 26 you shall eat not just adequately but you shall eat in plenty God says, and 57 00:04:38,660 –> 00:04:41,339 you shall be satisfied. 58 00:04:41,339 –> 00:04:49,459 So, this is a wonderful promise and as it’s specifically applied to these people it means 59 00:04:49,459 –> 00:04:59,820 years of abundant harvests that will follow these years of utter desolation because of 60 00:04:59,820 –> 00:05:00,820 the locusts. 61 00:05:01,820 –> 00:05:08,980 The years that the locusts have eaten. 62 00:05:08,980 –> 00:05:16,359 But God has put this promise in the Bible for us – everything that has been preserved 63 00:05:16,359 –> 00:05:23,660 in the Bible is not simply for people to whom it was first spoken long ago, but if it’s 64 00:05:23,660 –> 00:05:28,940 in the Bible God has put it in the Bible for us. 65 00:05:29,140 –> 00:05:35,019 The question that we have to ask as we come to this great promise is – what do locust 66 00:05:35,019 –> 00:05:49,160 years look like for us, and how can God restore years that the locusts have eaten for us? 67 00:05:49,299 –> 00:05:59,760 Let me suggest to you that locust years, wasted years, lost years, years that you can’t 68 00:05:59,760 –> 00:06:07,359 get back and that causes you grief, they come in many varieties. 69 00:06:07,359 –> 00:06:13,160 Let me suggest some to you so that we tune our mind in to how wonderful this promise 70 00:06:13,160 –> 00:06:15,820 really is. 71 00:06:15,859 –> 00:06:20,359 The years that the locusts have eaten are certainly fruitless years, that would be a 72 00:06:20,359 –> 00:06:22,579 good place to begin. 73 00:06:22,579 –> 00:06:23,579 Think of these folks. 74 00:06:23,579 –> 00:06:30,359 A lot of hard work went into cultivating the fields in the years that the locusts had eaten. 75 00:06:30,359 –> 00:06:37,239 The farmers had planted seed, they had cultivated crops, they had raised up what looked like 76 00:06:37,239 –> 00:06:38,880 it would be a great harvest. 77 00:06:38,880 –> 00:06:41,059 Green shoots coming out of the ground. 78 00:06:41,059 –> 00:06:45,679 They labour, they work day after day and week after week, and then, as we’re coming towards 79 00:06:45,739 –> 00:06:46,859 the harvest, what happens? 80 00:06:46,859 –> 00:06:51,399 The locusts arrive and they clean out the lot. 81 00:06:51,399 –> 00:06:57,320 And that leaves the farmer then saying, now, all this work I’ve done, I’ve been working 82 00:06:57,320 –> 00:07:04,119 at this all season, day after day, backbreaking work I’ve put in and what did I get out of 83 00:07:04,119 –> 00:07:05,119 it? 84 00:07:05,119 –> 00:07:06,119 Absolutely nothing. 85 00:07:06,119 –> 00:07:08,920 The locusts have taken the lot. 86 00:07:08,920 –> 00:07:13,320 And some of you know what that is like in business. 87 00:07:13,320 –> 00:07:22,440 A failed venture, a bad investment, a misguided policy. 88 00:07:22,440 –> 00:07:27,779 And all of the effort that you’ve been putting in day by day and week by week and month by 89 00:07:27,779 –> 00:07:32,820 month and perhaps year by year and you thought that it was going to lead to something very, 90 00:07:32,820 –> 00:07:36,600 very marvelous and what it’s lead to has been massive disappointment. 91 00:07:36,600 –> 00:07:40,679 And you say now the years that the locus have eaten, what has come of all my effort? 92 00:07:40,679 –> 00:07:47,679 And after all that work how did I end up with only this? 93 00:07:47,679 –> 00:07:51,000 Been there? 94 00:07:51,000 –> 00:07:55,899 Secondly, locus years can be painful years. 95 00:07:55,899 –> 00:07:57,079 Sorrowful years. 96 00:07:57,079 –> 00:07:59,500 Years of suffering. 97 00:07:59,500 –> 00:08:06,519 I’m thinking of folks who have lost a loved one and you had plans for the future. 98 00:08:06,619 –> 00:08:10,839 You had it mapped out in your mind as to what these next years were going to be like. 99 00:08:10,839 –> 00:08:16,579 You hoped that these years would be full but now your whole life has changed and you find 100 00:08:16,579 –> 00:08:20,559 yourself fearing that they may be very empty. 