The book of Joel

Sir Brian brings in the entire crew for the book of Joel. Second minor profit in our series of the minor profits. Big sunday for the Crosspointe Church this week. Back from our Renew.org conference and as always doing our best to make heaven crowded. Hope you enjoy Sir Brian and his Mettle Men.

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:30

That's actually what happened. Yeah. You know, the invading army came in and carted them off. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Yeah, just it it would make more sense to me that it would describe it.

SPEAKER_07 0:40

And it retains the language from Revelation, which a lot of people think is like an Apache helicopter or something. It's like, no, it's it's a it's an invading army. Usually it's Silicians. Yeah. Seleucians, rather, in different parts of the things that happened in the past. Or Scythians, not Seleucids. I'm sorry, my time was messed up there.

SPEAKER_05 1:01

Star Wars. Verse 5, Joel seems to call out drunkards specifically, and I feel like Hosea was kind of more. It was along a similar line, but it was kind of uh calling out uh Israel and the prostitution with uh within those temples and how they organize things. So is he specifically calling out people who drink a lot? And if so, why exactly?

SPEAKER_07 1:29

I don't again Scott's opinion at this point. I think he's more talking about the the physical and moral sense of Israel has been dulled like a drunk person. So I think yes to both of those.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Right.

SPEAKER_07 1:42

But I think it's more the analogy wake up you drunkards and weep, because the audience that's gonna be listening to Joel is probably not one that's wasted at that current moment. I mean, there always is, but I mean it would be a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

Welcome to Fake From the Sweet Podcast. Uh my name is Rob Reichel. Uh we are here with uh Tom Terry, uh Jacob Deloma. Sir Brian. Hello. Here I am, Nate. Good morning. Hi Scott, see you.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 3:07

Um we're gonna do Joel. So we're gonna have uh Brian read as always. Uh Scott is gonna take the lead on the book of Joel. It's our second minor prophet. Is that correct? Indeed. Is that actually chronological or is that just the way it is in the book? You mean the Bible?

SPEAKER_07 3:28

Yes, I do mean the Bible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 3:32

Reading from the Bible?

SPEAKER_07 3:33

Uh yeah, it's uh it's next in order, canonical order.

SPEAKER_03 3:39

See, I was trying to figure that out. What would be the chronological order of the minor prophets?

SPEAKER_07 3:43

Um, that's a good question. I don't have an answer to right now.

SPEAKER_05 3:45

Okay, that's fine. That's something we can look into. There's this new thing I heard that they have. It's called Google. Yeah. There's some books in the room that aren't really, you know.

SPEAKER_04 3:54

They have study Bibles too. Yeah, well.

SPEAKER_05 3:56

There's probably an encyclopedia here somewhere. Oh, no, not a technology.

SPEAKER_04 4:01

Joel becomes a prophet around uh 835 BC, and Hosea. Um Hosea's ministry ends around 715. Joel. So Joel is before Hosea.

SPEAKER_07 4:13

And Joel is a contemporary of the prophet Elisha. Elisha becomes prophet 848 BC, Joel becomes a prophet 835, um, King Ahab dies in 853 in battle. Okay. See, I did see this lane.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

I did see this uh this list here that Rob just handed me. Um, but the one thing I will admit that I didn't take into account was the dates are backwards. Right?

SPEAKER_07 4:42

They go backwards. They go backwards. BC goes backwards.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Yeah, and I didn't think about that when I looked up. It counts down, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it counts down. Yeah. So I was thinking that this was not necessarily the right chronological order, more of just kind of the order that's biblical.

SPEAKER_05 4:59

I was referencing a list Rob showed him of the of the minor prophets, yeah. There's a thing called Google, too.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Like we just like he just read that, or uh Nathan just read that Joel actually happened before Hosea. Yes. It could have. Um chronologically, that's what you read, wasn't it? I no, I think that or am I getting the numbers mixed up because it's backwards again?

SPEAKER_04 5:23

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

Okay. We're all scrambling to figure out this.

SPEAKER_07 5:26

Okay, so here's Hosea's contemporary prophet. Jonah, Amos, Micah, and Isaiah. Um let's see if this one gives us a contemporary Elisha and Jonah are his contemporaries, Joel's.

SPEAKER_04 5:43

Okay. So I I have just in discrete numbers here. I I at least according to the study Bible Hosea happening after Joel.

SPEAKER_07 5:52

Yeah, they're just in order the way they are of book length, right? Yeah. Like, so that's the canonical order. Joel is four books, I think, or five, isn't it? Four chapters. Yeah. I mean, they're not always necessarily that way, but because Amos has a lot more. But generally it's usually like it is in the New Testament, length descending. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

All right. Yeah, I just I I had sold that and I went to look to see what was next. And uh I I wasn't 100% sure that that was the chronological order.

SPEAKER_07 6:23

So just before Brian reads, the purpose of this book is to warn the people of Judah of God's impending judgment because of their sins and to urge them to turn back to God. Um, and Joel was a prophet from 835 to 796 BC.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

And I want to go ahead and say this before we say anything else. Um we prefaced it in uh Hosea 11. Uh say uh Hosea 11, 12 says, Ephraim was surrounded, has surrounded me with lies, Israel with with deceit, and Judah is unruly against God, even against the faith, faithful holy one. So Joel goes into the Judah part, I believe. So it does say that, hey, I know that Judah's messing up too. So when we go into this this Joel, we gotta remember that in Hosea it reference back to you're next, buddy. Yeah. Kind of like a goldberg moment, who's next? And it's it's gonna be when you're judging others, three fingers be pointing back at you. That's right. Um yes, Jacob, that's correct. Three three back at you. One, two, okay.

SPEAKER_05 7:34

He was like, he didn't do this. They're prone to you to pitch your whole handed. My brains not brained most of the time. I understand that's why my movement.

SPEAKER_07 7:46

So this one's all about bugs instead of divorced prostitutes, though. Well, bugs is probably better than divorced and prostitutes.

SPEAKER_05 7:52

Eight-legged freaks, but in profit form.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

Yes.

unknown 7:55

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 7:56

It was a big week this week, though. Um four of us, one, two, three, four, five of us at the table went to the um Renew. Renew.org Christian conference. Um, I thought it was Buddhist. I think it was uh a really good time for all of us. We got to spend a lot of quality time with each other and and hang out and talk about things. I did want to record on the drives, but it would have been too chaotic to try to edit that and skip through all that. Yeah, that would have been insane.

SPEAKER_05 8:26

Noise canceling that place would have just been undoable. Yeah, and the drive is when we had the time to really just brain vomit what all we were thinking and talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Not that this isn't a time for that.

SPEAKER_03 8:40

I'm about to say this is kind of the same thing here, too. But it was in Indiana, it was a good time. But the exciting thing that happened today being what is this, the 26th? Yes. The 26th, we had five baptisms this morning. Uh yeah. Hallelujah.

SPEAKER_07 8:55

I expected one and we ended up with five.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

It's like it's like contagious. It just hit and everybody, and it was just fantastic. One gentleman we got, uh, he's been wanting to do it for a while, but getting him nailed down and in the robes was a problem. He was fighting both tooth and nail, but we got him and then take his pipe. Yeah, right. We had to make sure he couldn't smoke his pipe beforehand, which is fantastic. Um, we also had cleanup middle town here in town. Yeah, that was great. Uh we did a lot of good cleanup there in our area. Uh that was a good time. Uh, the mayor of Middletown was there. I think they did a tree planting. She's a nice lady. She's not a bad lady, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 9:32

Um family owns central pastry.

SPEAKER_03 9:34

You know, anybody that owns pastries, they can't really go wrong with that.

SPEAKER_05 9:36

They got hitman on the payroll then. Oh, do they really? Uh no, I don't know. It's central pastry. I think you're gonna get you're gonna get us labeled for liable.

SPEAKER_07 9:45

We're joking, uh-huh. That was Jacob. That was Jacob Deloma D with a K. With a K. Jacob with a K. Brian will come in and edit a later legal disclaimer. This is Jacob's overpinning does not reflect a faith on the streets. I like that.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

That's pretty good. So, yeah, we'll go ahead and get Brian reading, and uh over in Joel. We'll probably get all three of these done since there's only three chapters. We'll see how it goes.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

The word of Yahweh. They came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. Hear this, O elders, and give ear all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days? Or in your father's days? Recount about it to your sons, and let your sons recount about it to their sons, and their sons to the next generation. What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has consumed. Thank you. And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has consumed. And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has consumed. Awake, drunkards, and weep. And wail, all you wine drinkers, on account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up against my land, mighty and without number. Its teeth are the teeth of a lion. And it has the fangs of a lioness. And it has made my vine a desolation, and my fig tree splintered. It is stripped and bear and cast them away. Their branches have become white. Wail like a virgin, girded with sacred. For the bridegroom of her youth. The grain offering and the drink offering are caught off from the house of Yahweh. The priests mourn. The ministers of Yahweh. The field is destroyed. The land mourn. For the grain is destroyed, and the new wine dries up, the fresh oil failure. Be ashamed, O farmers. Wail, O vine dressers, for the wheat and the barley. Because the harvest of the field perishes. The vine dries up. And the fig tree fails. The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree. All the trees of the field dry up. Indeed. Rejoicing dries up from the sons of men. It's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 13:03

Because this morning when we were doing the uh the van picking people up, Jacob brought up um fruit of the vine, as in how we are the vine, and bear fruits and everything. And I think it's interesting that we come to the study today and we're right there in that.

SPEAKER_05 13:19

Yeah, I was wondering about that. Verse 7 has laid waste my vines and splintered my fig trees. And yeah, we were talking about John 15 and you know Jesus being the true vine and we are the branches and all that.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

Yeah, that was uh again, we don't believe in coincidences around here, so Europe's God.

SPEAKER_11 13:40

Are we just allowed to talk while you're doing this? Yeah, yeah. That's what I thought we were doing too. Well, we stopped there because it was a good thing. Tom likes making up your locus, has it?

