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1:13A big theme, as we'll see in the book of Joel, is the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord. We'll dive into that here shortly. But we know the day of the Lord as the day when Christ returns to judge the earth. And so it's appropriate that we turn our... Minds, even after we see Christ coming as a babe in a manger to his second coming, which will be a lot different than the first. Another reason I think Joel is appropriate for this season is because, in less than a hundred hours, we will be celebrating New Year. New Year. How many of y'all like to celebrate New Year? I do. I like to celebrate it. Beth, not so much. He says it's just a day on the calendar, but I think there's a reason why cultures across the world have New Year's celebrations. New Year's is a time of looking backwards and it's a time of looking forwards. And the Book of Joel does this too. The Book of Joel starts by looking back, looking at the past, and then it ends by looking forward to the future. Now, there's something else with the Book of Joel that relates to New Year's, and this is a heavy topic. The Book of Joel deals with disaster, it deals with plague, it deals with suffering. In this case, the disaster is the locusts. Locusts are infesting the land.

2:35I know 2025, looking back, has had no shortage of disaster, some personal disasters, some community, some global. I think about the central Texas flooding that we experienced this summer. I think about the wars that are going on in Ukraine and Israel. I even think nationally about. Our country and some of the things that have been going on in our economy and in our nation. And all of this pondering can cause me to fear, especially around New Year's. What will go wrong in 2026?

3:18The older I get, the more skeptical I get of the new year. And I'm curious: does anyone else feel this way? Or is it just me? I see that hand. Well, even though, as I look into the new year, even though I know that it's not a matter of if disaster will come, but when and how bad that disaster will be, I ponder these deep questions, deep questions that scripture answers, that I believe the book of Joel has answers to. Questions like, why does God allow disasters to happen? Why does God allow that to happen? Large-scale national disaster.

4:02How should we feel about going into a new year knowing that disasters will happen? I know these questions are profound. I want to do them justice, and I think Joel points us in the right direction. One commentator calls the book of Joel brief but powerful, controversial, yet important. I like that. It's a good summary. Joel is only three chapters, and we're going to briefly. Cover the whole thing. I don't have a fancy outline for you this morning, but we're going to start in chapter 1 and just march our way through so you can follow along in your own Bibles. I'll start by reading chapter 1, verses 1 through 4.

4:47The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. Hear this, O elders, and listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or in your father's days? Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons and their sons to the next generation. What the gnawing locusts have left, the swarming locusts has eaten. What the swarming locusts has left, the creeping locust has eaten. What the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten. All right, we'll stop there for now.

5:21We don't know much about Joel. You can see kind of in the first verse, sometimes we get an indicator of when the prophet is writing, like we did for Hosea. But here he goes straight into the prophecy. Okay, we have identified the author. His name is Joel. We know his father's name, but we don't know really anything else about Joel, which makes Joel a really hard book to pinpoint on a timeline. And I know scholars have debated long and hard about where Joel fits in the prophetic timeline. But I like the way that John Calvin puts it. You know, he says, you know, it doesn't really matter because the point is not to dwell on the historical. Context, but to dwell on the immediate context. And we know what the immediate context is. We know, despite whatever time this is happening, that there is a locust plague going on. Israel is being attacked. It's being attacked by bugs. Yes, I'm preaching about bugs this morning. Has anyone ever seen a locust up close? Anyone's ever seen a locust swarm up close? Few of y'all have. I have not. I would be terrified. I watched a video, and the video terrified me. Just thinking about what this could have been like for the Israelites living at the time. You know, the only real memory I have of locusts is from right before the pandemic. Y'all remember this? I know we were distracted by, you know, COVID-19, but while that was happening, there was a locust crisis going on in the Horn of Africa. And this was happening around 2019, 2020.

7:04There were 80 million locusts per square kilometer in this particular region. Swarms and swarms. Crops were being devastated. People were starving. I learned that 80 million locusts can consume the food equivalent of 35,000 humans. I learned that when you have swarms that size, they literally block out the sun. It's like night or dusk all day long. This was bad. I remember reading the news and thinking, oh my goodness, is this what it's like? And I know a lot of even the secular media was calling this an apocalyptic event.

