Call (Joel 1:13-20)

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So go ahead, grab your Bibles. Open up to Joel chapter one. We’ll be starting in verse 13 today. Joel one, verse 13, maybe an appropriate opening illustration with City Link and all that. But you’ve ever been you know, maybe it’s at a park or something, or your own kids, or you’re watching somebody else’s kids or something, and you see two kids kind of starting to fight and whatnot, and then one of them gets hurt in the process, and the tears come, and the screaming happens and everything. And you see the look on the face of the other kid, the one who did the damage. And there’s just panic, right? Panic, because they know that consequences are coming and still, you know, they’re like, sweating and stuff. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, you know, all that kind of stuff and and you’re watching this from the distance, and you’re in you’re thinking to yourself, you know you don’t really look sorry, at least not sorry about what you did to the person you look like you’re sorry about what’s about to happen to you. Because if you were truly sorry, those emotions would move you to act, to do something, to make it right, to care for this other person, even to own the consequences of your misbehavior. The thing is, that’s true for us spiritually too genuine spiritual emotions should move us move like as a result of them, I’m now in a different place, performing different actions. And I mention this because we had a lot of emotions in our text last week when we started Joel. First half of Joel, chapter one, we got this locust invasion happening, and there are a lot of words like mourn, wail, grieve, like these are people who are feeling deeply right now. They are feeling sorrow and desperation. But the question we’re gonna look at this morning is, will that emotion move God’s people, because something is off spiritually within them. We don’t get a ton of information on the background. So, you know, we don’t know what it is, but there’s some sin, or even just this, this spiritual stupor that they’ve been in, that this apathy or lethargy, spiritually speaking, something’s off. Will this emotion move them to make it right before a holy God? If you were here last week, you know our our big idea was when disaster comes, mourn your sin and the world’s brokenness, and our big idea this week is building on that. It’s kind of step two. We’ll actually get Step Three next week. But step two, the big idea is, okay, let morning move you to call on the Lord. Let morning move you to call on the Lord. Now, word call is important in our text. It actually be our outline as well. Kind of these three calls that happen here. So let’s start. I’m gonna read Joel chapter one, verses 13 and 14, and the first call we get is a call to fast. Here’s what Joel says, put on sackcloth. You priests and mourn wail, you who minister before the altar. Come spend the night in sackcloth. You who minister before my God for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. Declare a holy fast. Call a sacred assembly, summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the Lord, so we get these big emotion words again, as we start off here, there’s mourning and wailing, but that should lead Israel’s spiritual leaders, the priests, to act to call the people together and declare a national day of mourning, a national fast where they can acknowledge their sin and brokenness before the Lord. Now if you’re reading this, you notice it’s like a bit of a chutzpah on Joel’s part here, because here he is, he’s directing the spiritual leaders of Israel and what they should be doing, the priests, the people who are ministering in the temple, which, you know, these are important people. He’s telling them how to conduct their affairs. I mean, even notice the pronoun you who minister before my God, right? Like he’s he’s set himself up here as being above them. It’s not hubris or chutzpah, though. It’s Joel speaking in his authority as God’s prophet. We saw in one one the word of the Lord that came to Joel. This is God speaking through Joel, and that’s why Joel has a right to direct the service. And so that’s why he gave this summons last week, so that everyone be there. That the priest can give a summons this week too fast. Now the priest says spiritual leaders need to set the example for the people of Judah, and the example is one of continuous mourning before the Lord. They’re supposed to even spend the night in sackcloth. You would put sackcloth on, very uncomfortable, as a show of your sorrow, basically, and usually, though, you’d kind of do it as a show is right? And then you’d put your silk pajamas on afterwards and spend the night in those but here they’re, they’re in sackcloth all the time because they have moved from ritual to desperation, right from an from an outward act to an inward anguish. And you can’t turn that off. That we all know what this looks like is, this is what happens in crisis for us too. So you may pray to the Lord, maybe it’s 20 minutes every morning, or something like that. After your time in God’s Word, you respond in prayer. And you know, there’s some prayers that happen throughout the day as well, but that’s really different from when you’re going through something, you