SPEAKER_02 13:48

Well, I think it's it's interesting if you look at verse four, all the different types of locusts that come. So they got the devouring locust, the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust. The footnote in my Bible says basically the the four different Hebrew words for locusts basically signify complete and utter destruction. So one set of locusts came, did what they did, second locust came, did what they did, third locust came and did what they did, then the fourth, there's nothing left after they got done.

SPEAKER_07 14:18

First ten, the fields of ruin and the land is stripped bearing.

SPEAKER_11 14:21

Yeah, you're done.

SPEAKER_07 14:22

And we don't have any idea what the like a locust plague is like. Like we don't. But like, so Joel is talking to the nation of Judah, and you gotta remember context-wise, two of the nations, Judah and Benjamin, stayed loyal to David's line while the other tribes made up the northern kingdom. And this is the southern kingdom, also known as Judah. Um, and so the other ten tribes follow Jeroboam, who was not a descendant of David. Um they set their new kingdom capital at Samaria and call themselves the northern kingdom of Israel. So this book is about the the part of Judah, but nobody's gonna escape this.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

The northern kingdom falls before the southern kingdom, correct?

SPEAKER_07 15:08

Okay. But God like warns them of it like 300 years in advance, and they're still like, He's like, Judah, you're good.

SPEAKER_03 15:19

I just I think that the important part was how in Hosea it does reference that, oh, I'm coming for you next, Judah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so don't think that you're you're infallible.

SPEAKER_07 15:34

And and also the idea, too, is you know, the locusts, are they actual locusts or are they an army? I think it goes either way in this because both were very distinct possibilities. You know, was Joel talking about and prophesying about this giant army that's coming or a giant army of locusts? Either way, it's gonna be bad because nothing will be left. They have the same effect. When an invading army came through, they would scorch earth everything, steal everything, and burn what was left. So, either way, the same the point is the same at the end of whether this is actually representing locusts or armies that are gonna cart them off into captivity.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Do you do you think that's what caused some of the confusion with the people that were listening to the prophets at the time? Is that they didn't understand the analogies that they were using. Maybe. Like, I don't know, like maybe these people hadn't seen a huge swarm of locusts and all they had heard about was what happened. I mean, that was pretty common back then.

SPEAKER_07 16:30

Like locusts destroying things was extremely common back then. Um, and also that kind of grasshopper that lives in the Middle East is much more um destroying and bigger than the so I think it's probably pretty common, but I know that I myself have never seen a plague of locusts destroying anything in America, at least in my 41 years. So I mean, we all have the years where we've seen like the cicadas come out by the millions, and it's like, well, that's wild, but I mean, this sounds like it's if it's enough to completely wipe out the economy of the country, that's a lot. A lot of bugs.

SPEAKER_09 17:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 17:08

Or a lot of people, either way.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

Either way, yeah, and and as far as going between locusts and people, being that it is different, gnawing, swarming, uh, what was the other one? Creeping, all a different type, stripping. Uh does that fall in line more with uh armies?

SPEAKER_07 17:28

I I would think it's probably pointing in Scott's opinion. Read your Bible. Um I think it's probably pointing to that because um that's actually what happened.

SPEAKER_03 17:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 17:40

You know, the invading army came in and carted them off. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

Yeah, just it it it would make more sense to me that it would describe the.

SPEAKER_07 17:48

And it retains the language from Revelation, which a lot of people think is like an Apache helicopter or something. It's like, no, it's it's a it's a it's an invading army, usually the Seleucids. Yeah, Seleucids, rather, um, in different parts, and then the things that happened in the past. Or Scythians, not Seleucids. I'm sorry, my time is messed up there. Star Wars.

SPEAKER_05 18:11

Verse Verse 5, Joel seems to call out drunkards specifically, and I feel like Hosea was kind of more it was along a similar line, but it was kind of uh calling out uh you know Israel and the prostitution with uh within those temples and how they organize things. So is he specifically calling out people who drink a lot? And if so, why exactly?

SPEAKER_07 18:37

I don't again, Scott's opinion at this point. I think he's more talking about the the physical and moral sense of Israel has been doled like a drunk person. So I think yes to both of those. Right, but I think it's more the analogy wake up you drunkards and weep, because the audience that's gonna be listening to Joel is probably not one that's wasted at that current moment. I mean, there always is, but I I mean they wouldn't. So I'm I'm more apt to think, at least from the study of this and the way it goes, he's talking about their moral um your drum senses and their faith have been dulled, like you've been inebriated.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

I tend to lean towards that way too, you know. Uh one of your things, Jacob, that you mentioned a lot is consume. We consume so much and it's just terrible. But this is kind of the same thing for me, like the consuming of pleasures of the world, consuming of the the wine, uh the prostitution, all those things like that. We let things interfere with how we interact with God. Not necessarily in an idol in a ways, but in our time here and working with the gathering, we do see how uh the drugs and alcohol can become idol like or at least whether they know it or not, that seems like you know, that's they have to do whatever they have to do to get the next. So again, I think it's more about like you said, you know, it's uh the uh the consumption of it.

SPEAKER_07 20:07

Uh if it's constantly and if you're taking it from your like analogy there, look what happens first. Everything is destroyed first. So then the drunkards have to wake up and then there's nothing more to drink.

SPEAKER_08 20:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 20:18

Right? Like, so I guess it plays either way. Like, everything gets destroyed before you wake up and realize that things are not okay. And so it's you know, like uh verses three and four talk about everything is gone, and then verse 10 confirms that everything is ruined, but uh wake up you drunkards, wail all you wine drinkers, all the grapes are ruined, and all your sweet wine is gone. Verse 6 A vast army has invaded my land, a terrible army, too many to count. Teeth are like lions, fangs like a lioness, it's destroyed everything. Um, even ripped the bark off the tree.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

Um I'm glad we're even going in deeper on that because the more we talk about it and you saying those things, we have to be at rock bottom. Like we are so ignorant and stubborn and hard-headed that it takes so much for us to start looking up, and there's nowhere to look but up, but the rock bottom, they finally get sober or wake up and they're looking around going, What happened? You know, like how did this happen to me? What did I where did I go wrong in my life?

SPEAKER_05 21:22

Well, I think we don't have to be at rock bottom. That that's well, that was the case for me, but I know a lot of folks, you know, took Christ in their heart early on. Like we were talking in the band coming back from the conference, you don't need a road to Damascus moment, which I think kind of resembles that rock bottom, but I think the difference would be realizing that you're already there.

SPEAKER_07 21:42

And then there are also people who are lower than rock bottom. Um, I've you know, one of my favorite uh elder from another church named Charlie used to say uh they're so low they have to step up to get on a Kleenex to hit rock bottom. You know, and you know, sometimes it's even lower than that that people have to get because not even the bottom.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

Yeah, and we me and Brian, we've seen that. I mean, unfortunately, we've had to turn people away because it's just gotten so bad. It's we it breaks our heart, but it does. You know, we have to protect our community and we have to protect the ability for us to help people. So yeah, it just I just reading that and going through it, I'm like, man, I'm seeing so much of that. Again, like with Hosea, you could put it right into the headlines today. I think if you look at this in that way, you could put that right there too. You got something, Rob?

SPEAKER_02 22:35

I just that that verse five that Jacob was talking about. I think it goes I think I like the way you were you were going with that as far as the you know, people that have hit rock bottom in this instance, but this instance too in verse five could be the people that aren't aware of what's going around going on around them. Like everybody is telling them like there are signs, like people are seeing signs like this is bad, this is bad, this is bad, and they're too in this instance inebriated, or they don't have a sense of feeling of the true magnitude of what's going on around them. Like, you know, you like we looked at, we've talked about in the in the different studies that we've all done together as a group, like we see these invading empires come in and take over these groups of people, and they don't do it, they don't come in and say, do this or else. Like if you look at if you look if you look at Babylon, the way that Babylon indoctrinated people that they took over, it was slowly the Romans, the Greeks, this it was slow. It was, I'm gonna, I'm gonna introduce you to education. I'm gonna eat I'm gonna I'm gonna introduce you to our language. Well, and they would probably kidnap and export the best. I'm gonna change your name.

SPEAKER_07 24:08

Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

I'm gonna take all your identity away and I'm gonna give you a new name.

SPEAKER_07 24:12

And then they would import the best of the best and export their empire to worst of the worst. Right. So all the the people undesirables of Babylon would have gone to Jerusalem. That's why Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego get exported to Babylon.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

But I think this is I think verse five is that instance where all of this is going on around them and they're failing to see what exactly is going on around them. It's almost like they're just ignorance about it.

SPEAKER_05 24:41

Yeah, he's speaking to his audience like the locust came and ate everything. It's almost like there's a drunk guy laying down and he's like kicking him like, wake up, you're not gonna be able to get it. Like everything's on fire around you. And he's he's likening his audience to this drunk person inebriated on the floor that didn't see all these things, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 24:58

And and also in this time, you've got to remember that Yahweh and then the other gods of the other nations, and then the ones that the Israelites and and people from Judah are flirting with, view the productivity of the land as a sign of God's blessing, right? And so um they thought God's blessings are automatic, right? And how often do we do that? Like, we're not dealing with necessarily fields. I mean, we are, but we're benefactors of a society that's moved away from that. But like these people thought God's blessings were automatic, and like that our times of peace and prosperity that we live in can lull us to sleep as well. And I think that's what exactly is happening. The world's on fire, and a drunk guy's asleep, and Joel's trying to kick him and say, get up, you gotta move, it's over.

SPEAKER_05 25:45

Yeah, yeah, and you mentioned consumption, Tom, and it's it's interesting. I feel like everywhere you look in the Bible, it's one way or another consuming a lot of the time. Like the locusts come and consume, and he's saying, Wake up, you consumers, you overindulgers. And then later on we'll read. I don't think we got there yet, but verse 14, stop your consumption. You know, look, seek, seek, consume God, you deny what you've been consuming, and come on, let's consume him instead.