7:44Funny how people associate locus with the Bible. And I imagine that the people of Israel were thinking similar thoughts. Don't you agree? I bet a lot of them were, maybe they wouldn't use the word apocalypse, but they would see these locus coming and think, okay, this is it. The end is here. And this is where Joel steps in. He steps in into this crisis, this economic agricultural disaster. And Joel doesn't say why the plague comes. Now, unlike other minor prophets, Joel doesn't get on to the people for idolatry or for wickedness. And I actually find that really refreshingly unexpected.

8:30And I think that is a clue for us. When we're faced with large-scale disaster, we don't have to immediately find someone to blame. Instead, Joel points his audiences heavenward and encourages them to move forward. And he does this by addressing four classes of people and giving each of them a charge. And we see this starting out in verse 2, part we just read. Joel is going to address the elders first. And he gives the elders this charge. He tells them, remember.

9:00Remember what it was like before. Has anything like this happened before? He said, remember what it's like now. And not only that, but in the generations to come, remember and tell the future generations what is going on. And remember, Joel is talking about a disaster. This is perhaps harder to do than you might expect. When bad things happen, when disaster falls, the first thing we want to do is what? Forget. We want to forget, especially if it's painful. I think we're revisionists at heart. We have the desire to change history, to make either us look better or to make our community look better. And we need help remembering the bad along with the good. And Joel gives this charge specifically to the elders of the people and reminds them that it's their sacred duty to help the people remember the seasons of hardship, not just the seasons of plenty.

10:07I think a practical application of this point is in our Bible study, right? I know some of us have the tendency to read our Bible through a maybe a romanticized lens and to just go to the parts of Scripture that feel comfortable, that feel pleasant. And I think for us, it takes more effort to remember. all the works of the Lord, even the works of the Lord that are wrought in judgment and wrath, even the hard ones. So the elders are to remember. Now Joel goes on to address a second group of people. This is in verse 5. These are the drunkards. Drunkards in verse 5. And what are the drunkards told to do? They're told to weep.

10:53Why might they be commanded to weep? I think there's a simple answer, and maybe a more complex answer. The simple answer is because there's no more wine, right? Literally, the locusts have eaten all the agriculture, and if there's no vineyards, there's no grapes. If there's no grapes, there's no wine. I think the more complex answer, and perhaps the reason why Joel singles out drunkards specifically, is because a drunkard, unlike just someone who drinks at the appropriate time, a drunkard is someone who is consumed by wine. Now why might the Israelites, or why might certain Israelites, be consumed by wine at this time?

11:37There might be a few reasons, but in light of the crisis, in light of the locusts, it's probably driven by despair. And we know this from our experience. We know that crises draw people to despair. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, studies show that alcohol consumption increased by 20%. Similarly, you can imagine the locusts are destroying the agriculture, destroying the economy. I bet there is a sharp increase of drunkards during the time of Joel. I can imagine. And so, what's Joel's point? Well, I think it's this. When disaster comes, some of us have an overwhelming urge to escape. Be it in the bottom of a glass, be it scrolling through social media, be it isolating yourself from church and from the people who love you. And we know this, or secular science knows this as the flight response in fight or flight. And some people are prone to that. But Joel says this: a point will come, just as it did for the drunkards, when the things that you are using for your shelter will fail. They'll fail. And when it does, there is nothing you can do but weep.

13:02Beware the empty promise of escapism. There will be no escape from the coming day of the Lord. Joel addresses a third group of people, the farmers. You can see this in verse 11. And the farmers are a bit of a contrast to the drunkards. The drunkards are the ones who are consuming the agriculture of the land. The farmers are the ones who are producing it. And Joel's exhortation for the farmers is interesting. He tells the farmers, be ashamed. Now, why might Joel say that to the farmers? I imagine that the farmers of Joel's day were a lot like the farmers of our day. They're hardworking, tough to the core, proud of their work, proud of their contribution to society. And you can imagine that a plague of locusts would be taken personally. You know, you are the farmer who woke up at dawn every morning to tend these crops. You cared for these crops, you cultivated these crops, and then in the blink of an eye, they're gone. Nothing you did could have stopped it. No amount of hard work, no amount of shooing the locusts away would work. They're gone. Now, how would that make you feel?