know, marriage is on the rocks, or something like that, there is a conflict, and you are praying all day, every day, like you have to interrupt your prayer in order to answer your colleagues question, and then you’re right back to pray like that’s what’s happening here with a sackcloth and ashes all day, all night. Can’t stop they’re mourning, especially because there’s no food for the offerings, which we saw last week. This is what the priests then the servants in the temple. Did they offer the sacrifices on behalf of the people? Well, now there’s nothing to offer, and as we prepare to take communion today, this is a good reminder again. I mean, think about what’s happened because of their sin, the disaster that the Lord’s brought on them. There’s no food for the offerings, which means there’s no way for them to make atonement for their sins. There’s no way to offer the sacrifice, to say to God, I’m sorry for my sin, like, if you ever needed a reminder of the need for salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, this is it, the thing that they were supposed to do, to, like, earn God’s approval. They can’t do anymore. And you think, well, that’s totally different from how we do it today, of course. Well, sure, except that a lot of us are still trying to earn God’s salvation. Do you ever run out of good works to do? Yeah, because of our sin, we’re not able to bring the offering to God that we’re supposed to bring, which is a perfect life. I mean, Paul tells us Romans 12 one kind of a famous passage, that we’re supposed to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, like we are the sacrifice that we’re supposed to bring to the Lord. The problem with living sacrifices, they got the nasty habit of crawling off the altar and going their own way, and that’s us. So we we couldn’t possibly earn this. And so thanks be to God for Jesus’s perfect sacrifice, because he stayed on the altar and he offered himself His perfect life to God, and then offers it to us, which we can receive by faith, which is saying about it in all sufficient merit, right? I’m clothed in my Lord Jesus. I’m putting His perfect life on I know I’ve shared this story before. I like to share it about once a year, because it captures it so well. What so well. What happens here? When I was a teacher down in my years on the mission field, one of my other teachers shared the story of two of his students, and I knew the students, and this made sense for them. One of them had done his chemistry homework that night, and the other one had not done his chemistry homework, so he Xeroxed the other guy’s homework and just wrote his name at the top over the Xerox name and turned this in. Not brilliant. Okay, there are better ways to cheat. You shouldn’t cheat anyway, but better ways to cheat for sure. I’m so glad they did that, though, because that’s exactly what we do with Jesus. We take His perfect life and we give it to God and we just, we just, we just write our name on the top. And he’s like, Are you sure you did this? Like, no, actually, I did not do this. Jesus did this for me. And he’s like, awesome. I will take it. That’s what it means to be clothed in our Lord Jesus. So on those days when you know I know here where the land is all dried up, on those days when it feels like your soul is all dried up and you’ve got no good works to offer God mourn and wail. Yes, by all means. But if you’re in Christ, don’t forget to preach the gospel to yourself too, that he already did it right? It is finished. We can rest in His finished work on the days when we crawl off the altar, which we shouldn’t do. But what should these priests do other than mourn? We
talked a lot about the morning last week. Well, of course, they’re supposed to let their morning move them, and here it’s moving them to declare a fast to call an assembly. This is a lot like a president or a governor calling a day of prayer because of some crisis that’s hit the nation. It’s interesting. It’s the. Exact same group as as chapter one, verse two, right? It says here in verse 14, some of the elders and all who live in the land and chapter one, verse two, hear this. You elders listen to who, all who live in the land. So it’s the same group that Joel is speaking to everybody, and now the priests are calling everybody, like the whole nation needs to come together to do something. But why fast? Why abstain from food? Specifically, fasting is an outward expression of an inward reality. We do this a lot in the Christian life, even most of you, when you pray, you go like this. Now, why? Hopefully not. Because you’re nodding off, you know. But no, it’s not because this is like a magical and now I can talk to God. It’s an expression of humility before the Lord, so we bow in His presence. Fasting is a similar sort of idea, but what does it express? Fasting expresses desperation, earnestness is maybe the best way to say it, taking God or taking the situation seriously. So look at how fasting works. In Scripture, a person might fast before making a decision. We see this in Acts 13, the people of Antioch, the church in Antioch, are fasting and praying before they send out Barnabas and Paul as missionaries. And so why fast there? Because they’re showing that they’re earnestly seeking God’s direction here, or fasting. Interestingly, in