SPEAKER_03 26:14

So I do want to point it out too, what we were known from our other studies is when God tells them to invade a land, what does he tell them to do? Destroy everything, everything. And to your point, it's a slow changing, you know, where God, and and people look at it as like God was so wrathful and mean and all these other things, but God knows that that could happen, that if they keep this idol or they keep that idol or they keep this, whatever it is, and even it even in some of the situations, it's destroy the women and children, too, because he knows the effect that all those things could have on us, and it would sway us away from the true point, the true path. And I just I think that's interesting that God said, let's just wipe it all out. That way we don't have to worry about those things. But like you said, it's like it's a slow, gradual, which is happening in today's society.

SPEAKER_07 27:08

And and then it takes even further, verses eight and nine. So, like everything's been consumed, there's nothing left. So even these people who are depending on God's blessing, and the ones, even maybe the good priests and those working at the temple there, this actually interrupts their religion. Like their faith, they're unable to sacrifice to the offerings that are required because there is nothing. So God is saying you can't consume anymore because it's all been consumed. Now it's time to listen, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:40

Have they turned their back on God in this? Is that what Joel?

SPEAKER_07 27:44

Is that what Joel is the the he's he's at the better kingdom, the other kingdom was the ten tribes that have the two altars and the terrible kings, but um yeah, the they're slowly starting to do that. They're kind of looking at the northern kingdom and going, look at those guys, at least we're not them. Yeah, and through all the minor prophets, or unless the book like this one's specifically focusing on Judah, you're gonna say, but you look out for you too, because I'm coming for you next. You know?

SPEAKER_03 28:15

So let's go ahead and finish the chapter there, sir. Brian. All right, thanks for joining us, Rob. Thanks, boys.

SPEAKER_11 28:22

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 28:24

It was a real pleasure.

SPEAKER_11 28:26

Clark, Clark, Clark.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, O priests, wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God. For the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. Set apart a fast as holy, call for a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Yahweh your God, and cry out to Yahweh. Alas, for the day. For the day of Yahweh is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. Has not food been cut off before your eyes, gladness and joy from the house of our God, the seeds shrivel under their clothes, the storehouses are desolate, the barns are pulled down, for the grain is dried up, how the beasts groan, the herds of cattle wander aimlessly, because there is no pasture for them. Even the flocks of sheep suffer. To you, O Yahweh, I cry. For the fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned up all the trees of the field, even the beast of the field planted for you. For the water brooks are dried up, and fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.

SPEAKER_03 30:28

This is just a call just for the priest, isn't it?

SPEAKER_07 30:31

Yeah, he's saying get everybody in here, because everything is gone. No celebrations. Um call a solemn assembly. And then verse 15 introduces the the secondary theme of this book, which the first half of this book's about locus. The second is the great and terrible day of the Lord, um, which a lot of people will start boasting in, and Joel will dissect that momentarily. They're like, but God's day the day of God's coming, thank God. But Joel's gonna flip that on his head. But it's just showing you now. It's talking about even fire has consumed the wilderness pasture. So like there is nothing left in this place. There is nothing.

SPEAKER_04 31:14

Locusts armies, fire.

SPEAKER_07 31:18

Standard apocalyptic fair. Even the brooks are dried up. Yeah, there's not even any water. This reminds me of that passage in Revelation where it's like, and they will seek death, but they will not find it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:42

So set apart a fast as holy. But if there's nothing to fast from.

SPEAKER_04 31:52

They're sin. Ah. This this is this is a warning or a prophecy, I suppose. So like that not necessarily that like, hey, that you currently have no food or that you currently have nothing to drink. It's like, hey, if you don't turn away from the way that you're acting, then this is what's gonna happen. I mean, is that right?

SPEAKER_07 32:11

So yeah, like fasting, like community-wide fasting back in the ancient times was in response to realizing, oh no, we need to change our ways, right? Like when something happens, they would do that. We see this at Nineveh, right? Like even the cows repent. Um, but like here, that's not so much they've not heeded the warnings, and so it's it's God's last-ditch effort. Like, come on, you know the drill here. Uh put on sackcloth and ashes, dress like a bride in a black dress, mourning her the death of her betrothed, you know, um, do it because it's all gone. There's nothing left for you here. The only thing left is God. And I think that's the message he's trying to really push on them. How important is that message all of us, even now? Probably, yeah. I mean, with think of how e you know, the push-button society we live in, how the ease of life we often have. Um, you know, how much more is God saying this to us? Not that he wasn't saying it to them equally as powerful, but we better pay attention as well. Because if you look outside, all is not hunky-dory in the land of Oz. But it's still a marvelous day in the kingdom of God.

SPEAKER_03 33:27

So But I also want to step into how you guys went to ecclesiastics, and there's nothing new under the sun. We're seeing in Hosea and Joel that we can put those things right in our news feeds today. Again, nothing new under the sun. We keep repeating these things. Um and I saw something last night about there's been this crazy talk about end times and all these things. And I remember having a conversation with my uncle in Kentucky, I think I was in high school. And we were talking about the Book of Revelations, and he told me then, which has been 35, 40 years ago now, um, you think we're not already in the end times? Since Jesus left. Well, pretty much, yes. But also at the same time. Yeah. At the same time, now that I'm getting older, now that I'm getting more astute in my studies and understanding things, it's like, holy crap, he was right. Like we've been going through end times forever.

SPEAKER_07 34:36

And you see what a slow burn time is compared to God's timing because 40, 50 years seems like forever to us.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

Yeah. And then I actually was studying, we had a what was that? Was it we had a study somewhere? Um that's our four. I know, I know, I do these things all the time. Um, but uh it was a it was a it was enlightening to hear this point of view from one of our sisters, and uh I think I I think the very next day I ran into 2 Peter 3 9 that says the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness, instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone come to repentance. So, like you were saying, it's not that it's it's a slow burn. It's God does not want to punish us. Right. Hell was not made for us, and he doesn't want us to go there. So he's very I again, the patience is on point because I would have sketched this a long time ago. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 35:45

And speaking of end times, that makes me think uh Robbie Gowdy in his in their podcast, The Forgotten Jesus Podcast, he said something I couldn't tell you what episode or what more specifically they were talking about, but he pretty much said, you know, uh in regards to the end time and when it actually you know happens, whatever that looks like, um he's he's patient for it because if it happened before he was a Christian, then you know, then where would he he'd be going to that place? So he's just relying on God's timing. So I think there's a balance between us recognizing it and keeping that oil lit and being patient for it, because I think sometimes we're we're too eager to be like Lord come now, and we should be Lord come now, and we should say those things and believe that. But I think at the same time it's also like you know, your will be done, because if it had been you know a year and five months ago, then I'd I'd be going where I should have gone. You know, so if it's however it's after my time, it's after my time, if it's a month from now, it's a month from now, whatever it is, yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

I I think I'm glad you brought that up because it it's again his timing, his patience, and think about all of our lives over the last what three or four years. How many people have we seen turn their lives around and change? And if it would have come before that, those brothers and sisters would have been lost. You know, and and how, and again, we spoke about it before, like how, and again, I know being proud of something might be wrong, but at the same time, I'm so proud of the brothers and sisters that we have gained through this journey. Being able to see God work in their lives and then show others how God's working in their lives. Again, I've said it so many times. If you don't see God working around here, you ain't looking. And yes, again, I've said it before like if my grandpa's not in heaven because he's waiting for Jesus to come back, come on back. Time for grandpa to go home. But now that I am a man that has children and people that I really care about in my life, it's like, well, hold on a minute. Let's try to save some more people first. Yeah. And I thought about this. It hasn't been published yet. But we talked about it in our last podcast that we recorded. And it was let's make heaven crowded. And what did we do today?

SPEAKER_05 38:11

We got five more.

SPEAKER_03 38:12

Five more to the kingdom. How awesome and amazing is that! Yeah, it's just like I thought of that just as soon as I heard that more people are getting baptized. I'm like, we just said let's make heaven crowded. And then we got to be able to add some more today. So that's just it's just an awesome, amazing thing to be a part of. God is good. Amen. We want to go ahead and start chapter two, sir Brian. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

Blow a trumpet in Zion and make a loud shout on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh is coming. Surely it is near. A day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of clouds and dense gloom, as the dawn is spread over the mountain, so there is a numerous and mighty people. There has never been anything like it, nor will there be again after it, for the years from generation to generation. A fire consumes before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, but a desolate wilderness behind them, and nothing at all escapes them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses, so they run. With a noise of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame. A fire consumes the stubble. Like a mighty people arranged for battle. Before them the peoples are writhing, all faces turn pale, they run like mighty men, they climb up the wall like men of war, and they each march in line, and they do not deviate from their paths, they do not crowd each other, they march, everyone in his path. Where they fall against the defending weapons, they do not break ranks, they rush on the city, they run on the wall, they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief. Before them the earth trembles, the heavens quake, the sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness. But Yahweh gives forth his voice before his military force. Surely his camp is very numerous, for mighty is he who does his word. The day of Yahweh is indeed great and very awesome, and who can endure it?

SPEAKER_03 41:19

Sure. Well, there's still a couple extra little things here. Okay, cool. Um, how much of revelations does it sound like?