101 00:08:20,559 –> 00:08:26,239 I’m thinking of folks, as I prayed around the congregation just in the process of preparing 102 00:08:26,239 –> 00:08:33,700 and a whole range of different life situations come so quickly to mind. 103 00:08:34,020 –> 00:08:43,460 Experience great illness, severe condition that comes to the body or perhaps to the mind. 104 00:08:43,460 –> 00:08:46,539 And you had always thought in terms of what you would like to do and what you would be 105 00:08:46,539 –> 00:08:52,820 able to do and so forth, but then with this condition it has made your years different 106 00:08:52,820 –> 00:08:57,359 from what when you were young you had hoped or expected. 107 00:08:57,359 –> 00:09:00,719 It can happen early in life. 108 00:09:00,760 –> 00:09:08,320 You move into high school, you move into college, and perhaps the thing you’re excited about 109 00:09:08,320 –> 00:09:14,880 is you’re going to be on a team in some sport, and then you have an injury and it keeps you 110 00:09:14,880 –> 00:09:20,840 out for the entire season and you find yourself saying, well I will never have my junior year 111 00:09:20,840 –> 00:09:22,719 or whatever it is ever again. 112 00:09:22,719 –> 00:09:23,719 It’s gone. 113 00:09:23,719 –> 00:09:30,000 I just, I lost it, the year that the locust has eaten, it’s gone. 114 00:09:30,000 –> 00:09:32,039 But you have to find a way of living with that. 115 00:09:32,039 –> 00:09:39,219 And it’s a massive disappointment, because you had so much that was stored up in your 116 00:09:39,219 –> 00:09:46,119 own mind and hoped for in that regard. 117 00:09:46,119 –> 00:09:48,520 Locust years can be selfish years. 118 00:09:48,520 –> 00:09:55,479 These are very different varieties, but the locusts come in different forms. 119 00:09:55,479 –> 00:10:01,200 Here’s a story that’s been repeated thousands of times. 120 00:10:01,200 –> 00:10:03,140 This is a composite picture. 121 00:10:03,140 –> 00:10:06,539 I’m just going to take the name Jim. 122 00:10:06,539 –> 00:10:09,900 Jim has made a commitment to Christ but it’s never really run that deep. 123 00:10:09,900 –> 00:10:16,380 He has a faith in Jesus, but his faith of Jesus is a kind of slice of the big pie of 124 00:10:16,380 –> 00:10:17,380 his life. 125 00:10:17,380 –> 00:10:23,280 It’s a busy life and it’s full of all the stuff that Jim wants to pursue. 126 00:10:23,280 –> 00:10:29,659 And one day God gets hold of Jim and Jim is spiritually awakened. 127 00:10:29,659 –> 00:10:37,580 And he looks at his life over these past years and he says this whole thing has been about 128 00:10:37,580 –> 00:10:39,239 me. 129 00:10:39,239 –> 00:10:42,940 And now that he’s awakened he begins to see other people in the church and what they’re 130 00:10:42,940 –> 00:10:46,679 doing and how they’re serving and how they’re sacrificing for the sake of the Lord Jesus 131 00:10:46,679 –> 00:10:47,679 Christ. 132 00:10:47,679 –> 00:10:49,940 And he says what in the world have I been doing. 133 00:10:49,940 –> 00:10:55,299 I’ve been calling myself a Christian, but there’s been no depth, there’s been no reality, 134 00:10:55,299 –> 00:11:00,659 there’s been no great substance to this in my life. 135 00:11:00,659 –> 00:11:05,700 How could I have been so shallow for so long? 136 00:11:05,700 –> 00:11:12,599 And what has come of all these years that the locusts have eaten? 137 00:11:12,599 –> 00:11:18,039 He comes to a new place in his life and he says I really want to count for Jesus Christ. 138 00:11:18,140 –> 00:11:22,340 I want to live as a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit, I want to be someone who 139 00:11:22,340 –> 00:11:26,479 is now going to make a difference in the world, but the locusts have eaten half the years 140 00:11:26,479 –> 00:11:29,940 of my life! 141 00:11:29,940 –> 00:11:33,419 Locust years can be fourthly loveless years. 142 00:11:33,419 –> 00:11:42,859 The division comes to a family, there’s an alienation from a loved one. 143 00:11:42,859 –> 00:11:51,880 Years are lost, children grow up, and what might have been cannot now be. 144 00:11:51,880 –> 00:11:57,940 Some of you know what it is to endure a marriage in which love has been burning low for many 145 00:11:57,940 –> 00:12:01,460 many years. 