the Old Testament, fasting is only required on one day out of the year, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. But most people, pious Jews, fasted more often than that. The Pharisees, for example, fasted twice a week. Certainly brings up a problem. Jesus had some things to say to the Pharisees about their fasting. We just did the Sermon on the Mount earlier this year, so you remember all that. But Jesus doesn’t say, well, so stop fasting. No. He just says, When you fast like it’s an assumption y’all are gonna fast. I know that. So when you fast, just make sure you’re not doing it hypocritically. But why? Why would you fast more often than is required? Because you’re showing that you’re taking communion with God seriously, like you’re expressing your hunger for him. You’re saying, I want to know you more, Lord, I want to feel hunger for you the way I feel hunger for food, like I know this always happens me. Anytime I fast, I’m like, man, it does not take me long before I feel hungry for food. And yet, how long would I go before I really felt hungry for God’s presence again? And so we’re taking this seriously. And then here another good example. We see it throughout Scripture, you might fast after sin to show the earnestness of your contrition and repentance and to seek God’s power to change, earnestly seeking His power to change, which is, by the way, why we should all be fasting, because we haven’t finished being changed yet. So we need the Lord to help us here. So the whole nation now is fasting to show the earnestness of their contrition and repentance. They’re gathering at this sacred assembly to cry out to God, it says, very end of verse 14, to seek Him, to see if he will have pity. Show compassion on his people. They acknowledge their sin. They declare this fast, this day of prayer. And then, of course, they pray together, and that’s what we get next. It is the second call. Here. Is a call to lament. Let me read verses 15 to 18 for us, alas, for that day, the day the Lord is near, will come like destruction from the Almighty. Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God. The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins. The granary has been broken down for the grain has dried up. How the cattle moan? The herds mill about because they have no pasture, even the flocks of sheep are suffering. So what we have here in verses 15 to 18 are the actual words that the nation is crying out like this is the prayer of lament that is being offered at this special service that the priests have just called. If they had bulletins back then, which they didn’t, this would be the text that was printed in the bulletin. We’re gonna do this responsive prayer together now, and that’s why it’s in the I don’t know if you notice there’s the shift to the first person plural, right? Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes like we are all speaking together now. So this is a corporate prayer. There’s not a lot new, especially in verses 16 to 18. It’s kind of just reiterating the disaster that we talked about in the in the first half of the chapter last week, just reiterating it again in prayer this time, there’s a terrible fam. In it’s so bad, even the animals are suffering. Joy has withered. That’s where we ended last week, verse 12, and it’s withered even in God’s house, because they’ve got no way to bring offerings to him. Although that is interesting, because joy and gladness are cut off from the house of God. That’s more than just sacrifices being cut off. Well, it is a reminder, at least, that sacrifices are not just about making amends for sin. If you read Leviticus, for example, like yes, you’ve got the sin offering, but you’ve got a thanks offering and a fellowship offer, you’ve got all these things. Here’s how Deuteronomy 12, verse seven, puts it there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to because the Lord your God has blessed you. This is what happens at the temple when they bring their sacrifices. There’s supposed to be joy and gladness as they celebrate together, you bring, you know, the first fruits of your harvest to God, and you thank him for it. But that’s been cut off now it’s no longer possible, which means, in a sense, it’s interesting. God experiences the drought too, like he’s experiencing this ruptured relationship as a result of the disaster that’s been brought there, of course, of course, he does, because God identifies with our sin. That’s why He then sent his son to identify completely with our sin in our place. But it does raise the question, Why would God allow even send a famine that keeps his people from offering him the gifts that He desires? So yes. First, it’s because, of course, God doesn’t need these offerings, and that is an important reminder for us. God doesn’t need food or drink from us. We bring him nothing if you want the fancy word we learned this in Journey groups this year. If you’re in Journey groups, you all go, Yes, I know what word you’re about to say, probably not. You’ll probably have forgotten, but the word is aseity, from the Latin ASA meaning from himself, of himself, and that’s it. So God is self existent. He is self sufficient. He needs absolutely nothing from us. He doesn’t get hungry so that we need to feed him. And you’re all like, obviously, why