SPEAKER_07 41:27

I mean, it's definitely borrowed from there. But you see also in this that in chapter two, Joel is talking about both because whether this is actual locusts or some kind of environmental catastrophe, he's kind of pointing to that's only the beginning of your problems if you don't repent. And this kind of makes me think, like, where he's talking about uh verse six through nine there, um, you know, that this could either be an army or locusts, either was terrifying. But I think of the you remember the movie World War Z and the zombies with like super fast run and like they would die but pile up, yeah, but they would just keep moving. That's exactly the imagery, like that there's so much destruction that everyone is running away. Um, but whoever is doing the attacking, it says even when they're brought down, the ranks never stop, they don't quit coming, they just step over and keep going. So, I mean, what a terrible thing. And then I've also heard um that like in advance of like armies like King Xerxes' army and the Persians, like you could feel the earth moving while they walked because there were just so much people. So I I mean with a locust plague, I've read accounts, you know, of people it sounds like wind and flapping and kind of like a train, but you don't feel like the the ground vibration. But here it sounds like there were so many, and then verse 11 gives us like the plot twist. The Lord is at the head of the column, it's his judgment, you know, and a lot of people are like, look at the bad guys! Oh, who's at the front? It's because you were asleep, yeah. Yeah. Would we consider this to be probably an angel army then? No, I think that it's more in the line of like uh when God uses King Cyrus, um, and he admits this is a faulty, flawed pagan individual, but I'm gonna use him, but then when I'm done, I'm gonna punish him. So we keep Nebuchadnezzar um and and Belteshazzar and all those, like God can use them. So I don't think this is an angel army. I think this is locusts and followed by um an actual conquering army.

SPEAKER_04 43:41

I think this is extra scary for us today because like all of the things that have been mentioned so far in Joel are things that the Israelites are familiar with, like conquering armies and locusts that devour everything, and and fires and thieves that break into your into your cities and castles and that kind of thing. And it kind of leaves the Israelites in a hopeless state. But like we, I don't think any of us here in the States today have experienced anything like that. So, like, I mean, it's even scarier for us. Like, the the the difference between like where the Israelites are and where that where they're describing in Joel is huge, but the difference between where we are and what Joel is describing is even bigger for us, which is scary for me.

SPEAKER_07 44:27

Like, if you think about what when have we ever had to worry about this kind of thing? Like, I haven't ever lived through a famine. I haven't ever lived through an invading army. I haven't, you know, I haven't lived through these things that they're talking about, so it is hard. And then we also live in a land of mass consumption and abundance. Yeah. If you want to call it that. Um, but so it's hard to imagine, but it's also it's easy to see when people are drunken, quote unquote, over the overconsumption of that is available at all times.

SPEAKER_04 44:58

Yeah, locusts were so ubiquitous that they're actually listed as a clean food uh Leviticus. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 45:05

Oh man, I didn't think about that. The eaters are eating, the eaters. Yeah, yeah. Um, but I mean we and again, I don't equate this to anything like it, but really we can say the only thing that we have any kind of uh idea of is the COVID thing. But it's nowhere near as bad as this. Yeah, I mean, we had a toilet paper famine for like two weeks. Yeah, which is kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_07 45:28

The whole world wasn't on fire.

SPEAKER_03 45:30

Yeah, but people were doing stupid things because of such situations. Yeah. You know, I can't even imagine what again what this would look like. We are so lucky.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Brother, I I saw it during a tropical storm.

SPEAKER_07 45:41

Yeah, I can only imagine what happened.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

No, it was a while. Yeah. Uh it was a matter of a couple of weeks. Like two weeks, I think. Yeah, whatever it was. But uh, but no, I saw people lose their minds during that, and it's and it's it's it's sad. It's wild.

SPEAKER_07 45:59

But the social order only lasts three days. Yeah. Like really, it does, because that's all a grocery store has in stock at any given time is three days worth of food for X amount of people. And if you don't have food and that food ain't there no more, yeah, and you got people to feed, or you just want food, you're gonna do stupid stuff.

SPEAKER_10 46:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 46:18

And I I've never seen anything. I thought we were gonna come close to that at COVID there a couple times, but yeah, like right there at the beginning, because we're all like, uh, we've never lived through a plague before, you know. But it's wild that this destruction and Joel is saying, and this is your fault. Like the Lord is at the head of this column because of you, like he's trying to save you. And to save you, he's going to have to tear everything apart, right? And then we have the great day of the Lord, and the heavens tremble, the sun and moon grow dark, the stars no longer shine. That's what he's saying is so many locusts they block out the sky. And there are actually accounts of locust plagues in the ancient world where you read it where it does become almost like nighttime because there's trillions of them. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 47:03

So because we're talking about it, it made me think of uh the the goofy Brandon Fraser mummy movies. What were they, the scarabs? Those are great. The mummy. Well, yeah, but what were those beetles? Scarabs, yeah. They were scarabs, those creeped me out to no end. Like the idea of something like that was available, not to mention in that abundant. I would have coming through your window. Yeah, I would have lost it.

SPEAKER_07 47:27

Yeah, that would have lost. But that one came out of the toilet when I was using them.

SPEAKER_03 47:34

I mean, I don't like ants, and I've seen like even in the Indian Jones movies. Uncles are okay. Okay. As long as they're not creepy uncles. Okay. Uncle Baby Billy, now that's a creepy uncle.

SPEAKER_07 47:49

Creepy is the least of that descriptor. All right. But look at verse uh 11. Again, this is really important. The Lord is at the head of the column. He leads them with a shout. This is his mighty army, even though it may look like in other countries, or even though it may look like bugs. And they follow his command. The day of the Lord is an awesome, terrible thing, and that's not a good thing in this context. Who can possibly survive?

SPEAKER_03 48:13

I mean, that's the key. Who can endure it? And we talk about it all the time. The war is won. The war, we've read the last chapter. We know that the war is won. The battles are what we're fighting in our daily lives. And again, there's such this misconception that uh Lucifer and God are on the same level. His head was crushed. Not even close. There's not even a matchup.

SPEAKER_07 48:43

Yeah, this is not Zoroastrianism or dualism. There's no good versus evil in the scales will determine. No, God's crushed him.

SPEAKER_03 48:50

Yeah, like that. There's that picture where they're arm wrestling. I'm like, really? Come on.

unknown 48:54

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 48:55

This is not how this works.

SPEAKER_05 48:56

Jesus just thinks that Satan's aren't melted. If it's arm wrestling, then it's like uh uh a Jeff Goldblum and the fly.

SPEAKER_03 49:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Valid point. Yeah. I can't use over the top reference because those are really they were really strong men trying to fight it out. Right. But the Jeff Bloom was a good one, though. But yeah, it's just don't think that Lucifer is on the same level. He's already lost. He's God's just God's just letting us have the opportunity to turn back and come back.

SPEAKER_07 49:26

Like imagine the practical joke when God's like, I'm gonna let Satan think I'm dead for three days. And Satan's like, yeah. And everybody's like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:35

And then the third day they're all like, oh, well, it's it's and we go back to the screw tape letters, we go back to the movie Nefarious. I was so happy and ecstatic the way that they did we never expected the carpenter.

SPEAKER_07 49:54

Nobody expects the carpenter.

SPEAKER_03 49:57

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition Carpenter. He ruined everything. We weren't taking in account for the carpenter. And I that I was just like, that's my Jesus.

SPEAKER_07 50:08

And he's so powerful. Like the great day of the like, all he's gotta do is speak, and not even words, and things melt.

SPEAKER_03 50:15

Yeah, I mean, think of the scene in the Ark uh Rangers of the Lost Ark. Yeah, they take the top off and everybody melts.

SPEAKER_07 50:21

Yeah, and that was uh or whatever. Yeah, he's like, I'm just trying to catch the guard, poof.

SPEAKER_03 50:30

Yeah, the thing was stamping gonna be nothing compared to that.

SPEAKER_07 50:32

But you but also I I point out verse 11 too before we go on, is because people are gonna have that attitude we're talking about. They're like, Yeah, Jesus come, we're ready. You know, the day of the Lord's great. And Joel's like, you don't know what you're saying. Yeah, the day of God is not that kind of awesome. It will be for the redeemed in Christ, but you're still gonna have to do that things.

SPEAKER_05 50:53

Well, you really better be ready. Yeah, no excuse.

SPEAKER_07 50:55

Yeah, like there is it's a tech you will not survive. You got the goats and the sheep, yeah, and the goats are gonna be really disappointed. And only Jesus stands.

SPEAKER_10 51:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 51:06

And if you can't plead him over your sins, you've got to pay for him yourself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 51:12

Yeah, the idea of paying for your sins is horrifying. I feel like uh, don't we speak about desolations another time while you were on the podcast? This is what I'm thinking of, like St. John of the Cross Desolations. Yeah, like consolations and desolations. And so often, like this is a desolate, this is desolation. Return to me, he goes on to say in 12 uh with all your heart. And he's like putting putting them in this position so that they have nothing.

SPEAKER_07 51:41

They have one uh two choices turn back to God or don't. Yeah, like die, physically and spiritually. I guess that's the only choice we ever have. Right, but you have to make it though. That's the wild thing. People are like, God will make it for me. You don't want that, or maybe you do, but I wouldn't bank on that.

SPEAKER_00 52:03

But the but the beauty about it is even though that is the choice, there was a choice. We weren't just made to follow. Correct. We were made to choose it. Because one, it's the w that's the most beneficial thing we can do. It's the thing that makes most sense.

SPEAKER_07 52:22

Yes. Like, do you not want to die? Then do this.

SPEAKER_05 52:25

Well, if we don't have free will, like like with Gracie, my fiance, like it's not she doesn't love me if I'm holding a gun to her head, or somehow I've convinced her to love that can't be love, that's some other fake bad thing. You know, it's only love if you choose it. That's called Calvinism.

SPEAKER_07 52:47

What's that? So that's called Calvinism in the theological realm, where you you deserve nothing but wrath, and I've predetermined it. Um which I did like the guy at Ruin, who's like, I'm gonna destroy Calvinism in five minutes, and he did because it blew my mind. I'm still thinking on it, and he was like, the Calvinists have too low of a view of the sovereignty of God, as if he was a tantrum throwing toddler. If he doesn't get his perfect away, it doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_05 53:10

Yeah, he's like, whoa! He came out and immediately was like, Yeah, I got 20 minutes to uh take apart Calvinism, so I was really conflicted because I don't know what I'm gonna do with the other 15 minutes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:23

Me and Sir Brian got to talking about that, and uh I was directed towards Armenianism? Is that what it was?