146 00:12:01,460 –> 00:12:10,960 You see a couple who are really in love and you say, oh how I would love to have that. 147 00:12:10,960 –> 00:12:17,500 You have not met the person that in your heart you had hoped you would meet. 148 00:12:17,500 –> 00:12:25,099 And your own sense is that years are going by, and life is moving on. 149 00:12:25,099 –> 00:12:28,280 And that weighs in on you. 150 00:12:28,280 –> 00:12:32,039 Locust years can be rebellious years. 151 00:12:32,039 –> 00:12:38,739 Perhaps you have been like the prodigal son, the prodigal daughter. 152 00:12:38,820 –> 00:12:45,340 You grew up with many blessings, but in your heart you found as you grew there was an instinct 153 00:12:45,340 –> 00:12:46,340 to rebel. 154 00:12:46,340 –> 00:12:50,739 You didn’t really fully understand this instinct to rebel, but you gave yourself to 155 00:12:50,739 –> 00:12:53,039 it. 156 00:12:53,039 –> 00:12:58,780 And what you found as you threw yourself in increasingly to a life that was the opposite 157 00:12:58,780 –> 00:13:03,000 of what you knew was right, you thought that it would bring you pleasure, but increasingly 158 00:13:03,000 –> 00:13:08,260 as you got further down that road, you found that it was bringing you pain. 159 00:13:08,320 –> 00:13:13,140 Now, you look back on years that you have spent, and you look back on them with regret 160 00:13:13,140 –> 00:13:20,700 and they are in your mind years that the locus has eaten. 161 00:13:20,700 –> 00:13:30,440 For others among us, followed a godly path, but life just hasn’t worked out as we hoped, 162 00:13:30,440 –> 00:13:32,119 and we regret some of our decisions. 163 00:13:32,119 –> 00:13:33,340 They weren’t sinful decisions. 164 00:13:33,460 –> 00:13:38,900 They were just choices about what to pursue and so forth. 165 00:13:38,900 –> 00:13:41,239 Locused years can be simply misdirected years. 166 00:13:41,239 –> 00:13:46,619 You know, the path you chose, the career you ended up with after you chose a particular 167 00:13:46,619 –> 00:13:47,619 path. 168 00:13:47,619 –> 00:13:49,780 Perhaps it was in college or whatever. 169 00:13:49,780 –> 00:13:55,640 And what you’ve found was that it took you into what increasingly you felt was a dead 170 00:13:55,640 –> 00:13:56,640 end. 171 00:13:56,640 –> 00:13:57,640 You’ve given a move. 172 00:13:57,640 –> 00:14:02,219 You’ve then found yourself in a place where you just didn’t fit. 173 00:14:02,219 –> 00:14:06,760 And you look at your life and you say, How did I end up here? 174 00:14:06,760 –> 00:14:10,000 And if only I had made a different choice. 175 00:14:10,000 –> 00:14:14,840 I could have been on a different path, but I’d too far down the line now. 176 00:14:14,840 –> 00:14:19,340 Options seemed to be so much less, and you find yourself more and more saying, Oh, if 177 00:14:19,340 –> 00:14:21,440 only, if only, if only. 178 00:14:21,599 –> 00:14:27,940 If only I had taken that opportunity, if only I had not made that move or had made that 179 00:14:27,940 –> 00:14:29,599 move. 180 00:14:29,599 –> 00:14:33,239 But the moment has passed, it’s gone. 181 00:14:33,239 –> 00:14:36,260 And you can’t go back to it. 182 00:14:36,260 –> 00:14:45,159 And you’re left with a profound sense of having many locust years. 183 00:14:45,159 –> 00:14:47,700 Christless years, are locust years. 184 00:14:47,880 –> 00:14:52,619 All Christless years are locust years. 185 00:14:52,619 –> 00:14:57,059 This is worth thinking about for anyone who has not yet made a wholehearted commitment 186 00:14:57,059 –> 00:15:00,039 to Jesus Christ. 187 00:15:00,039 –> 00:15:08,280 If you ask anyone, and I guarantee you this, ask anyone who became a Christian later in 188 00:15:08,280 –> 00:15:14,880 life, they will tell you that they wished they had become a Christian sooner. 189 00:15:14,880 –> 00:15:17,320 I guarantee it. 190 00:15:17,440 –> 00:15:21,320 I have never met a person who wished that they became a Christian later. 