are you telling us this? Well, this was not obvious to most of the rest of the world throughout all of human history, so kind of a big deal, actually. Here’s what Paul says in Acts 17, as he’s speaking to a group of pagan philosophers in Athens, the God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth, and does not live in temples built by human hands, and he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. You see, he’s explaining to these Athenians that God doesn’t need them or their temples, which means there can’t be any quid pro quo here, like I’ll bring you a chicken, and then you’ll make sure my wife gets pregnant with a son, which would be a common pagan bargain, something like that, because God doesn’t need chickens. So this is a little bit like offering Bill Gates 10 bucks to help you move. 10 bucks is not going to do much for a guy who’s got more than enough money already if Bill Gates helps you move your sectional couch, it will be because of something else, because of some sort of relationship that you have in place already. And of course, that’s true with the Lord also. We don’t bring sacrifices so that he will do what we want him to do. And that’s the reminder that Judah is getting here. That’s the first reason God allows this famine cuts off the sacrifices that He desires. But the second one is that God doesn’t want meaningless ritual and extravagant offerings devoid of genuine devotion. You could see how easily we would fall into this. I mean, just think if all I have to do after sinning is hand God a pigeon, then what will ever teach me to hate sin and love God? Will anything? Or is it more likely that I’ll just keep gaming the system, start breeding my own pigeons or whatever, and just sin pigeon, sin, pigeon, sin, pigeon, and we go, now, you think, okay again. So glad that we don’t sacrifice animals anymore, so that we don’t have to deal with this problem anymore. Except, of course, we see this in the church all the time, don’t we? When I’ve had conversations with people throughout my ministry years, you know they’ll say things they’re in sin, and they’re like, I send my tithes check every month,
and you just say, Who cares? You think God cares in the slightest about this? Well, I’m in church. I read my Bible exactly like Israel was always doing, and the Lord kept going. I’d rather have your heart. I’d rather have your heart. And here’s the reminder again. You. Can’t make sacrifices. You’re going to have to do something else instead. And it’s actually interesting, the law provides no means to atone for willful sin. And you can look at this in Leviticus, look at the sin offering, and it says, If you sin unintentionally, that means, like, someone cuts you off in traffic and you swears came out kind of thing, and you’re like, okay, there is no sin offering for what the Bible calls high handed sin, willful, intentional sin, something like an affair, where you go, you know, I know it’s wrong, and I’m going to go sleep with her anyway. Of course, this is a big kind of question then, because we sin high handedly sometimes, don’t we? God’s people always have you think of, I don’t know. I mean a really famous adulterer like David. David knows this. David knows there are not enough cattle on Earth to atone for what I just did with Bathsheba murdering her husband, Uriah. And so when he prays his prayer of contrition and repentance, Psalm 51 a model prayer for us. What does he say? You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. No pigeon will suffice my sacrifice. Oh, God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise. So David knows Okay. So here’s my heart, Lord, that’s all I can offer you now. And David, in offering his repentance to God, is trusting God’s heart, that He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in love, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin, and David is trusting in God’s heart. David is also trusting in the promise of the Messiah who will come, the sinless Savior whose death will atone even for our high handed sins, but this sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart, that’s what Israel what the people of Judah should be bringing right now, and that’s why God allows the sacrifices to be cut off, so they’ll do the hard work of actually turning from their sin. Now, I mentioned there’s not a lot new in verses 16 to 18. There was one new part in this section, though, is there in verse 15? It’s actually where we started, the beginning of the lament, alas for that day, for the day of the Lord is near now Alas for that day. Is a fine translation of the Hebrew, but the Hebrew is vague. Hebrew generally is and it just kind of says, alas today, or alas of day, for the day of the Lord is near. And so it’s interesting, there’s kind of this, this day, and then that day, the day of the Lord. But that’s important, because what Joel is saying here, what the people are crying out in this, in this, this lament, is that there’s something about this day that they’re experiencing this locust plague, something about this day that prefigures that day with a capital D, the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is a stock phrase in the Old Testament. New Testament, it’s the last day. It’s the day when Jesus comes again. We know now. It’s the