SPEAKER_07 53:30

Arminianism, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:31

Yeah, either Calvinist or Arminian. I I'd never heard of it before, and again, with the way it was worded, I thought this is probably something I'm not gonna like. But actually it's free will. It made more sense to me.

SPEAKER_07 53:45

God allows the the option of variables and choice in Arminianism, where in Calvinism, no, it's all predetermined. Yeah, since before the world was even created.

SPEAKER_10 53:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 53:55

Or I guess not Calvinism, we call it reform theology.

SPEAKER_03 53:58

Yeah. Well, that's where I got we'll go back to the Peter, the second Peter, talking about giving us time to come back, to make the choice, to get better. Um and I think that gets to be looked at in the wrong way. Um you have the choice, your free will to choose, and then you you have that with anything in life. You know, you can choose to go down the wrong way of a one-way street, which I saw yesterday, actually. Um but you don't have you you can make that choice. It's yours to make. Like I just I I I think that's again, free will gets a bad rap sometimes, but I think it's a beautiful thing. I think it's a necessity.

SPEAKER_07 54:41

Yeah, because otherwise we're just robots.

SPEAKER_03 54:43

Well, but okay, so in that same aspect is part of why we have the fall because the angel well, I know the angels don't have souls, so they can't be redeemed. They did have free will, but by God giving us free will and a soul, I see why they don't like us.

SPEAKER_07 55:05

I get it, yeah. The theology is there to be angry at people, but yeah, the good news is the Bible was written to humans.

SPEAKER_10 55:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 55:12

So that's good for us. Yeah, agree. I don't know that that again, that's another dimension of God's grace that he didn't even have to give that, but he did.

SPEAKER_03 55:22

Yeah, and it is it it's just yeah, we'll never be able to understand that much grace. All right, so Brian, you want to continue reading?

SPEAKER_00 55:35

Yet even now, declares Yahweh, return to me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping, and wailing, and tear your heart and not your garments. Now return to Yahweh, your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness, and relenting concerning evil. Who knows?

SPEAKER_07 56:12

Who knows?

SPEAKER_00 56:17

Whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him. Even a grain offering and a drink offering for Yahweh, your God. Blow a trumpet in Zion, set apart a fast as holy, call for a solemn assembly, gather the people, set apart the congregation as holy, assemble the elders, gather the infants and the nursing babies. Let the bridegroom come out of his room, and the bride out of her bridal chamber. Let the priests and the ministers of Yahweh weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Pity your people, O Yahweh, and do not make your inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they among the people say, Where is their God? Then Yahweh will be zealous for his land, and will spare his people, and then Yahweh will answer and say to his people, Behold, I am going to send you grape, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied in full with them. And I will never again make you a reproach among the nations, but I will remove the northern military force far from you, and I will drive it into a deparched and desolate land, and its vanguard into the eastern sea, and its rearguard into the western sea, and its stench will rise up, and its foul smell will rise up, for it is done great things. Do not fear, O land. Rejoice and be glad, for Yahweh has done great things. Do not fear the beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness have turned green, for the tree has borne its fruit, the fig tree and the vine have yielded their full force. So rejoice, O sons of Zion, and be glad in Yahweh your God, for he has given you the early rain in righteousness, and he has poured down for you the rain, the early and late rains as before. The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the bats will overflow with the new wine and oil, and then I will pay back to you in full for the years that the swarming locust has consumed, and the creeping locusts, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust, my great military force, which I sent among you. And you will have plenty to consume and be satisfied, and praise the name of Yahweh your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. Then my people will never be put to shame. Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Yahweh your God, and there is no other. And my people will never be put to shame.

SPEAKER_07 59:55

That's powerful.

SPEAKER_09 59:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 59:58

So Joel has a pivotal moment here. He goes from warning and prophesying about the outpouring of God's wrath to giving God's solution that will lead to an outpouring of God's grace. And so often when we read these kind of books, we get stuck on the negative side and we don't notice these transitions. So I just want to make sure I pointed that out. Like, God has said all this, now he's flipping and saying, if you do this, get all even get the babies involved, you know, then I will return all the things back. So I think that's fascinating. What do you guys think?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:34

So we saw that in Hosea. Um, the more we study, the more I see it in other books, too. I'm gonna go back into I don't think we've got to Job yet. Have we got to Job yet in this?

SPEAKER_07 1:00:44

No, he's not a modern prophet, but no.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:46

But yeah, I mean the same thing happens to Job. They give him back tenfold or hundredfold or whatever everything he loses. So yeah, I just I wish that we did point out more to these things because again, it's relenting, it's it's it's letting us come back, it's giving us any and he says that he's gonna just like I do wonder how long it took to destroy everything compared to how he gives it back. I'm betting it's a lot quicker than we think.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:18

Well, I think it's really it takes a lot a long time to clean a room, but it's easy to make a mess.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:23

Yeah. I I agree, but when God is directly giving you back these things, I do feel like it's probably a little quicker than normal. Oh, yeah. Kind of like he didn't Adam was a full grown man. You know, the trees were full-grown trees. It's not like they put saplings in the ground and they grew, you know. It's like Adam, go plant 12 trillion trees by some now. Yeah, and then like in a hundred years you got a full-size tree, you know. Uh but still, yeah, I just I I love like you said, Scott, it's like he's giving them the out. Here it is. Everybody gets to come back, but you gotta behave.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:03

I could be off here, and maybe there is something to be said in a more general way, but we read verse 13, and uh return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And that felt like to me almost a shot for shot remake, I can't think of a better way to phrase that, of Nehemiah 9:17. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. And then I've while Brian continued to read, I went back and flipped to Nehemiah, and like I said, I don't know if it's a gem, that's just the beauty of the Bible, which it certainly is, but I'm also you know, kind of seeing, at least in this section of Nehemiah, uh a lot of similarities between it's almost the message is always the same, it's just the circumstances change.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:56

Yeah, like reading that, I'm like, I know we've read this in other words.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:00

This goes back to most of we've read this so many times.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:03

This the original way, this exact word for word, the uh Lord um is compass. Where is that at? I'm sorry. 13. Verse 13. Um, the Lord your God, for He is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. That's Exodus 34, 6, where Moses asked God to show him his glory. And he says, Well, you can't look at me or die, so you can look at my backside as I walk by, and the angels are singing this. And then in Revelation, the angels are singing. This is a something that's repeated by so many people in the Bible. Yeah. Um, and in other parts, because this is how they associated God. This is Yahweh, right? Yeah, yeah, and it's such a cool thing that God continually reminds them who He is and they know, and then they have the chance to turn back.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:52

There's always that turn, there's always that chance to turn back. And that's definitely something that I want us as we do these things to make sure that we reinforce that. Stop being so doom and gloom and negative and show these parts where it's like, look, he's there. Says over and over.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:10

Well, like we've I know we've read it several, several times. Who knows? Yeah, we that's why you laughed at me.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:16

Yeah, he's still getting at relent, you know. I can't remember. I as many times have you said that to me, Brian, about something, which just makes me smirk now. Like, yeah, I know, Brian.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:26

And you you should. I mean, I I think it's all about I think that kind of goes hand in hand with, you know, Jesus goes on to tell us uh, you know, take on his yoke and pick up your cross daily. And we in doing that, I think you come to realize that, you know, all you can't be surprised by your sin. Like you're gonna sin even while you're trying to do that and you're truly pursuing Jesus. But the difference is is coming back to him and and you know recognizing okay, this is what I did. I know I shouldn't be surprised by it. I'm not a perfect guy or whatever. Uh Jesus certainly isn't surprised by my sin, so let me turn back to him. Because otherwise, then you're you're pulling an Adam and an Eve, you know, you're going in hiding, and God's like, where I can see you. Yeah, what he does.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:18

I can see your foot. This is I think the this just popped from our you know, in the chosen that uh the episode where Mary Magdalene goes off and back into sin, talk about crime comes back to Jesus. That's that's what this is, and he's like, I know. And that's how it is. Anytime we go back to Jesus after you know we fulfill the proverb as a dog returns to its vomit, so one man returns to his sin, right? Like when the times we go back, God knows. Doesn't mean he likes it, but he has went to the lengths of dying for this creation. And he knows what we did, he knows what we were thinking, and If we believe that grace is so shallow that one sinful act, again, I'm not to the audience, don't just be like, oh, let's go sin that grace may abound. Paul literally says, Shall we say that now?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:09

Romans 5 or something.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:10

Romans 6. Yeah. Um, but like uh, you know, don't beat yourself up. One sin being done is not Jesus being done with you. It's if you get up or not that Jesus is looking for, right? So sometimes you do have to go back in the mud pit because you think you gotta figure it out. But he knows.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:30

And repentance is something that's repeated many times. Um, between like between Joel saying, hey, this is how bad things get, and this is how good things God, how good God is going to make things, in between those two pieces, he over and over and over he says, you know, rend your heart, not your garments, you know, uh declare, you know, fast. Blow the hump uh blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly, gather the people. So repentance is part of the story.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:57

And uh and uh rend your heart, not your garments. It's saying go beyond the physical show, go beyond checking the box, right? Like, because it's easy for us to all stand there and be like, I'm so sad and outraged and rip our clothes, and everybody else in the room's doing it. But who in the room is really actually sad about it, right? Yeah, like that's the one God's looking for. And I can't judge that. And like Brian says, who knows? God does, God sees every person's heart, yeah, and he knows who who is genuinely turning away from that. And I think we get in trouble when we decide that we know based on people's behavior. Yeah, we can see fruit, we can see patterns, but that's we don't see the whole story.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:38

A lot of the time we don't even know ourselves. Like we can say in our heads, like, hey, you know, I'm done with this, I'm never gonna come back to it.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:44

And then like five minutes later. Right. We are a fickle people. Yep, it's all up to God.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:52

The message today was wonderful, but there were there were two points uh that I really, really liked. The rest of it was garbage. The rest of it was garbage. I only run it for two good points. The third one always has to be garbage by proxy. Uh no, no, um, sorry. Um it's there's a lot that happened in between then, so I'm trying to recall it because I wanted to run up to you right after, and then everyone started getting baptized. Uh but uh yeah, um I'll I'll I'll probably come on it afterwards, but but it was they the the they were they were statements capsuleized on the screens as well. And and I was just like that is really well said. Uh uh again, I'll I'll have to try and remember it.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:45

So good thing is God said it and not me. I just wrote it down.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:48

I did think it was uh it was interesting. When we first started reading this, one of your you had three points. One of them was uh what story what story do you want to tell?

