Willow Ridge Sermons

May 4th, 2025 • "Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster." – Joel 2:13b

–
Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurch
Website: https://willowridgechurch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurch
Facebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurch
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch

Creators and Guests

Host

Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

What is Willow Ridge Sermons?

Sermon audio from Sunday services at Willow Ridge Church.

Welcome to the Willow Ridge Sermons Podcast, where you can listen to audio from our most

recent sermons and more. Thanks for listening, and be sure to add this show to your library

if you'd like to automatically receive new episodes each week.

Well, good morning. If you have your Bible, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join me in Joel

chapter 2 this morning. As you turn there, I want to thank our kids. I know we still got some of them

in the audience with us today, so give them a round of applause for leanness in worship.

It's just such a wonderful encouragement to see not the future church, but the church now,

as we emphasize evangelism, discipleship, growth across all ages, and to see them come up on stage

and lead us in worship is super encouraging. So thank you, kids. Thank you, Dawn, and your team,

and your volunteers who serve every single week, investing in these kids, pouring into these kids,

being in community with these kids, and we're so, so grateful for that. If you're a first-time guest,

I want to thank you also for being here. At the end of the service today, me and my wife will be back

here to my left. Would love for you to stop by. It's a wonderful place. If you have any questions

about our church, we'd be happy to answer those questions for you. But if you don't have any

questions, if you're just here visiting, if nothing more, if you wouldn't grant us the opportunity

to just be able to shake your hand and thank you for being here, for worshiping with us,

we would really, really appreciate that. Also, a couple of things, something that should have been

on your chair. You'll see we got our kids camp. We got a card that's right there. It's a wonderful

opportunity to scan this QR code. Parents, to get your kids registered for kids camp this summer,

a wonderful summer time that we're going to have with them. And so please, you want to make sure

that you connect with that. And then at the very end of the service, I'm going to do our message,

and then we'll have the team come up and do another time of response and leading us in worship.

And then the very last thing that we will do together is to take the Lord's Supper.

And so if you're here and you're a follower of Jesus, regardless if you're a part of our

denomination, regardless if you're a member of our church, we want to invite you to partake in the

Lord's Supper with us at the end of the service. And so if you missed these as you came in,

they are located in the very back of our auditorium, right underneath our sound booth upstairs.

And so you can slide back right now would be a great time to get those so that you could do that

with us, like I said, at the end of the service. So as we get into Joel this morning, I want to read

to you the first part of Joel 2.13. The first part of this verse says this,

Would you pray with me? God, we come to you this morning, Lord, and we thank you for what a privilege

and honor it is to gather together as your people to worship you. God, I thank you for our kids.

I thank you for their heart for you. God, I pray that they would grow in their relationship with you.

Just as Lord, I pray that all of us do. God, as we go into a time of reading your word and the

preaching and teaching of your word, God, I pray that all that will be said will be done in a manner

that will bring glory and honor to your name. God, I pray that all that's said and done will be done

through the power of the Holy Spirit. And God, we ask for your spirit to work and move of the lives of

each and every single individual here. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Well, there's kind of a catchphrase about the minor prophets, right? That these are minor prophets,

but with a major meaning, a major emphasis, a major message. And we see this in the minor prophet of

Joel as we started last week. Last week, a quick little recap. We don't have the time to go through

everything by any means, but we see that tragedy has come to God's people. And this tragedy has come in

the form of locusts and that these locusts have completely wiped out the crop, the land. It's

barren. There's no hope. There's economic disaster. There's famine. There's even limitations on worship

and sacrifice. And so God's people are devastated. And so God calls them in Joel chapter one to repent.

And so we looked at repentance last week, that God uses tragedies, that God uses circumstances

and very loving what the world would look at as a punishment. What would the world would look at

as a terrible crisis is that God in his goodness uses these moments to draw us to himself and his kindness

and that we can begin with whatever tragedy, whatever we face every single day by looking at it with an

opportunity of repentance. But we talked about last week that repentance isn't just simply saying,

I'm sorry. Repentance isn't simply saying, well, I'm not going to do that again. To repent is to truly have,

to desire, to lean into, to be dependent on God for an actual change of heart. And God desires

this type of repentance, not just an acknowledgement that I've done wrong, not just simply a sorry from

the lips because God wants your heart. That's what God wants. God wants your heart.