191 00:15:21,320 –> 00:15:24,479 It just doesn’t happen. 192 00:15:24,479 –> 00:15:28,039 How much foolishness I would have avoided if I’d come to Christ earlier. 193 00:15:28,039 –> 00:15:30,739 How much more good might have been done if that had happened. 194 00:15:30,739 –> 00:15:41,960 There are many, many ways in which we come to a place of feeling that years have been 195 00:15:41,960 –> 00:15:47,200 lost, that years are passing, that life is moving on, that opportunities have been missed, 196 00:15:48,080 –> 00:15:52,419 and we can’t get them back. 197 00:15:52,419 –> 00:15:57,940 And when you tune yourself into the fact that these things in different ways are the realities 198 00:15:57,940 –> 00:16:03,200 of life for different people, all across our congregation, you realize how amazing this 199 00:16:03,200 –> 00:16:14,520 promise is that God should say, I will restore the years that the locust has eaten. 200 00:16:14,520 –> 00:16:23,099 I want to gaze into the amazing mystery of that promise. 201 00:16:23,099 –> 00:16:24,679 Now two questions very simply. 202 00:16:24,679 –> 00:16:26,539 Here’s the first. 203 00:16:26,539 –> 00:16:28,919 To whom is this promise given? 204 00:16:28,919 –> 00:16:31,419 Who is it for? 205 00:16:31,419 –> 00:16:33,679 It is given to particular people. 206 00:16:33,679 –> 00:16:38,359 Whoever they are, I want to be among them because this is a great promise. 207 00:16:38,359 –> 00:16:43,260 And the second question is, how can this promise possibly be fulfilled? 208 00:16:43,900 –> 00:16:46,059 We don’t have time again. 209 00:16:46,059 –> 00:16:52,599 So in what way can God restore years that the locusts have eaten? 210 00:16:52,599 –> 00:17:00,400 Now the question to whom is this promise given is answered back in verse 19 and before. 211 00:17:00,400 –> 00:17:05,540 Notice that verse 19 tells us that the Lord answered and that everything that follows 212 00:17:05,540 –> 00:17:10,719 verse 19, including the great promise that we’re looking at, is God’s answer. 213 00:17:10,839 –> 00:17:14,199 And it’s God’s answer to a particular prayer. 214 00:17:14,199 –> 00:17:18,000 And the particular prayer is back in verse 17. 215 00:17:18,000 –> 00:17:24,119 So what did these people ask for that gave or led to this marvelous answer? 216 00:17:24,119 –> 00:17:28,560 And there are two things that they asked for. 217 00:17:28,560 –> 00:17:33,040 Notice first that the promise of restored years is given to people who feel their need 218 00:17:33,040 –> 00:17:35,079 for God’s mercy. 219 00:17:35,079 –> 00:17:40,560 Verse 17 these people who are given this marvelous promise they’ve been praying this. 220 00:17:41,119 –> 00:17:46,640 Spare your people, oh Lord, and make not your heritage your approach. 221 00:17:46,640 –> 00:17:49,560 Spare your people, Lord. 222 00:17:49,560 –> 00:17:51,359 Have mercy. 223 00:17:51,359 –> 00:17:53,540 Pity. 224 00:17:53,540 –> 00:17:57,780 Here are these people and they’re aware that they’ve been placed under the discipline of 225 00:17:57,780 –> 00:18:02,339 God and they felt their need of mercy. 226 00:18:02,339 –> 00:18:04,439 Spare your people. 227 00:18:04,439 –> 00:18:09,959 Friends, you cannot pray that prayer as a Christian. 228 00:18:10,079 –> 00:18:13,040 Spare your people. 229 00:18:13,060 –> 00:18:21,300 Without your mind surely going to Romans chapter 8 and verse 32, where we are told that God 230 00:18:21,300 –> 00:18:28,260 did not spare His one and only Son. 231 00:18:28,260 –> 00:18:34,199 The mercy of God that came to them and comes to us, comes to us for this reason. 232 00:18:34,199 –> 00:18:41,599 We are spared because Christ was not spared. 233 00:18:41,599 –> 00:18:45,719 And here’s our confidence in asking for the mercy of God. 234 00:18:45,719 –> 00:18:52,359 God promises all this good to those who know and feel their need of His mercy. 235 00:18:52,359 –> 00:18:56,520 And here’s our confidence coming to Him for mercy. 