A scroll from Joel: look out!

My name is Joel, and for these five Tuesday mornings I’ve got a message for you taken from my book (in the Old Testament) first given to people living in a time of crisis. The parallels are staggering. For us the crisis 2500 year ago was a locust plague and the damage they caused across the land devouring the crops. For you it’s a virus and the damage it is causing devouring human life and finance. But if you are willing to listen just for a few moments, there’s something we can learn from God for times like this.

The first thing is Look around. We looked at that week 1. For us it was locusts eating our crops, and I encouraged people to look at the damage and devastation. The second was Look down. Mourn that damage that has been caused by this crisis. Third Look up. Any time of suffering and natural disaster should make us look up to God in order that we might turn back to him.

And today’s message is Look out. Any crisis should teach us that we can’t carry on ignoring God and thinking that we will get away with it. Joel 2:11 “The day of the Lord is great. Who can endure it?”.

The day of the locusts for us was terrible. Everything was destroyed.
The day of the coronavirus for you is terrible. Financial difficulty, ambulances racing people to hospital, stress and uncertainty.

But all these things point to a future day when God will come in judgement. “The day of the Lord is great, who can endure it?”
The message is look out. Don’t ignore God, don’t think that our actions have no consequences. One day he will judge the world.

Jesus himself said, “Unless you repent you too will all perish”. We won’t be ready to meet our maker, if we are living in rebellion and rejection of him. Turn back to him, he’s a wonderful and forgiving God who is full of kindness.
God has sent his son Jesus to tell us to turn away from our wrongdoing and selfishness and sin. But he’s also sent his son Jesus to rescue us and give us a warm welcome into God’s Kingdom.

Don’t ignore Jesus. Look out. I’m not talking about becoming more religious or giving money to charity or starting to go to online church. I’m talking about turning back to God, saying sorry and receiving the forgiveness that he loves to give.

Jesus once told the story of a boy who had run away from home. He was living a reckless life, life in the fast lane. And while it all went well for a while, his life started to fall apart. In fact, he ended up without food, and the only job he could find was feeding pigs. He was so hungry that he wanted to eat the food for the pigs. But he decided to look around, to look down, to look up, to look out, and he decided to come home to his dad. It must have been a long journey.

What response do you think his Father gave him? “I don’t want you coming anywhere near my house?” “Get out, you don’t belong here. You’ve squandered my money”.

No, the Father ran out to his son with open arms and hugged him. He kissed him and welcomed him home, and had a party, killing the fattened calf and saying “this son of mine was dead and now he’s alive”.

Don’t stay away from God. Come home. Come back to him. He loves you. Don’t carry on ignoring him, the day of the Lord is great, who can endure it. So look out. Come back to God through Jesus.

Look around, Look down, Look up, and Look out. And next week we will Look forward, to the wonderful good news of what happens when anyone turns back to God.