14:16I think perhaps the opposite of escapism is what I would call work-ism. And that has its nuance. Is hard work a good thing? Yes, absolutely. The Bible says if you don't work, you don't eat. You have to work hard. But will hard work save you? No. Think carefully, no. It's by grace we are saved, not by works. So, I think our position on this comes out whenever disaster strikes. Like I said, fight or flight. Some people are prone to the flight response. Some people are prone to the flight. Fight response. And I think that these are the farmers, right? These are the guys who are out there in the field trying to defend their crops. They work really, really hard. It's a noble effort, but ultimately, what? It's fruitless. Literally, fruitless. Some problems can't be solved by strength alone. And guess what? That's really, really frustrating, especially for some of you out there. It's really, really frustrating when you can't pull it together with your own two hands.

15:32At the end of the day, the farmers' efforts weren't good enough. And so what's left? What's left for them now? Shame. Shame. It's inevitable. I think it's important to mention that Joel isn't criticizing these groups of people, not the drunkards or the farmers. He's not calling out these groups for sin, although there may be sin involved. I think Joel's point in chapter one is the inevitability of disaster. Joel points to this locust plague and he says, Look, hey, Israel, a disaster just like this, in fact, worse than this, is coming. And guess what? Your normal ways of coping are not enough. Your experience won't save you. Your escape won't save you. And your ingenuity and grit and pull it up by your bootstrap mentality is not going to save you. So what will save you? What will save you? Well, it's not a what, it's a who. And Joel turns to the final group of people in Israel, the priests. And you can read what he says, starting in verse 13. Joel says, Gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament, O priests. Wail, you ministers of the altar. And we know who the priests are. These are the religious people, the ones who are supposed to lead Israel in worship before Yahweh. And the priests are given a series of exhortations. And I think they can be summed up by the final one at the end of verse 14. Cry out to the Lord. Cry out to the Lord. The priests are the ones to lead Israel in a national lament. And I think this is so incredibly important. Hear me out here. How often do you cry out to the Lord? Think about it. And maybe a better question is: who do you cry out to first before you cry out to the Lord?

17:33I think, speaking for myself, at least, I think we often wait far too long before we cry out to the Lord. And I think there's some reasons why we wait far too long. Sometimes it's because we feel unworthy. Why would God want to hear from the likes of me? I don't have the words. I don't have the strength. I'm not put together. Sometimes it's because we feel foolish. What will my friends and family think of me if I'm the crazy one who's always praying all the time?

18:10Doesn't seem like worldly wisdom to be doing that. Sometimes we fail to cry out because we feel angry, angry at God. Why would I cry out to a God who would do this to me? He's the one who put me in this mess. I can imagine that there were many in Israel who felt all of these emotions during the plague of the locusts, which is why Joel calls specifically on the priests to lead the people, the shepherds of the people, to lead them in lament. Friends, hear me out. It's okay to cry out to God on the day of trouble. In fact, it's a form of worship to cry out to God. Christian worship is never about putting on a happy face. We don't see that anywhere in Scripture. And I think one of the biggest lies of modern religion is that you have to clean yourself up and pull yourself together. You have to say the right things, be in the right posture in order for God to listen to you. No, no, no, no. A broken and contrite heart, those are the sacrifices that God desires. So don't wait. Just come to Him, tears and all.

19:30Well, we move on and we get to verse 15. And here we get the first mention of the day of the Lord. Alas for the day, for the day of the Lord is near. It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Now, we'll get to the day of the Lord in just a minute, but briefly, let me just recap the rest of the chapter. You know, chapter 1 is a lament. The rest of chapter 1 is a lament over creation. You can see the crops, the animals, the trees, the rivers, they are all crying out because of the locusts that are upon them. And don't forget that as Joel is prophesying this, the people are watching this happen, you know, in real time. Technicolor. And then we get to chapter 2. I told you it wasn't a very Christmassy message, but this is our God. This is Scripture.

20:18Chapter 2, verses 1 through 2, it begins this way: Blow a trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. Surely it is near. A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, so there is a great and mighty people. There has never been anything like it, nor will there be after it to the years of many generations. We'll stop there. All right. So, chapter two carries on the similar theme of disaster, but something has shifted. Shifted. And you can see it first in the verb tenses. The verbs of chapter one are primarily past tense, while the verbs of chapter two are primarily present and future tense. So what's going on? What has shifted in the mind of Joel? Well, I think to understand this, we need to get our minds around the day of the Lord, at least as much as we can in a brief time. What is the day of the Lord, and why does Joel keep bringing it up? Well, I should mention that the day of the Lord is not unique to the book of Joel, although Joel talks about it more than any other biblical author. He mentions it five times. But the day of the Lord appears all over the Old and New Testaments. And here's just a few samples to give you the general sense of what the day of the Lord is like. And if you want, you can write these references down. Versus Isaiah 13, 9. Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation, and he will exterminate its sinners from it. Ezekiel 30, verse 3 says, The day is near, even the day of the Lord is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.