236 00:18:56,520 –> 00:19:03,920 He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all. 237 00:19:04,000 –> 00:19:10,939 Well now, how will He not also along with Him, with Christ, give us all things? 238 00:19:10,939 –> 00:19:21,920 You come in your need with a sense of your dependence upon God simply to survive what 239 00:19:21,920 –> 00:19:23,280 you’re going through. 240 00:19:23,280 –> 00:19:24,760 And you can have confidence here. 241 00:19:24,760 –> 00:19:29,060 He did not spare His own Son, so I will spare you. 242 00:19:29,060 –> 00:19:31,560 And you can pray this with confidence. 243 00:19:32,380 –> 00:19:33,939 He gave Him up for us all. 244 00:19:33,939 –> 00:19:37,839 How will He not also along with Him graciously give us all things? 245 00:19:37,839 –> 00:19:42,140 The promise of restored years is given to people who feel their need of mercy, and it 246 00:19:42,140 –> 00:19:48,280 is given to people who want, verse 17, God’s name to be honored. 247 00:19:48,280 –> 00:19:50,060 Notice what they’re praying there. 248 00:19:50,060 –> 00:19:52,380 They’re bringing a reason to God. 249 00:19:52,380 –> 00:19:55,079 They’re bringing an argument to God, if you like. 250 00:19:55,079 –> 00:19:57,439 They’re presenting a case to God. 251 00:19:57,459 –> 00:19:58,719 And here’s the case. 252 00:19:58,739 –> 00:20:03,979 Why should they say among the peoples, where is their God? 253 00:20:03,979 –> 00:20:08,739 It’s a very powerful way to pray, by the way. 254 00:20:08,739 –> 00:20:16,939 The people to whom this promise is given are people who are concerned for God’s name. 255 00:20:16,939 –> 00:20:19,880 They’re concerned for God’s honor. 256 00:20:19,880 –> 00:20:25,199 They’re concerned for God’s reputation in the world, and they come and they pray, and 257 00:20:25,199 –> 00:20:30,760 they say, now God, unbelieving people are watching. 258 00:20:30,760 –> 00:20:35,599 And when they see trouble coming to a child of God, they use it to speak against your 259 00:20:35,599 –> 00:20:37,780 name. 260 00:20:37,780 –> 00:20:40,520 You see the point of this prayer. 261 00:20:40,520 –> 00:20:44,020 Lord, your name is at stake here. 262 00:20:44,020 –> 00:20:46,239 Your reputation is at stake here. 263 00:20:46,239 –> 00:20:53,420 We’re asking that you will spare us, that you will look upon us with mercy, and that 264 00:20:53,459 –> 00:20:58,160 you will do it for the sake of your name. 265 00:20:58,160 –> 00:20:59,500 Wonder how you end your prayers? 266 00:20:59,500 –> 00:21:06,520 I use a number of different ways of always referring to Jesus at the end of my prayers. 267 00:21:06,520 –> 00:21:08,660 I say, in Jesus’ name. 268 00:21:08,660 –> 00:21:16,079 When I first prayed as a child, I always used to say, for Jesus’ sake. 269 00:21:16,079 –> 00:21:17,079 Amen. 270 00:21:17,079 –> 00:21:18,819 And maybe you end your prayers that way. 271 00:21:18,819 –> 00:21:22,939 It’s very good way to end prayers. 272 00:21:22,939 –> 00:21:26,359 For Jesus’ sake. 273 00:21:26,359 –> 00:21:32,239 Now that’s not just a way of closing a prayer, that’s actually presenting a case to God, 274 00:21:32,239 –> 00:21:36,579 as an attorney might present a case before a judge in a court. 275 00:21:36,579 –> 00:21:43,219 Lord, I am asking these things for the sake of your Son. 276 00:21:43,219 –> 00:21:49,640 He gave His blood to redeem a people, and I am one of these people. 277 00:21:49,880 –> 00:21:57,300 Now hear my prayer, not because of me but because of Him. 278 00:21:57,300 –> 00:22:02,339 And so here are these people, in verse 17 they’ve heard the call to prayer, and they 279 00:22:02,339 –> 00:22:03,780 have been on their knees. 280 00:22:03,780 –> 00:22:06,540 And they’ve coming before the Lord in humility. 281 00:22:06,540 –> 00:22:11,300 And they are very aware of their own need of God’s mercy. 282 00:22:11,300 –> 00:22:15,619 And they are very concerned for the honor of God’s name. 283 00:22:15,619 –> 00:22:19,579 And verse 19 says, God answered them. 284 00:22:19,979 –> 00:22:25,800 And when God answers, He pours out this blessing that culminates in our verse 25. 