day when God comes in judgment and in victory, and at long last, he sets all things right, brings the new heavens and the new earth. The day of the Lord is a future day. Even still, it is a future day. So why are we talking about the day of the Lord now in the middle of this little locust play, which is like a big deal, but not a big deal like the day of the Lord. And the reason why is that Old Testament prophecy works a little bit the way mountains work, and that you can look at a mountain from one angle, and it looks like just one really impressive peak. And then if you walk around to the side of the mountain, you realize that actually the peak kind of looks like this, like it’s got a bunch of it’s got some foothills before it it’s got some minor peaks, and then kind of a main summit from there. That’s how Old Testament prophecy works, where we’re like, talking about something now almost always that’s like the foothill. But then there’s a later fulfillment, maybe even in Old Testament history. And then almost always, there’s some kind of fulfillment in the first coming of Christ, and then there’s a final, consummate fulfillment in the last day, the day is still to come. And so we gotta keep this in mind, because sometimes Old Testament prophecy, you get a little bit lost of like I thought you were talking about a locust plague, and now you’re talking about the day of the Lord, and the Prophet goes, I’m talking about the mountain man. And you’re like, Okay, so I gotta work out which peak we’re on. Now, I mentioned this long digression right there, because we got Daniel coming up, and then we’re doing revelation after that. Like you’re gonna need to know that one, so tuck that away right down mountain. Okay, draw a little picture in your notes or something. So you got this, I don’t have to explain it all again next time you. Yeah, but here’s the thing about the day of the Lord right here in Joel, at least, the day of the Lord was something that many Jews looked forward to in these days, especially when they’re dealing with, you know, foreign invasions. Same way Christians look forward to the day of the Lord even now. Why? Because it’s a day of vindication for God’s people and vengeance on God’s enemies, again, especially those foreign invading nations. The day of the Lord is when Egypt and Assyria get their comeuppance, finally, from the Lord. So we’re looking forward to it, until prophet Amos speaks, and Joel is definitely borrowing from Amos and a lot of his prophecy. Amos one of the earlier prophets. And Amos says this, Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord. Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. All to say, You can’t escape the punishment that is coming. You can outrun the lion, the bear will eat. You can outrun the bear. You get inside the house a snake bites you like it’s coming still. But here’s what’s so interesting about Amos five, right? Here is God is not speaking to Edom, Egypt, Assyria, Moab, not even Israel, the northern neighbors who had, you know, abandoned God and started worshiping golden cows and stuff. He is speaking to Judah, to Jerusalem, to God’s people right there around the temple, offering their sacrifices in the temple. The very next verses in Amos five are when God says He hates their sacrifices and detest their religious festivals. Why? Because of all this, right? It’s the same point that we’ve seen throughout. He doesn’t want meaningless sacrifices, meaningless rituals. He wants our hearts. And the point here is we bring in the day of the Lord. Is that when God comes, it’s not race or ritual that will save you, but repentance, repentance, wholehearted repentance, turning from your sin and trusting in the finished work of God, the finished work of Jesus Christ. So in playing on this idea of the day, Joel is telling us to get ready, right this day helps us prepare for that day. That’s what Joel’s saying. This day helps us get ready for that day. It wakes us up like we saw last week. Every disaster, every crisis, sorrow and sin and suffering grants us another chance to repent and to turn before the final day when no more turning is possible. And look, that day is coming, kind of whether you believe it or not, that day is coming, if nothing else, the day is coming for each and every one of us, because we will all die, and when we die, we will face judgment, judgment in the sense that a righteous, perfect judge will judge our lives accurately and fairly. And the question is, are you ready? Are you ready? Like for some today could be the first day where you turn to the Lord in repentance and faith, like you come to God with that broken and contrite heart that David talked about, and you come realizing my homework is not good, but I’ll turn in Jesus’ homework and the Lord will accept it in my place. And of course, the really amazing thing there too, of course, is that God doesn’t just say, All right, I’ll accept the homework that homework that you didn’t do, but then he sends Jesus spirit to tutor us so that we actually learn how to do the homework and eventually can turn it in ourselves and be like did it we learn to live like Jesus. As a result, today could be the day where you first invite Jesus into your life, accept the forgiveness that He offers, and let his spirit begin his work in you. Others, you in this room, I’m sure, think that you’ve turned to God, and you’re play acting a lot like Judah was here, like, it’s just, it’s a large enough group. I’m not thinking of somebody, if you’re lazy, talking about me, I’m not talking about anybody. Okay, just a large enough group of people here that somebody is play acting. You show up to church, you give some money, you read your Bible, whatever it might be, but your heart is still far from God. You could turn. You could turn today, right. Let the fear of the Lord, the fear of that coming day,