SPEAKER_08 1:08:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:58

Uh and as soon as we we started reading chapter one, and it was you know, verse two and three, hear this, you aged men, give ear all inhabitants of the land. Has such a thing happened in your days or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children and their children another generation. And I think Joel is kind of hitting on that same question Scott mentioned, where it's like, you know, what are you gonna, what story are you gonna tell? Are you gonna come back and you're gonna be a part of this, you know, declaring a holy sacred assembly and all these things?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:31

I would I would love for that to be a t-shirt. The the sorry, it was the storyline. Uh he he brought that back to mind. Uh but but also I also liked uh why would you want to get even with someone you don't even like? Yes, no, that is that is amazing, yeah. I and and and I really like that, especially uh I I think I've I mean I've talked to her, I've talked about her a number of times. I had uh anger issues. Um and and the message altogether like hit me really hard. I was just like, ah, pass Brian. You're you're you're you're look what were you thinking, you know? And again, I wasn't, so uh, but um, yeah, I'm sorry. That was that was really good. I what what what was the uh the story? Can we say the story one as it as it was saying?

SPEAKER_07 1:10:17

Um what story do you want to tell when this is just a story you tell? Right. Very good. Or you could go even further, like Jacob, what story do you want told when this is just a story to be told? Because now you're no longer the one telling the story. Yeah, somebody else's generations down the line. You know?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:40

It it kind of puts me in the the mindset of thinking about um when you see your kids get older and you see you coming out of your kids, they're saying the same things that you said, or they overheard you say, or you told them, or it's like, hmm.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:00

They do listen.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:01

Yeah, they didn't realize they were listening, but they were listening. And and uh that's a good point, is like uh the the year before when they went to the renew.org thing, it was like, Are you a disciple worth replicating? And I think since then we've done a tremendous job of trying to be we have done the trying and God has done the production.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:23

I agree with that's we're not that good.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:25

No, uh it's just like being down here, getting involved in the community, and seeing like again, five baptisms today. There's been over sixty baptisms probably in the last year between the gathering and here.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:38

In the last two years there's been over a hundred.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:40

Yeah, and it's just uh fantastic, you know, and I love to see that. But yeah, it's like when you see your kids and they're and they're saying the same thing that you said to them, and you're like, I wonder if they realize where they're getting that from. That was something I tried to get across to them as kids, but it took them years and years and years to come to that conclusion.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:05

I saw a meme that said about age 25, you your kids will realize that you were right. And then I realized I went back in my own life and realized that about 25 was when I was truly like, hey, my mom and dad are complete idiots. They actually do know a lot of stuff, and I probably should have listened.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:21

I would have to agree, about 25 is when me and my friends we all realized how awesome.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:26

My parents aren't as dumb as we thought they were.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:28

But this was this was very specific. This was how awesome my dad really was. Like we didn't see it growing up because he was kind of like your kids and your balls. He was strict on us, and you didn't let me get away with as much as the other guy. I mean, they wanted me to be a part of their shenanigans and Tom Foolery. Yeah, Tom Foolery.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:46

For the audience who can't see, Tom has a shirt set that says, I am Tom Foolery. That's right. It was a gift today from someone who knows me.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:53

Professor Foolery. Professor Foolery, yes. We were talking about the professor earlier, but we were talking about Neil Purt. Yeah. But uh Yeah, it's like we realize that, and how many times have I said this? It's like, dang it, dad was right. Yeah. Dang it, dad was right. And now I'm thinking, father, you were right. Yeah. You know. How much more? How much more right is our father in heaven than even our earthly father or earthly dad? You know, it's just like, wow.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:26

And Jesus even says that he's like, your heavenly father loves to give you gifts. And you, earthly fathers, you love to give gifts. Which of you would give your kid a scorpion if we're still? I mean, there are we all know there are dads like that in the real world that that aren't doing it for jokes or actually jerks. But like unfortunately, there are. Jesus is like, even the worst among you like to give gifts. How much more do you think your heavenly father wants to save you and give you the gifts?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:51

Yeah, and that goes back into God's being patient, waiting for you to come around, giving you the opportunity for not only you, but the people you love in your life too.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:00

It's like if locusts aren't going to be enough, we got the nation of Assyria on standby, y'all. One of my favorite passages, it's all ever since I have become a Christian, it's been with me, is verse 25 of chapter 2. I will, the Lord says, I will give you back what you've lost to the swarming locusts, to the hopping locusts, to the stripping locust, the cutting locust. Um God doesn't prove without reason. Like God doesn't strip away things without reason just to say, oh, you're terrible and here's why. It's to get people to come to the point where God says, now I can give you what was really on the table. Because you finally came to your senses, right? And I will restore that. Um, and it says verse 26, once again, you'll have all the food you want. You'll praise the Lord your God who does these miracles for you. Not out of obligation to you, but for you. Because he wants to, because he loves you. So stop being a knucklehead. That's what that's what Joel's saying. Stop. Like that's most every sermon could really be summed up with sin good, sin bad, Jesus good, stop being knuckleheads.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:11

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:12

Amen. Preach. I know a lot of people thought that would be okay with that. Yeah, they'd be like, that's the best sermon ever, because three seconds. We get to lunch quicker. The prayer was longer. Yeah. So 25, when we started reading now, when it did make me think of Job specifically.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:26

Yes, like Job is blessed a hundredfold. Yeah, yeah. He had terrible friends, though. And never touched his wife. Just saying. Oh, maybe she turned into a pillar of salt because we never hear about her again. I don't know. She told him to curse God. But I mean, that's the only time we ever hear about her.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:44

But good Satan and God never did anything with her.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:48

We don't know. It doesn't talk about her. Maybe Job was like, all this is for everyone except your mother. No, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:57

No, I was just thinking, yeah, his wife right there.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:00

I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:00

I know.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:02

Oh, oh no. Apparently, she took her advice.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:10

Let's go ahead and finish this chapter.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:12

No.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:15

And it will be afterwards. But I will pour out my spirit on all mankind. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old man will dream dreams, your young man will see visions. Even on the male slaves and female slaves. I will in those days pour out my spirit. And I will put wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire, columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. Before the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes. And it will be that everyone who calls the name of Yahweh will be delivered. For on Mount Zion and Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, even among the survivors whom Yahweh calls.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:16

So this is like the first sermon and the first church service, by the way. So Joel is quoted by Peter in Acts chapter 2, verses 17 through 21, and he word for word quotes this part. So this is a prophecy of the Holy Spirit, as it says in verse 28. So even all the bad stuff that's happened, God says, In those days, when you have come back to me and I have healed the land and restored, I'm going to do something great. And we see it fulfilled in Acts chapter 2. That actually happens. And it's still happening today. God is still pouring out his spirit. And how cool is that? Like we get to watch this happen. Like we watched it happen today, all morning.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:58

And wow. It's still happening. Think about it. Like if you look like we look and we say we have five baptisms today, right? Like that's good. Think about worldwide. Like millions of people came to Christ today.

SPEAKER_09 1:18:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:11

Or will. Yeah. You know, tomorrow is the same. Yeah. And I mean, it's wild.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:17

I definitely think we are on an upswing. I think the battle is.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:21

Because everything's being stripped out from under us, like all the fields are being burned.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:25

Yeah, I think we're starting to win more battles. At least we are in this little town of ours.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:31

Satan has had a hold on this town for a while. Yeah. And he doesn't like getting kicked in the teeth.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:37

Too bad. Jesus kicked him down his third. That's right. But yeah, I was gonna say that that this is all stuff that is definitely just a repeat that we see later on.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:48

Yeah, that's it's fulfilled at the church. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:50

Um yeah, I just I I really like that that part there. That's the deliverance in the day of Yahweh. Like it it it it says that you you want it, you don't want it. Terrible, awesome day. Yeah, it it's it's terrible for those that are lost. It's awesome for those of us that are not lost. And I know somewhere in this chapter it did say awesome, which I really liked that it used that word. To use the word awesome. All right, let's finish the book there and go to chapter three.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:42

For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehosaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered amongst the nations, and they have divided up my land. They have also caught sorry, they have also cast lots of my people, traded a boy for a harlot, sold a girl for wine, that they may drink. They will sell them to the savian, to a distant nation, for Yahweh has spoken. Call out this message among the nations, set yourselves apart for a war. Rouse the mighty men. Let all the men of war approach that let them come up with the beach of ploughshares and a sword, and your pruning hooks and spears, and the weak say, I am a mighty man. Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves. There bring down, O Yahweh, your mighty ones. Let the nations be roused up, and come up to the valley of Jehosaphat. For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Send in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread for the wine press is full, the vat overflow with their evil is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of Yahweh is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness, and Yahweh roars from Zion, and gives forth his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens of the earth quake. But Yahweh is a refuge for his people, and a strong defense to the sons of Israel. Then you will know that I am Yahweh, your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain, so Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will pass through it no more. It will be in that day that the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah will flow with water, and a spring will come, sorry, and a spring will go out from the house of Yahweh, the water of the valley of Shidam. Egypt will become a desolation, and Edom will become a desolate wilderness because of the violence done to the sons of Judah, in whose land they've shed innocent blood. But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation, and I will avenge their blood, which I have not avenged. Indeed, Yahweh dwells in Zion.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:22