285 00:22:25,800 –> 00:22:33,540 And He says to these people, I will restore the years that the locust has eaten. 286 00:22:34,859 –> 00:22:40,479 So, I want to be someone then who is always aware of my need for God’s mercy. 287 00:22:40,479 –> 00:22:45,579 And always committed to the honor of God’s name. 288 00:22:45,579 –> 00:22:52,739 And I want to be someone who is praying into that and praying from that. 289 00:22:52,739 –> 00:22:55,800 That’s to whom the promise is given. 290 00:22:55,800 –> 00:22:57,000 And then, here’s the other question. 291 00:22:57,000 –> 00:23:01,599 I want us to answer as simply and as briefly here as I can. 292 00:23:01,599 –> 00:23:05,000 How then can God do this? 293 00:23:05,000 –> 00:23:15,540 How can God do the thing that is humanly impossible and restore the years that the locust has 294 00:23:16,339 –> 00:23:17,739 eaten? 295 00:23:17,739 –> 00:23:29,520 Let me suggest this first, that God can restore lost years by deepening your communion with 296 00:23:29,520 –> 00:23:32,579 Jesus Christ. 297 00:23:32,579 –> 00:23:33,719 Notice first 27. 298 00:23:33,719 –> 00:23:36,560 The people who had known the loss of the locust years. 299 00:23:36,560 –> 00:23:42,459 Here’s the special promise to them that they’re going to experience the presence of the Lord 300 00:23:42,459 –> 00:23:47,400 in their midst, in the midst of Israel. 301 00:23:47,400 –> 00:23:53,560 You will know that I am the Lord your God. 302 00:23:53,560 –> 00:24:01,959 And to these people who have endured so much, this wonderful restorative promise is given 303 00:24:01,959 –> 00:24:11,699 that they are going to know a communion with the Lord that they have sought that is greater 304 00:24:11,699 –> 00:24:17,900 than anything they have ever known in their religious lives before. 305 00:24:17,900 –> 00:24:22,599 Remember how the gospels tell us a story about a woman who had lived an especially sinful 306 00:24:22,599 –> 00:24:23,599 life. 307 00:24:23,599 –> 00:24:29,119 And she came to Jesus and she poured ointment over His feet. 308 00:24:29,119 –> 00:24:35,819 Christ had delivered her from some terrible, dark powers that had bound her, and now her 309 00:24:35,920 –> 00:24:41,880 love for Christ was greater than any other love she’d ever known in her life before. 310 00:24:41,880 –> 00:24:46,540 And she comes into a home where Jesus is eating with a bunch of career professional people 311 00:24:46,540 –> 00:24:53,939 who are doing very well for themselves, and she kneels at the feet of Jesus and she worships 312 00:24:53,939 –> 00:25:00,199 Christ had forgiven the sins of her locust years. 313 00:25:00,260 –> 00:25:08,540 And because she knew that Christ had forgiven her much, she loved much. 314 00:25:08,540 –> 00:25:13,199 The extraordinary thing is that the folks in the house were embarrassed by the extravagance 315 00:25:13,199 –> 00:25:15,619 of her worship and of her devotion. 316 00:25:15,619 –> 00:25:25,760 Here’s the irony, they were enjoying fellowship with Christ around the meal table, but this 317 00:25:25,760 –> 00:25:35,699 woman who was worshipping at his feet enjoys a far deeper communion than any of these Pharisees 318 00:25:35,699 –> 00:25:40,400 could have begun to imagine. 319 00:25:40,400 –> 00:25:46,800 Christ can restore lost years by deepening your fellowship with him. 320 00:25:46,800 –> 00:25:51,020 Why shouldn’t you ask him for this? 321 00:25:51,020 –> 00:25:52,579 Why not ask him for this? 322 00:25:52,599 –> 00:25:58,180 When for whatever reason, you have a sense of years are passing and opportunities slipping 323 00:25:58,180 –> 00:26:03,119 away, and not where I thought I would be or where I would have hoped to be in relation 324 00:26:03,119 –> 00:26:05,239 to the Lord, why would you not ask him for that? 325 00:26:05,239 –> 00:26:11,099 Tell him, Lord I have spent too many years at a distance from you. 326 00:26:11,099 –> 00:26:16,439 Or perhaps you will say today, Lord I have spent too many years without you. 327 00:26:16,439 –> 00:26:22,060 Now fill my heart with a new love and a new gratitude for Jesus Christ. 