move us. Move us. And actually continues moving even the people here, because they move from lament. And you think about it, lament is kind of self focused, isn’t it? Like it’s got a real Woe is me. Look at all the bad things that are happening right now. Move from lament, self focus to prayer, which is God focused? And that’s what we see in this kind of last call, the call to God, let me keep let. Reading for us the rest of the chapter, verses 19 and 20. To you, Lord, I call for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames and burned up all the trees of the field, even the wild animals pant for you. The streams of water have dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness. To you, Lord, I call Joel says, first. Now what’s happening here? We’re back in the first person singular. It’s not to you we call, but to you I call. Joel is speaking on behalf of the nation. Now, again, we’re at this national service, and we kind of moved from everyone praying to the, you know, the pastor praying up front. Let’s say, in fact, even you, you listen to pastors pray up front a lot, and we kind of shift in and out of we and I don’t we. And that’s sort of what’s happened here, Lord, you know, we come to you now, like, I know how little I’ve done this week. You know, that’s, that’s what’s happening here. The shift back to I, but Joel is still modeling this proper response for us. And what is it that Joel’s saying? He’s saying, I need God. We need God. So once again, he’s seeking God, crying out for mercy and pity and compassion. Relent, save us again, Lord. The destruction is beyond reckoning. We’ve actually moved from just locusts and drought to actual wildfires at this point, so it’s getting even worse and worse and worse. It’s possible that fire is a metaphor for what the locusts have done. We’ll look at that a little bit more next week. It’s also possible, though, this is just like the trifecta, like you want, you got locust plus drought plus fire, which makes some sense. Of course, the locusts eat all the green stuff, which means there’s just dry stuff with the drought left and boom, it catches fire very easily. It’s actually got an Amos five kind of feel about it, right? Like you got the lion, the bear and the snake between the locust, the drought and the fire. But whether it’s metaphorical or literal fire is still an elusive image in Scripture. Like scripture talks about fire a lot our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews tells us and fire burns up the chaff what is worthless, but fire also purifies and refines what is going to endure, including, of course, fire refines our faith in trials. That’s what Peter says. First, Peter, chapter one, you rejoice, even though, now for a little while you’ve had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith, which is more precious than gold refined in a fire. You know, maybe, maybe, maybe tested may increase. So maybe fire is what we need. Like what we need is a trial to test us, to reveal our metal, and to force us to wake up, take stock, ask questions about ourselves. Well, it’s so bad between the locusts, the drought and the fire, that even the animals are suffering now too. Of course, they got nothing to eat. The locusts ate it all, and they got nothing to drink because of the drought. So what do they do? What do animals do when they get really thirsty? All have seen dogs. You know what they do? They pant right. The tongues hanging out. Lips are cracked, the breath is short. It’s this whole body response from the animal. I thirst. I thirst. Now, of course, that’s a description of what is actually happening to these animals, but it’s also a subtle rebuke challenge to us, do we pant like this? Because pant is another word that gets used in Scripture, like the questions there are we as spiritually sensitive as the beasts of the field, because they know they need their maker. They also don’t sin. They do what their maker wants them to do, in contrast to all of us. So do we pant? Here’s Psalm 42 verses one and two. Famous passage the Sons of Korah As the deer pants for streams of water. So my soul pants for you My God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God that’s panting, that’s thirsting, for the Lord that’s fasting, that leads you to hunger, but not for food, but for more of God’s presence. We know that some trial led to this prayer, because later on in the Psalm, it says, Why are you so downcast? O, my soul. Why so despairing within me? Put your hope in God? So something is happening that’s causing the psalmist to pant, to put his hope in God. And that’s what’s happening again. And so the challenge is there. This is what’s needed again in trials. We should feel spirit. Will thirst. We should