Only before God desires anything of you or from you, God wants your heart. Jesus, as he began the

Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five and going through the Beatitudes, begins to give several

phrases that would stand in opposition, both culturally and religiously of the day. And he says this,

blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Very interesting phrase. We see this and this

begins to make sense to us. In our understanding of the gospel, we know these things and we see this.

And so this lands with us hopefully well. But let me tell you how this would have landed when the

people of Jesus' time would have heard this phrase, pure of heart. This was a challenge. This was a call.

Carried with it an idea of straightness. It carried with it an idea of honesty, of purity, of clarity.

And from this pure of heart, there was two implications that came from this. And one is of the inner

moral purity as opposed to the image of purity or ceremonial purity. And so one implication of this

phrase was like, hey, before you Pharisees, before you religious doers start trying to figure out how to

clean up all the outside of what needs to be done, that what God is desiring from you before there's an

external purity is that there would be an inner purity of what's there. But also it carried another

other implication. Same meaning, different implications. That it was this picture of an undivided heart.

So the call to the Lord is one of an internal purity, but also internal unity for the Lord.

That there's not division amongst who you are. There may be unity in action, but if there's not unity in

heart, then the unity of action is just the performance of religious rights and wrongs.

And so Jesus says, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the inner pure, blessed are the undivided

hearts, for they, they shall see God. They shall see God. And again, kind of two implications of this,

for they shall see God when we, like I can look out and I can see you, right? It implies a closeness.

So blessed are the pure of heart, for they will experience closeness with God. Closeness with God both in

eternity, that we will be with him, that this earth is not our final destination, that what awaits for us

is not wrath and judgment and eternal punishment, but that blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God,

for there's this eternal closeness, but also blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God. Now remember who's saying this?

Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. So it's this earthly clarity of beginning to see God for who he truly is, to see Christ for who he is, to see the power of God's word for who he is, through his word, through his nature, and through his people.

So Jesus begins, and we see this in Matthew 5, 8, and talking about the importance of your heart, and in my heart, and in our pursuit of him, that we can, like, let's push these

religious works to the side, let's push these do's and don'ts to the side, and let's lock in, and let's ask the question, like, man, like, how's your heart?

How's your heart? You ever had that day where it's just like, it's tough, it's hard, like, like, your heart grieves, but you've got to, you've got to get up, and you've got to move

on, and you've got to power through, right? And so you, you get everything done, you get your job done, you get the kids where they need to be, you get the bills paid, you get, you get dinner

cooked, you get food on the table, you get it cleaned up afterwards, like, like, you do all of the things, but inside, like, your heart's falling apart, and spiritually

speaking, Jesus says, like, we can be those people that run and chase and do all of this, but that what we have need to be concerned, and what he's

concerned is, how's your heart? How's your heart? Not how's your checklist?

How's your heart? Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. So, so here's, here's the difficulty with that

for us. Here's the difficulty, and this is what Joel 2 is, is going to help us in getting this, this problem solved a little bit

for us, is that, um, we have a heart problem. We, you and I, we, we, in, in our sin nature, in our, in our sinfulness, however we want

to look at that with where we are, that, that, that you and I have a heart problem. Matthew 15, 19, again, from the

words of Jesus says, for out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual morality, theft, false witness,

slander, right? For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual morality, theft, false witness,

slander. Jesus is speaking here in, in Matthew 15 about what defiles a person, what makes a person

dirty. And, and he says that, that we are defiled from the inside out, not from the outside in.

So, what defiles us is not what we do, but what defiles us is who we are. And then based off of who we are

at our inner being, at our heart, then becomes where our, where our actions come through, right?

So, the, the concern and the issue is, is the heart. Jesus, Jesus says that these evil things, they, they, they come

from our innermost nature. They, they aren't accidents. They aren't mere mistakes. They, they reveal how corrupt we are

in, in, in our fallen nature. R. T. Frant says, says this in his commentary. He says, the heart is the source

of man's true character, and therefore of his purity or impurity. It is not merely the, the seat of emotion,

but the true person as he really is, not just as he appears outwardly. Like, you and I, we all have this

opportunity in this, this ability to clean up, to polish up, to make the outside look better than what

the inside really is. So, so again, the question this, this morning is, how's your heart? How's your

heart? I want to ask you two questions that are going to be questions that we come back to over and over

and over as we have, I'm sure, people in here who, who, who don't trust Jesus Christ as their Lord and

Savior, and as we have people in here who do trust Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

There's probably a mixture of, of us in here. There are those of us that are common, and we're set, and we're firm

in our foundation, in our relationship with Christ, and then there's some of us who are maybe unsure, right?