328 00:26:22,140 –> 00:26:29,219 Let the loss of these years make my love for Jesus Christ greater, stronger, brighter than 329 00:26:29,219 –> 00:26:33,819 it ever would have been otherwise. 330 00:26:33,819 –> 00:26:38,060 Restore to me the years that the locusts have eaten. 331 00:26:38,439 –> 00:26:43,500 There’s another way in which God can restore lost years. 332 00:26:44,300 –> 00:26:48,560 He can do it by multiplying your fruitfulness. 333 00:26:48,560 –> 00:26:51,380 This is so wonderfully encouraging. 334 00:26:51,579 –> 00:26:55,739 Remember the harvest for these people, they’ve been wiped out for four years. 335 00:26:55,920 –> 00:26:58,579 All this work, nothing much coming of it. 336 00:26:58,579 –> 00:27:02,780 And then when God restores the years that the locusts have eaten for these people, what 337 00:27:02,780 –> 00:27:03,780 happens? 338 00:27:03,780 –> 00:27:04,780 They have these bumper harvests. 339 00:27:04,780 –> 00:27:09,099 I’m meditating on this and I’m thinking, oh, a bumper harvest, that made me think of 340 00:27:09,099 –> 00:27:12,819 Jesus’s Parable of the Sower. 341 00:27:12,819 –> 00:27:17,780 And you remember that at the end of the Parable of the Sower, Jesus speaks about a harvest 342 00:27:18,040 –> 00:27:24,160 that could be 30, 60, or 100 fold. 343 00:27:24,160 –> 00:27:28,959 Now folks, there’s a huge difference between these three. 344 00:27:28,959 –> 00:27:36,900 Three years at 100 fold is as much as ten years at 30 fold. 345 00:27:36,900 –> 00:27:40,300 Restoring the years. 346 00:27:40,300 –> 00:27:43,959 Now why should we not ask Him for this? 347 00:27:44,959 –> 00:27:49,900 Lord, the locus of eating too many years of our lives, 348 00:27:49,900 –> 00:27:56,280 You have called us as Your disciples to bear fruit that will last. 349 00:27:56,280 –> 00:28:00,579 Too many fruitless years have passed. 350 00:28:00,579 –> 00:28:07,140 Now Lord, we ask of You, give to us some years now 351 00:28:07,140 –> 00:28:11,699 in which there will be more lasting fruit born 352 00:28:11,699 –> 00:28:15,040 than from all our years of small harvest. 353 00:28:15,040 –> 00:28:18,979 Why would we not ask that of God? 354 00:28:18,979 –> 00:28:20,520 Do you know Spurgeon says God can do 355 00:28:20,520 –> 00:28:22,900 more in a year or in a day than all of us together 356 00:28:22,900 –> 00:28:24,780 can do in a lifetime. 357 00:28:24,780 –> 00:28:26,459 I love that. 358 00:28:26,459 –> 00:28:28,900 And encouraging preachers he says this. 359 00:28:28,900 –> 00:28:31,719 One sermon preached in the power of the Holy Ghost 360 00:28:31,719 –> 00:28:36,280 will be worth 10,000 preached without him. 361 00:28:36,280 –> 00:28:39,859 And then expanding his range he says this. 362 00:28:39,859 –> 00:28:41,859 If you go into your Sunday school class, 363 00:28:41,859 –> 00:28:43,979 he’s talking to those who are teaching little children. 364 00:28:43,979 –> 00:28:46,099 If you go into your Sunday school class 365 00:28:46,099 –> 00:28:48,760 with a divine anointing resting on you 366 00:28:48,760 –> 00:28:50,859 there will be more children brought to Christ 367 00:28:50,859 –> 00:28:53,459 by a little of your living, loving teaching 368 00:28:53,459 –> 00:28:56,319 than would ever have been by whole years 369 00:28:56,319 –> 00:28:58,619 of your unspiritual talk. 370 00:28:58,619 –> 00:29:03,339 Thus God can, by endowing us with greater power 371 00:29:03,339 –> 00:29:06,180 and firing us with fuller zeal he can 372 00:29:06,260 –> 00:29:11,579 restore to us the years that the locust has eaten. 373 00:29:11,579 –> 00:29:15,099 That’s wonderfully encouraging. 374 00:29:15,099 –> 00:29:16,719 Why should these next years not be 375 00:29:16,719 –> 00:29:20,819 the most fruitful years of your life 376 00:29:20,819 –> 00:29:25,739 and of mine and of ours? 377 00:29:25,739 –> 00:29:30,239 Why should we not ask God of that for that. 378 00:29:30,239 –> 00:29:34,020 I hope in your heart you are saying right now 379 00:29:34,800 –> 00:29:37,540 that’s what I want. 380 00:29:40,180 –> 00:29:43,640 And God can bring longterm gain 381 00:29:43,640 –> 00:29:46,280 from shortterm loss. 382 00:29:47,540 –> 00:29:49,859 Peter puts it this way, he says, 383 00:29:49,859 –> 00:29:51,619 your faith’s gonna be tested, 384 00:29:51,619 –> 00:29:54,219 but God is going to prove it to be genuine. 