Always laugh, like uh the prophets just end the books, and it's like, how'd they do that? Are they like, we have more God? Is is Joel like, is that the end? Yeah, yeah, that's the end. We're good.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:39

Okay, I I might have had a brain fart here, but I I think um so d does your I I've got like a whole versus four, okay. You skip four through like eight. Well, I I wonder is is that in your own.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:01

What you read, what you continued to read was still true. I I uh I sorry folks, I'm confused because I have a study Bible and I was I was I the columns. I thought that was a different column. I'm sorry. I can read that now, uh just so we have it all together. Uh for moreover, what are you to me, OT Asidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you rendering me a recompense? But if you do recompense me swiftly and speedily, I will return your recompense on your head. Since you have taken my silver and my gold, brought my desirable treasures to your temples, and sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, in order to remove them far from their borders. Behold, I am going to rouse them from the place where you have sold them, and return your recompense on your head. Also I will sell your sons and your daughters into the land, sorry, into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will uh sell them to the Savians, to a distant nation, for Yahweh has spoken. Yeah, my apologies. I I missed that one. So how dare you make a mistake.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:21

I thought it was one of those things.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:23

Or you're human or something.

unknown 1:25:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:25

Yeah, sometimes they'll say, like, some versions don't include verses. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:29

No, no, it's just I totally skipped over that too, and then he went because mine is formatted differently, and I I was and I was like, oh, that must be the footnotes and kept going. So I get you. I get it.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:39

I like how it says Yahweh has spoken. Of course I relate it back to the I relate it back to the trash heap from the Fraggle Rock, you know. The trash heap has spoken. Oh, Panzer of the Lake, what is your wisdom? Right. Um so much in this particular chapter going on. You've got You got human sex trafficking? Yeah. The whole area, verses one through three?

SPEAKER_07 1:26:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:04

Which unfortunately we have today too. Um really. Again, nothing new under the sun. Um, but this is one of those chapters that it has both good and bad. Yeah. Like this is what I'm gonna do when you mess up, but then this is gonna be you're the reward basically. Um, I was thinking there was a particular. Let me look at it, see if I can find it. Um I wonder if it's part of where they get that they are gonna be the ruling class. Who? Uh Israel. Oh, I don't know. Um Egypt will come a desolation, Edom will become a desolate wilderness because of the violence done to the sons of Judah and whose land they have shed innocent blood, but Judah will be inhabited forever in Jerusalem from generation to generation, and I will avenge their blood which I have not avenged. Um yeah, there there's wording in here that makes me think that it's giving again, we see in the New Testament and with uh the Pharisees and the Sadducees that that the the line of David is gonna come and rule and the kingdom here on earth, and it's never about a kingdom on earth, it's never been about a kingdom on earth. Um we do see so many times where Jerusalem falls short and the people of Israel fall short and he restores them. Uh but it's different when it's restoring the entire creation, and that's what it ends up being in the end is it's restoring the entire creation because Jesus had to come from the line of Judah. Um, but yeah, I just I was always wondering why did they think that they were going to be the oppressors instead of the oppressees? Am I the only one that feels that way?

SPEAKER_07 1:28:11

I mean, I could see that playing out in theology. Like people, for example, um so first off, before I forget, if you notice, all the nations and things he lists are the thorns, perpetual thorns on the sides of Israel all throughout the Old Testament. Yeah, Greek Egyptians. The Tyran Sidon or Phil the Philistines, the Edomites, the Egyptians, um, Assyrians, you know, they're these are all the people that have consistently been a pain in the rear for God's people. And so that's who God says in this that I don't want people to miss that if if Israel returns to them, God is judging the enemies that have always been there, not Judah and Jerusalem, not the Jewish people. Now, where do people get their, you know, like Jerusalem will be overflowing with people and all these people will never be thrown out again? We turn that into a theology of like superiority of like a nation state controlling everything. And that's that's what why they missed Jesus. Um, not like they missed him like he's gone and now we're sad. They completely just were blind to it because they were expecting, you know, they were wanting the guy to go along with verse 10 hammer your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears, which we'll see in two or three of these minor prophets, God actually specifically reverses. Um, and so he's telling them to make weapons of war. Um, but in the next book and the next couple, God's gonna say that exact opposite hammer your swords into plowshares and your spears into pruning hooks. Yes. And that you will learn war no more.

SPEAKER_10 1:29:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:51

Um, and so I think it's that military conquering hero shtick that humanity consistently always falls for.

SPEAKER_10 1:29:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:30:00

Um, even God's people are not exempt from that because you have guys like David, you have Judas Maccabeus, you have all these leaders that for all in for for looking at it from them would look like that's the right thing to do. So when a guy comes and says, No, you know what, instead of hammering your plowshares into swords, I want you to hammer your swords into plowshares and love your enemies and pray for them, they're like, No, that's definitely not the guy. That's not the guy God wants. Yeah, He's not gonna kill the Romans. Yeah, but it was never about killing Romans, no, it was never about Rome, it was about saving the world, and that's I think what's going on here, and I think that superiority or that idea like they're gonna be the ruling place plays in, and now we have this theology, and right now in our time where the nation-state of Israel is something, but it's not the same. The church is Israel now, according to the Book of Romans. Yeah, right? Um, you know, it's not a country anymore. Now it's a kingdom of heaven.

SPEAKER_10 1:30:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:30:57

That's open to everybody, not just Jewish people. And again, that's not anti-Semitic or anything, it's just the New Testament is the natural continuation of Judaism. It's not a new religion.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:07

Yeah, and and I think we talked about it. Um I went down that rabbit hole, God so loved the world, in this particular except Gary. No, it's Rongus Steve the Third. Oh, Rongistive III, okay. Um it's creation. God so loved his creation, and what people forget is God created everything. Everything. Everything. And because of their arrogance and their egos and their pride with the Tower of Babel, is why there was a separation. It was just to basically get them to understand that there is one God and you're not gonna climb- You ain't him. Yeah, you ain't him, and you ain't gonna come up here and and be on the same level as me. Again, we talked about earlier, Satan and uh and God are not level-handed at all. Um but yeah, God so loved the cre his creation, and I think that's one of the things that in this particular time and even now, people have trouble with. Like Jesus died for everyone, not just Israel, not just Hebrew, Jews, whatever.

SPEAKER_07 1:32:18

Not just people who have it all together and go to church everything. Right, yeah, that's the thing. I think I used to have a shirt and I got in trouble for it, but it said uh Jesus loves the people you hate. Think about that though. Yeah, I mean, exactly. And I mean, not that we're all setting out to be hateful or anything, but they're every single one of us has some kind of prejudice or judgment against something, and when we see that thing, we're like, oh, we kind of and we kind of spend our whole Christian life unprogramming ourselves from that, right? Yeah, but like Jesus loves those people just as much as he loves me. I'm no better than them. Yeah, yeah, literally at any point am I ever better than even the worst person on the planet.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:53

Yeah, and that's one thing that I I kind of pointed out in our adventures that we've been on. Um it's not it's not our power. No, it's God. We have no power, and I make sure that I tell people that it's not that I have any special powers or that Scott has any special powers, or even necessarily items that have special powers. It's just it's just it's Jesus using us as his earthly instruments.

SPEAKER_07 1:33:24

He's the pulling in Ezekiel, who will stay in the gap for my people. Right. Who will bring brid uh fill in the breach of the wall with yourself while we rebuild it.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:34

And and this is something that I'm thinking about now. We need more people that are willing to do that. Correct. We don't have enough people that are willing to stand in that gap to um take on the full force of a star. Yeah. I couldn't think of what that was in the Deadpool Wolverine movie, so I used that one. Um but yeah, we need more people that are willing to go towards the flaming arrows. And that's one of our brothers, Tony, that runs Gather and Celebrate, he talks about a lot. Like we need the people that are willing to be prayed up, to be armored up, to go towards the danger instead of running away from it. And I I think where I'm seeing the biggest problem is and I'm probably gonna get in trouble for this, but yeah, uh it's it's the people that are not picking up the armor.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:41

Or they just let they're not showing their metal. They let themselves get too spiritually obese for the armor to fit well and protect everything. Thank you. I was trying to say that without being able to say it. Yeah. Like I mean, I need some big armor, but like but the word of God is a big armor. Right, right. But like people get so spiritually obese that the armor doesn't fit anywhere and they have a lot more weak spots.

SPEAKER_10 1:35:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:07

Because more flesh is sticking out, because there's more of you, right?

SPEAKER_10 1:35:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:11

And uh even though the armor's still on, yeah, what had minimal space for for a weak spot now has much more real estate.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:20

So like we went to that conference and there was a lot of talk about disciples, disciples, disciples.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:25

That's the church's job. Yeah, and and we are doing a fantastic job of doing that. But at the same time, truly define what a disciple is.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:37

One who follows something. And in the most basic sense, one who is led by a teacher. You know, in a sense, someone who is a I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:49

So we said when we did James that we're not teachers. Because of course it says in James that some of us are meant to be, some of us are not meant to be, but also that we'll be judged more harshly.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:00

Yeah. But how much do we shoot from the head, brother? We're not, we're not teachers.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:05

No, I agree. I agree. But being disciples worth replicating gives us a teacher.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:12

Huh? That is being a teacher. Yeah. I mean, but you both are right, because there are times where we're not a teacher, we're just dispensing advice or good or bad, depending on how we feel that day. But then there are times like these, or times where we're sitting down or God puts us in a situation where we do become a teacher. And that's why Peter says you better be ready to give an answer. Um, Paul says be ready in season and out of season.