22:14Zephaniah 1, 14 through 15 says, Near is the great day of the Lord, near and coming very quickly. Listen, the day of the Lord. In it, the warrior cries out bitterly. A day of wrath is that day. A day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. I know we're just scratching the surface here, but I'd like to point out three ways that the Bible consistently talks about the day of the Lord. We see it here, and you can see it in other passages. One, the day of the Lord is marked by judgment. That's very clear. Judgment from Yahweh, from God. Number two, it's marked by disaster and desolation. We've covered that. Number three, it's marked by nearness. You get this sense that it will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night, 1 Thessalonians says. So we see these three elements, and we can kind of take these three elements to come up with a working definition. And I've chosen this as a working definition. The day of the Lord is a time of concentrated divine judgment on the earth. I'll say it one more time. The day of the Lord is a time of concentrated divine judgment on the earth. Now, here's where things get a little bit tricky. How many days of the Lord are there?

23:43Well, there's at least one. We might call this the big one. The future event when Christ returns at the end of the great tribulation. Now, the New Testament authors describe this in detail, including the passage we read at the beginning of the service. They describe Christ's second coming, and it fits the criteria of the Old Testament. It fits the Old Testament criteria of the day of the Lord. And I'll just review that real quick. It's marked by judgment from God. The second coming is marked by judgment from God. Read that in Revelations 19:15. Second coming is marked by disaster and desolation. You know, 2 Peter 3:10. And it is marked by nearness, unexpectancy. It comes as a thief in the night, 1 Thessalonians 5:3.

24:36So we might refer to this final day of the Lord as the final and ultimate day of the Lord. And the Bible says that it will be great and awesome. And awesome does not mean really, really cool. It'll be terrible. It's a reason for fear. But this isn't the only way that the Old Testament talks about the day of the Lord. Sometimes the day of the Lord refers to a near event, a time when God's judgment is concentrated on a specific nation at a specific time. You can think of it like previews before the main feature. It's a small glimpse of what the ultimate and final day of the Lord will be like. An example of this comes in Ezekiel chapter 30. Now, Ezekiel uses the phrase, day of the Lord. It's the same phrase, but he is speaking. About a specific judgment against the nation of Egypt. And in 568 BC, Babylon ransacks Egypt, and this actually is fulfilled in Ezekiel's lifetime. So, was this a day of the Lord? Well, yes and no, right? Ezekiel's day of the Lord prophecy had a near-fulfillment element to it. You know, parts, it was fulfilled in Ezekiel's day, but at the same time, this prophecy points forward to the great and terrible day of the Lord. And I wanted to bring this up because Joel is doing something similar here. Joel is using the immediate context of locusts swarming the land, of this great and terrible destruction, and he's making a connection. He's saying, This plague that you're seeing is a lot like the day of the Lord. In fact, you could even call it a day of the Lord, but it is not the day of the Lord. In other words, you could sum up Joel's prophecy this way: You think these locusts are bad? You ain't seen nothing yet. It's not very encouraging, is it? But it's not supposed to be. You know, Joel's prophecy is a warning. It's a warning. And chapter two is really where this warning takes its full effect. It uses a lot of the same imagery from chapter one, imagery of disaster and plague, but Joel really ramps up the Intensity here. Verses 1 through 11 describe this wave of destruction that is sweeping over the land and no one is safe. It's more powerful, more terrible than the locusts that came before it. Now, some scholars think that this wave of destruction is also locust. Other scholars believe that the metaphor has switched and it's now an invading army from the north. Well, either way, this army, this invasion, is under the Lord's jurisdiction. It's by his command. Read it in verse 11. The Lord utters his voice before his army. Surely his camp is very great. By the way, he's referring to this invading army. He's not referring to the Israelites. Strong is he who carries out his word. The day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome. Who can endure it? Don't miss this. The Lord is bringing about this calamity. It really shouldn't be a shocker that the day of the Lord is from the Lord. But I think we can miss this. I think we can miss this when we romanticize the God of the Bible according to our own image. And you know what I'm talking about. We have to take God on his own terms. We have to take God as he revealed himself in Scripture. You know, he is a God who does not let the guilty go unpunished. He is a God who is righteous and just. Holy. And thank goodness that he is. You know, R.C. Sproll says it this way: if God was not holy, then we probably made him up because we won't want a God who is holy.