385 00:29:54,219 –> 00:29:56,800 And that means it’s going to rebound 386 00:29:57,780 –> 00:29:59,699 to praise and glory and honor 387 00:29:59,699 –> 00:30:01,859 when Jesus Christ is revealed. 388 00:30:01,880 –> 00:30:04,680 The thing that will most glorify Christ 389 00:30:04,680 –> 00:30:07,959 for all eternity in your life 390 00:30:09,380 –> 00:30:12,959 will be the power by which he has sustained your faith 391 00:30:14,439 –> 00:30:19,439 through the hardest years and experiences of your life. 392 00:30:21,300 –> 00:30:23,260 Last thing I simply want to say is this, 393 00:30:23,260 –> 00:30:26,000 thinking about the years that the locust has eaten, 394 00:30:26,000 –> 00:30:27,819 years that have been taken, 395 00:30:27,819 –> 00:30:31,579 my mind went to something that Isaiah said 396 00:30:31,579 –> 00:30:36,579 about Jesus, do you remember that Isaiah says of Christ 397 00:30:36,780 –> 00:30:41,760 that he was cut off from the land of the living? 398 00:30:43,199 –> 00:30:46,699 Here is Jesus and he’s in the prime of life, 399 00:30:46,699 –> 00:30:49,780 three years into ministry, 33 years old, 400 00:30:51,300 –> 00:30:53,380 you would think that a man launching a new enterprise 401 00:30:53,380 –> 00:30:55,780 at the age of 33 has everything in front of him 402 00:30:55,780 –> 00:30:59,119 and Isaiah says, no, watch this, he’s cut off. 403 00:31:00,079 –> 00:31:03,520 The reason he was cut off was that he came 404 00:31:03,520 –> 00:31:06,260 under the judgment of God, not for his own sins, 405 00:31:07,199 –> 00:31:10,939 because he had none, but for the sins of others, 406 00:31:12,520 –> 00:31:15,479 for my sins and for yours, our sins, 407 00:31:15,479 –> 00:31:18,719 our griefs, our sorrows were laid on Him. 408 00:31:18,719 –> 00:31:23,719 Our judgment fell on Him, our locusts swarmed 409 00:31:23,900 –> 00:31:28,900 over Him on the cross, and God’s tender shoot 410 00:31:35,520 –> 00:31:38,199 coming out of the ground as the way Isaiah 411 00:31:38,199 –> 00:31:43,180 describes Jesus was cut off, cut off. 412 00:31:45,420 –> 00:31:47,540 And on the third day, the Son of God rises 413 00:31:47,540 –> 00:31:50,680 from the dead in the power of an eternal life, 414 00:31:50,680 –> 00:31:54,319 and He offers Himself to you, and He says 415 00:31:54,319 –> 00:31:57,099 to you today what no one else will ever 416 00:31:57,099 –> 00:31:58,439 be able to say to you. 417 00:31:59,900 –> 00:32:04,900 I will restore the years that the locust has eaten. 418 00:32:10,420 –> 00:32:13,680 Father, do your restoring work, and make us 419 00:32:13,680 –> 00:32:17,219 the kind of people in which it is accomplished, 420 00:32:18,099 –> 00:32:19,579 for your name’s sake, amen. 421 00:32:24,800 –> 00:32:26,040 You’ve been listening to a sermon 422 00:32:26,040 –> 00:32:28,439 with Pastor Colin Smith of Open the Bible. 423 00:32:28,439 –> 00:32:33,439 To contact us, call us at 1-877-OPEN-365, 424 00:32:33,739 –> 00:32:37,459 or visit our website, OpenTheBible.org.

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Colin Smith

Trustee / Founder and Teaching Pastor

Colin Smith is the Senior Pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has authored a number of books, including Heaven, How I Got Here and Heaven, So Near – So Far. Colin is the Founder and Teaching Pastor for Open the Bible. Follow him on X formerly Twitter.

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Sermons on Joel “I will restore the years that the locust has eaten.” That’s a promise written in the book of Joel. In these sermons on Joel, we’ll learn that God can restore lost years. We will hear the truths on how God does this—by deepening our communion with Christ, by multiplying our fruitfulness, and

Colin Smith

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