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.