28:41But his holiness demands that times will come when God will call forth disaster, just, excuse me, when God will call forth disaster as a just consequence for sin. And Joel's rhetorical question at the end of verse 11: who can endure the day of the Lord? It has an implied answer. Nobody. Nobody can endure this coming day of the Lord. Not the elders, not the drunkards, not the farmers, not the priests. They can't even handle the preview.

29:14So Joel makes it clear. This is a warning. When God comes to judge the earth, there is nothing you can do. There is nowhere you can go. You cannot outrun the wrath of God. So what are we to do? Well, Joel gives us an answer. He gives us the answer. We read it during our time of worship. We'll read it again. It's in Joel 2:12 through 13. I love these first three words. Yet, even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and weeping, and mourning, and rend your heart, not your garments. Return to the Lord. The Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil. Wow.

30:13You might recognize this passage in verse 13. You know, Joel is actually quoting the Old Testament here. He's quoting Exodus 34, 6 through 7, which is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. Now, this is the time where Moses, as the intercessor between God and Israel, has just given Israel the covenant, this promise of God to be their God and they be his people. And Israel, in complete defiance, spits on the covenant of God by making a golden calf.

30:56And Moses weeps. He is torn. He goes back up to the mountain and fully, I believe, fully expects God to wipe out the nation. And God says, Hey, Moses, stand here. I'm going to pass by you, and I'm going to give the fullest iteration of the divine name that you've heard so far. And so Moses stands in the cleft of the rock, and the presence of Yahweh passes by him. And Moses hears a voice that says, The Lord, the Lord God, compassionately. And gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth.

31:38This is what Joel was quoting to his people. And this is why Joel can look them in the face and say with complete and utter confidence: yet, even now, return to the Lord your God. Return to the Lord your God, because he is not just a God of wrath, he is a God of mercy and loving kindness. It's in his very name. And it gets even better for the Christian, right? And because God's wrath has been poured out for those who are in Christ, it was poured out on Christ himself. So God will not deal with the sins that have already been dealt with on the cross. This is how God can be both merciful and just and carry that in harmony within his name. And this is why Joel can look disaster in the face and say, yet, even now, it's not too late to turn and repent and go to Yahweh.

32:42Joel goes on in chapter 2 to describe just what will happen when the people repent and return. You can read it in verses 18 through 27. We won't read it together today, but let's just say that it goes very well. It goes very well. Well, for those who return to the Lord. And that leads us to verse 28. You can turn there. Chapter 2, verse 28. Now, this passage is by far the most familiar passage in the book of Joel. Let's see if you recognize it. Verse 28 starts like this: It will come about after this, that I will pour out my spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions, even on the male and female servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days. I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there will be those who escape, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls. We'll stop there. So, Bible quiz, who recognized this passage?

34:14You might recognize it from the New Testament. This passage appears in Acts chapter 2, where Peter is quoting this passage right after he received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. And you might remember what happens. The Holy Spirit comes down. Peter and the believers who are with him start speaking in tongues. And then Peter gets up in front of an assembly of people and starts preaching to them. This is very unlike Peter, right? The same guy who hid and denied Jesus. He is now preaching the gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit. And Peter uses Joel as his base text. You know, this is his expository sermon. If you want, you can turn there. Acts chapter 2, 17 through 21. Now, why does Peter use these verses at Pentecost? Well, let me start as you're turning. Let me start with what I don't think Peter is saying by using these verses. I do not think that Peter is claiming that the day of the Lord has already come. That's very clear from the context. But we also know this because Peter himself is going to write a letter in many years from Pentecost where he is going to say explicitly that the day of the Lord has not yet come.

35:35So if he's not talking about the day of the Lord in the immediate context, what is Peter talking about? Well, I think Peter is quoting Joel because Peter's message and Joel's message is one and the same. Beware, beware, beware. The day of the Lord comes. The day of the Lord comes. News flash, the God of the Old Testament is still the God of the church. Age. He comes to judge the wicked, and Peter says, By the way, you just nailed his Messiah to a cross.