long for God. He’s what we most need. But that is kind of a big question for us. Do we think he’s what we most need? I think what do you desire most when you are in crisis, when you are in trouble, and we know the answer to that question, most of us, most of the time, what we desire most when we are in crisis is for the crisis to be over, not for more of God, it’s the great Elizabeth Elliot quote, right? Just paraphrase it. But you know, what we want is not Christ in me, but me in different circumstances. What we should want is Christ in me, more of Christ like that’s the question this last verse forces us to answer. Do I pant for God or just for water? For what do I call our big idea again is, let morning move you to call on the Lord, but to call for the Lord. All right, so that we move from emotion, the visceral grief, the mourning and wailing, to desire. Okay, what is this emotion saying? Is happening? Okay? I see it now, what I need, what I want most, is and then, of course, we let that desire move us to action. That’s next week. We’ll get there, of course. But for now, the question is still there. What do you want most? What is your deepest desire and is it more of Christ or something else? It’s not an easy question to answer. Of course, it’s a really easy question to lie to yourself about. But trials help us out, right how we respond to sin, stemming sorrow will help us answer that question correctly. You probably heard your parents say this at some point, or a teacher or something, but it’s a question for us to Are you sorry you did it, or are you sorry you got caught? Like that’s the question that comes up there. Do you hate sin, or do you just hate the consequences of your sin? So question Paul asked the Corinthians to consider he’s just made them cry in a letter that we don’t have, that he sent to them, but it was a strong enough rebuke that they actually cried. Paul does not feel bad that he made them cry. This helps me out as a preacher. Okay? So he does not feel bad that he made them cry at all. But he says, what kind of tears are these? So here’s Second Corinthians seven. He says, godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you, what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. When sorrow is godly, like I’m sorry I sinned. I hate my sin and I want God. When sorrow is godly, we move from emotion to desire. Look at how many desire words are in that passage, like earnest longing to please God is what’s being talked about here, eagerness a lot. There’s not action, yet there’s desire that is going to prompt action. The proof of pudding is in the eating. The proof of sorrows godliness is in the earnest desire that leads to a godly response, but worldly sorrow, well, that’s just being sorry your crops failed and that you got a “rumbly in your tumbly”. So my challenge as you go from here is when, not if, but when disaster comes. Let it wake you up. Move you right. That day is coming. This day. Help you with that day. Move you from crying about circumstances to crying out to the Lord. Let it reveal your need. And his name is Jesus. And here’s the best news, when we cry out to God in real repentance and real faith in Christ, right with godly sorrow, he hears and he answers,
because when Jesus cried out, God didn’t answer. That’s where this comes from, right? Jesus, who had no sin, who never sinned in his life, he cried out in his distress, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? And we know the answer. Why Jesus knew it too. Of course, God forsook JESUS FOR. Give us Jesus got no answer to that cry, so that we would always get an answer to ours. That’s the good news. And so even now, as we cry out to God to express our desire, let’s use the words that Caitlin read for us earlier as our guide, Psalm 73 the prayer of Asaph, look when trouble hit, Asaph’s faith faltered for a moment. He says this, this is verse 21 when my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered. There’s some big emotions, right? I was senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you, except, of course, not even like a brute beasts, because the beasts know to pant for God, and Asaph wasn’t. But like the beasts in Joel’s day, Asaph, he did begin to pant not for a change of circumstances, but for God himself. And he says, Whom have I in heaven? But you and Earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. God is my deepest longing. That’s what it looks like to let morning move you to call on the Lord who is the strength of our hearts and our portion forever, all we need and all we most deeply desire. Let’s call to him together even now, Lord, we pray that you would use any and all circumstances, and even this moment now where we’ve corporately meditated on your word together to move us to godly sorrow, to self examination, to an understanding that all too often we cry out to you just for help with the problem, and not because we want more of you. Help us to call on you truly help us to feel our deep need of you, to thirst and hunger for your presence, your presence alone, and we’re so grateful Lord, that when we call on you, you answer that you hear us even now, not because of anything we have done to deserve this, but only because of the finished work of Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.