SPEAKER_08 1:36:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:35

Right? Like, so you can become a teacher at any time. Sometimes it's not up to you. But what he's talking about there is like people like don't set up to be like a church leader or you know, blah blah blah, unless you're really serious about it, right? And that doesn't mean anybody can't like just select people get to do it. I mean, this thing goes back to yours, only a few, very few people have the courage to do it, or in my case, the stupidity. Um that's how I the courage was not any part of mine. Um, God has developed that courage in me, but it was not there to begin with. Yeah, one of the scariest verses to me in Revelation is when cowardly people will not inherit the kingdom of God. For a long time that was the bane of my existence. Because it was a coward.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:17

Well, in these situations, sometimes it's hard not to be. Right. Because the power is so much greater than but they're just parlor tricks.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:26

The enemy has parlor tricks, God has phenomenal cosmic power.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:30

That's it. I I love that there's the there's an image, but I have I I got a patch, and it's uh it's it's from Lord of the Rings, but it's the massive form of the Balrog, right? Standing against the the dwarfed size of Gandalf. And who's the greater there? Gandalf. Right. So it's it but it's but it's this this illusion of power.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:54

That's just there the the Balrog is scary, he's on fire, he's a horned giant beast with a whip, and he's terrifying you're standing on, yeah. I'm probably gonna lose today. No, but Gandalf's like, mm-mm. No, none shall pass.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:07

And I think that's a fantastic imagery, and I'm glad you said that, because that's how I have felt in our stuff when we do go do our things. It's like at first you feel like Gandalf, the little whatever, but then you know, when when God says, I got you, oh yeah, I got you, all of a sudden that bowelrog is like And once Jesus steps in the Balrog goes from being 80 feet tall to six inches tall.

SPEAKER_07 1:38:32

Yeah, yeah. And it's like if I stayed there, the bowrog would stay 80 feet tall. If Jesus enters the chat, yes, he shrinks because he knows where he comes from. And he knows he's got a snowball's chance.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:44

And that's what I tried to convey to our people. My apologies. Also, in the book, in the book, uh Gandalf exchanges uh Yeah, they have a conversation. Yes, and and and he's and he's he's he's like, You think your light essentially his light is from the devil, so and he's just like it doesn't compare to too.

SPEAKER_07 1:39:04

He's like, You have fake light, yeah, exactly. Like magic parlor trick. That's all that is, it's parlor tricks, yeah, based on fear to get you to run away. Yeah, because who's not gonna run away from that thing? Like all of them, even Gimli was like, nah, we're out, you know, and he was he knew that thing was down there, yeah, you know, but like everybody else is out, and Gandalf's like, no, no, we're gone.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:26

Yeah, and this is a goofy reference, but we talked about it earlier. Uh, how I've been watching that goofy cartoon, Adventure Time.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:35

I laughed so hard. He was like, Yeah, I've been watching Adventure Time. I was like, how old are you then?

SPEAKER_04 1:39:40

Like the the original one or the new version that came out? I don't know what's his name.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:44

The human Finn Finn and the Dog, Jake the Human. Yeah, I like of course it's Jake. Yeah, Jake the dog is Jake. But like when I have watched of it, Finn is like Gandalf in those situations. Like, there's nothing that he won't. Like, I've seen him in the show go to fight the most monstrosity of things, and I'm like, dude, what what are you doing? Why would you do that? You're not gonna win. Yeah, you wouldn't think he's going to, but he's so much tougher.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:15

He's got that dog in him.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:16

He does.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:17

He does. It's really just a hot dog.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:20

Probably. But yeah, it's just it's interesting though, and I'm glad you brought that up too, because the Balrog and Gandalf and we see and David and Goliath. The walking dead.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:30

Oh, yeah. Like Rick Grimes is way more he's way more intense than any other human would ever be in that situation. He's like, there's no option but to bare my teeth and and go forward.

SPEAKER_09 1:40:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:43

Like, that's the only way that entire group makes it.

SPEAKER_09 1:40:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:47

Is because there's no way that all the horrific things that are happening, and they're like, Carl, we're going forward! And they do. They might lose an iron hand on the way, but they're going.

SPEAKER_09 1:40:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:57

And they have nothing. Like, they're like, we got a chick with a sword and a guy who's okay with a bow and arrow. Sometimes when he's not wandering in the woods with a dog. Like, that's what and then if if Rick can find his giant python, cold python, you know. But then again, it's like there are people that are built different that have that ability to see danger and not be afraid of it, but to realize that if they disconnect the switch, the danger can go away. So they're willing to put their life on the line for that. I think we, like you said, we need more people like that because we've gotten so used to I'm just sitting in church and the Lord's gonna bless me. Yeah. And then you wonder why you just sitting in church ain't doing nothing and God ain't done nothing for you. It's just what are you doing? Yeah, and again, I'm not minimizing. There are brothers and sisters who are sick and physically infirm and they could sit there. I'm not talking about it. I'm talking about your you know, normal person who is able to do stuff. And they sit there, why is God not helping me grow? Well, what are you doing? Like, not that it's a workspace thing, but like, where are you going? Like, what bowrogs are you fighting against? Because if you're not, you're not gonna see the power of God, and that's not what it's about, but like the there's never been more times there my faith has ever increased as strongly as when I have to go into a situation where if I were left to my own devices, I would die. Like, there's no reason for me to exit that out alive, yeah. But it's all because of Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:24

And I'm I'm gonna give a shout out to uh our people in the service industry as far as like police and fire. You know, how many people are willing to go into a gunfight? How many people are willing to go into a burning house? The church is kind of the same way, you know, it's a different kind of warfare, and it's it's it's there, but at the same time, yeah, you gotta give a shout out to a man who has a family at home that's willing to run into a burning building to save somebody that he doesn't know. To quote yours like, you know, you hate somebody that you don't even know or mad at somebody you don't even know. Yep. You know, that that's that's an amazing gift for those who are.

SPEAKER_07 1:43:03

That's what the Christians were known for. Like when you read like the letters of Pliny the Elder to Pliny the Younger and Emperor Justinian, they're like, these Christians are nuts. Yeah, there's nothing wrong. We've got to charge them with something, but like they're running into the plagues. Yeah, they're keeping these babies from dying, they're they're stopping infanticide, they're they're running into the plagues, they're running into the battlefields and helping people, and they're helping these people, like that's what they were known for. Yeah, and over here we're like, we got Christians who hate uh, you know, you know, anybody who smells and votes different than them. You know, but back then they were like, Saddle up, guys, time to go. Yeah, whether we die or not, we're going with Jesus.

SPEAKER_10 1:43:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:43:40

I think that that that's a testament to the times and our overabundance in consumerism. But I think those times are whether fast or who knows, maybe not, coming to an end in some sense as scarcity begins to creep up around the globe, and you see all kinds of things going on, all because a 12-mile-wide piece of river is closed. Or a strait of the Strait of Homo's. And it's gonna completely people have no idea the devastation that's gonna happen. Like, oh, it's just gas. Okay, it's just gas. Can't get the semis out, can't run your boats, can't get the oil, can't run your car, can't make food, can't run your pre plants, can't run the tractor. Yeah, can't run the can't get fertilizer. Yeah, so it's like the I think that's what God is ultimately showing through Joel is this snowball effect of your sin and tolerating and not doing anything, but God is still staying there saying, You have a choice. Go to the valley of Jehosaphat, which the valley of decision, literally. Who will you serve? Me or this pile of junk, you know? So that's what we gotta do. We gotta serve. If Jesus was not below washing people's feet, I can't be below anything. I can't either. Yeah, there is no one that I am too good to serve.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:57

Well, as unique as a Rick or a Gandalf or uh Jake or Finn or what have you, or Rick and Morty. Right. Maybe not Rick and Morty. You know, God makes maybe Morty. God makes us all differently, and as as unique as those those characters are, or what have you, and I I think courage is a choice, and I think um, you know, I think that's part of part of our call is running into those burning buildings. And I think part of discipleship is probably how can we get everybody to be on on board for that kind of sentiment and and see what Paul means when he says to live is Christ, to die is gain.

SPEAKER_07 1:45:45

It's a right view of a right life, I think. Because there's no losing for Christians. There's not like when I die, people on this earth that I'll leave behind will be sad. I will not be. I will not be. And they really won't be either. They'll be sad for a moment, and then they'll join me where I am. Like it really is to live as Christ. I can I get to live and be here and help people find Jesus, and then I get to go be with him forever. I win all around. You know, i i in this version, Gandalf grows bigger than the Balrog and Roundhouse, kicks him back down into the mine, and none of this terrible stuff ever happens. Yeah, right. So we win, and that's Joel. He says, I will pardon this. Like you have no idea what I'm about to do.

SPEAKER_09 1:46:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:46:34

And when God says he's about to do something, that could be thousands of years from now, but he's gonna do it. Yeah, to God that is about to do. Yeah, I mean, he's he's existed, he wasn't created. He's time doesn't matter to him. Yeah, thank goodness because again, catch a sketch. But then we go to the book of Amos, and that's where it's gonna rip all the church folk apart. Apart. Tear down all the walls. Also, it inspired a lot of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life. So very important book. Good. Also, uh, wear a mouth guard and some steel-toed shoes. I do wear those all the time.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:08

Uh, as always, since you're here, Nate, you want to pray yourself? All right, sure. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for another chance to gather together and to read through Joel together. We pray that the messages that you'd want us to pick up and to go forth into our lives with, that you'll open our ears and soften our hearts so that way those will sink in and um be a part of our lives. We we thank you for the opportunity to uh witness some of the awesome things that happened this morning with worship and with all of these um folks that are are turning towards you and who are uh deciding to uh join the family. We pray for um strength for them, just like uh Steve said this morning. Uh the devil's gonna start attacking them uh as soon as soon as they leave the leave the doors. I'm sure that he already has. So we pray for strength for all of those folks who are baptized today and that um that we can support them in the ways that you would have us do that. Um we pray for uh for safety and for um for continued wisdom um in the week ahead. We ask that you forgive us for our sins, and in Jesus' name, amen.