36:09And so the people, hearing this, tremble in fear. It says that they were cut to the heart. And they ask Peter, What do we do? What do we do? The day of the Lord is coming. We deserve the wrath of God. What can we do? And Peter's answer is the same as Joel's. You can read it in Acts 2:38. Repent. Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. Oh, I love this. This is so rich. What is the promise that Peter is talking about? And turn back to Joel 2:32. What is that promise? Well, Joel says that in the great and terrible day of the Lord, there will be some who escape. There will be some who escape. Now, this is great news for Joel's audience, right? Because Joel just got done explaining how no one can escape the wrath of God.

37:17So, who is it? Who are the ones who will escape? Is it the Jews? Is it the righteous remnant? Is it the good people? No. Joel tells us it is those whom the Lord called. And Peter, I bet Peter had this light bulb moment. I got it. Those who the Lord calls. We know who the Lord calls. It's those who call on the Lord. The ones who call on the name of Jesus are the ones who God has called to himself, which is why Peter, just like Joel, can look at his audience and say, yet, even now, repent. Repent. Turn to the Lord. I think this is amazing. This is Old Testament theology. And don't let anyone tell you that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament.

38:06We're going to quickly wrap up the book of Joel. We move to chapter 3. And chapter 3 continues to elaborate on this great and final day of the Lord. We get a couple references to the valley of Jehoshaphat. You can see that in chapter 3, verses 2 and 12. Now, we don't really know where the valley of Jehoshaphat is. There's no place named Valley of Jehoshaphat. So it could be a reference to what happens there. Jehoshaphat just means the Lord is judged. And so this could be just the valley where the final judgment occurs. It could also be the valley of Jezreel. We talked about that when we talked about the book of Hosea. Now, the Valley of Jezreel is where the Battle of Armageddon, that's the plains of Megiddo. And we know from the Book of Revelation: that this is the final battle where the forces of Christ will come and battle the forces of Satan. So, either way, Joel tells us that this is the place where God will ultimately judge not just Israel, but the nations of the earth.

39:19And Joel also calls this the valley of decision. You see that in verse 14. The valley of decision implies that there will be a choice. There's going to be two sides: those who are with God and those who oppose God. Now, listen carefully. There is no middle ground, there is no third choice. God's enemies will be destroyed on that day, and God's people will be sheltered. I think each of us would do well to ask ourselves the very serious question: which side are you on?

39:59Well, this is where the book of Joel leaves us. Those who are devastated by the day of the Lord and those who have sought shelter in the shadow of the Almighty. The final verses of Joel parallel the new heavens and the new earth that we read about in Revelation 22. You see pictured God dwelling with his people on Mount Zion. You see a fountain, a river flowing from the temple in Jerusalem. You see all of creation restored and the people of God living in peace. The book of Joel begins with devastation and it ends with restoration.

40:44So, what can we learn? What can we learn from the book of Joel? Well, I asked two questions at the beginning. I'll bring them up again. Why does God allow disaster to happen? And how should we feel about the new year, knowing that disaster will happen? Well, I'll start with the first question. Why does God allow disaster to happen? Sometimes disaster is a warning. Sometimes disaster is a preview of what's to come. And I don't say this to trivialize disaster. I don't say this to talk down to anyone who has experienced pain and suffering this year. This isn't to say that suffering is meaningless. Suffering is never meaningless because we have a sovereign God.

41:39But the truth is that Joel doesn't trivialize disaster. He doesn't point at the locus and say, okay, you know, these locusts aren't really that big of a deal. Just cheer up. It's going to be all right. No, he doesn't tell the people to put on a happy face. He tells them the opposite. He tells them to weep. Literally, weep. Cry out to the Lord. Remember this devastation that's going on. Now, why does Joel do that? Well, because the current disaster is not the end.

42:10There will be more to come, and the more to come will be much, much worse, which is why Joel can use those three words: yet, even now, return to the Lord. Return to the Lord. Use this current disaster as an opportunity to see what God can do and go take shelter. Take shelter in Him by returning to Him. There is still time. And guess what? That time is running out. A day will come when the window for repentance closes on that great and final day of the Lord.

42:48And the same reality is true today. Yet, even now, in the year 2026, friends, return to the Lord. Return to the Lord. 2 Peter 3:7 through 9 talks about the coming day of the Lord, saying that the heavens and the earth are being reserved for the day of judgment and the destruction of ungodly men. Then he goes on to say that the Lord is patient, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. A few verses down, he will say, Count the patience of the Lord as your salvation.

43:30Disasters are plentiful. I wish it weren't so. But they signal that Jesus is coming back soon. On that day, there will be two people and two outcomes. There will be restoration for those who are in Christ. There will be devastation for those who are not. So don't, don't, don't let another year go by without taking shelter in the Lord. Please, please, please, please heed the warning. Second question: How should we feel about going into the new year, knowing that disasters will happen?

44:14As we approach New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, I want to encourage you to take time to consider four things. Four things that we find in the book of Joel. Hopefully, these are practical. Hopefully, you can apply these this week. The first is: take time to reflect. Take time to reflect. And remember the elders. That was their job, right? Remember the good and the bad. And this is a theme all throughout Scripture. Remember, remember, remember. And whether you're last year, 2025, whether it was good or bad, it is a worthwhile practice to remember. That could be writing it down in a journal. That could be having a figurine. Or something that reminds you of what you've been through, an Ebenezer, so to speak.

45:08And the reason for this, the reason for this comes from a passage in Joel, Joel 2, verse 23. I love this passage. It says, God has given you the former rains faithfully, and he will cause the latter rains to come down. The reason we remember is so that we can train our minds to dwell on God's faithfulness. Because if we reflect on God's faithfulness in the past, we are better prepared to expect God's faithfulness in the future. So that's number one. Take time to reflect. Number two, take time to weep. Yes, weep. Literally, if you need to.

45:53Friends, I don't know for many of you what happened in 2025, but for some of you, I do know that it was a tough year. I know what you've been through. We've walked together through it. I know that 2025 has brought many of you trials and suffering and pain, things that have never happened before, things that you're still trying to reconcile and deal with. And friends, it is okay to grieve. It is okay to lament that things went wrong, that things. Things didn't go the way that you expected. It's okay to cry out to the Lord like David when he says, Why are you downcast, O my soul?

46:41There is room in our theology for crying out. Just make sure that you're crying out to the right God. Cry out to the God who can save. Which brings me to number three: take time this new year to repent. To repent. And we've covered this, but there are two sides to this repentance. Well, the first is if you're not a believer, then the warning of the coming day of the Lord is for you. The warning is for you. The Lord tarries for now, but he is coming soon. He is coming like a thief in the night. The Old Testament, the New Testament agree that his coming is near. It is near, it is near, it is near.

47:27If you are a believer, if you have already taken shelter in the Most High, then there is still more repentance to be done. You know, 2 Peter 3 talks about this. In light of the coming day of the Lord, Peter gives some exhortations. He says, Be diligent to be found in him in peace, spotless and blameless. So think for yourself: what do I need to repent for 2026? And what ways do I need to change? What habits are taking hold of my life? And what ways am I walking? As a child of darkness, even though I have been called to the light, take the opportunity of New Year's to examine that and to repent well. Pastor Tom often says, get good at repenting. I think we all can do this better. The last one I want to mention is to take time to hope.

48:24And what I love about Joel and the rest of the prophets is that disaster is never the end for the people of God. There's always redemption, there is always a reversal. And this is true for the people of God today. This is true for all those who are in Christ. And Joel teaches that the day of the Lord, though great and terrible, will usher in the kingdom of God on this earth. And when it does, disaster and suffering will be a thing of the past. He will wipe away every tear, and pain and sorrow will be no more. You know, this is the Christian hope going into a year where disaster will certainly occur. This is the Christian hope, but it is only available to the Christian. 1 Thessalonians 5:9, God has not destined us, those who are in Christ, for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

49:32New Year's is a time of reflection. It's a time of weeping. It's a time of repentance. And it's a time of hope. I pray that you take the time to consider God this new year and trust that he has a purpose for whatever comes. Let's pray. Lord, thank you. Thank you for the coming of your Son. Lord, just taking the time this last week to look upon the baby in a manger, to hear what the angels said announcing his arrival. Peace on earth, goodwill towards men. This is good news. This is good news. And God, I pray that this good news, which we know and believe would be coupled with an urgency, an urgency to make that good news known, to proclaim that good news to the lost who are perishing, the lost who will face destruction on the day of the Lord. I pray that we as a church, Lord, that we would be a light set on a hill, that all men may see us and glorify our Father who is in heaven. May that be us. In Jesus' name, amen.