Or there's some of us who are maybe questioning this, or there's some of us who are definitely skeptics, and we're

like, no, no, no, no, no. And so, but there's two questions that can encompass all of us, whether we find

ourselves, is number one, do you need to, do you need to turn to Jesus? Like, when you evaluate your heart, and we'll

begin to see that Jesus is, is the one who fixes this. Jesus is the problem solver.

Jesus is the doctor. Jesus is the heart surgeon, right? He's the one that, that changes this. Do you need

to, do you need to turn to Jesus? Do you need to turn for repentance and salvation? Or are you, are you

part of God's people? And, and do you need to return? Do you need to return? Do you need to return to God as,

as you've, as you've, as you've wandered? Right? Like, I, I got saved. I got new status. I'm a new

person. I'm a new identity. All of that defined by in Christ. But I still have this, this part in this

journey in this world that I'm, that I'm walking in and through, and God, praise God for this, that as I'm

walking and journeying through this, that God, through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in me, is

taking all that that is not him, and he's working those parts and those pieces out of me in a beautifully,

wonderfully difficult and hard process in my life right now.

And, and, and, and in the course of the last 23, about to be 24 years that Jesus Christ has been my

Lord and Savior, right? Like, I, I'm sitting here sometimes progressing faster, sometimes progressing

slower, but guess what? Like, even as a guy that shortly after saved felt called into ministry and was

being discipled and being led to do what I'm doing today, because this is what I believe that God called

me to, that there are points in time still to this day that I wander, that I choose the lesser,

that, that I choose that of the flesh. And, and here's the point that we're gonna see in Joel 2,

is that when I do that, God's not like lightning bolt, there you go, fool.

You can giggle at that a little bit, I guess. But I feel like that's how God talks to me when I do

things like that, you know. That's not what he does. He's good and he's gracious and he's like,

put his arm around me like, like, return, buddy. Return, come back. Come back. And, and I think, and

like, those of us who have wandered and know, you can amen this, like, you know that your salvation

story is so important to your testimony of faith, but yes and amen in your wandering and in your

returning to the Lord, right, is equally powerful and so relatable because we wander. So here's what I

don't want. I don't want you thinking that this message this morning and the reason why we began

in the way that we began this morning is just for people who don't know Jesus to turn to him. We do.

If you don't know, if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I want to tell you this. We've

been praying for you all week and we prayed for you this morning. We prayed that today that God would

radically save you as only he can. But for the rest of us who do know Jesus, maybe you're in a drift

right now. Or maybe you're in full-blown rebellion right now. Or maybe you're somewhere in between

right now. And in our heart is that you'll just return. That you'll just return. But we've got to

deal, we've got to deal with the heart. So let's, let's look at this. Joel 2, we're going to read verses

1 through 11 to start this morning. Blow a trumpet in Zion. Sound an alarm on my holy mountain.

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble. For the day of the Lord is coming. It is near. Just

kind of pause here. Like this is, this is God saying there's going to be a judgment that's coming.

There's going to be a judgment that's coming. A day of darkness and gloom. A day of clouds and thick

darkness. Like blackness, there's spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people.

Their life has never been before, nor will it be again after them through the years of all generations.

Fire devours before them and behind them a flame burns.

The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness and nothing

escapes them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses and like war horses they run.

As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of mountains like the crackling of a flame of

fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle. Before them peoples are in

anguish all faces grow pale. Like warriors they charge. Like soldiers they scale the wall.

They march each on his way. They do not swerve from their paths.

They do not jostle one another. Each marches in his path.

They burst through the weapons and are not halted. They leap upon the city. They run upon the walls.

They climb up into the houses. They enter through the windows like a thief.

The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened. And the stars withdraw their shining.

The Lord utters his voice before his army. For his camp is exceedingly great. He who executes his word is powerful.

For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome. Who can endure it?

Right? Like parents maybe like not the bedtime story to read, you know, tonight.

Right? Here's what God does and here's what I want to see. I want us to see the warning signs.

See the warning signs. See the warning signs.

Joel chapter 1, right? Locusts. Locusts come. God's getting their attention.

Getting their attention. He says, blast a trumpet. Blow a trumpet. The day of the Lord. Judgment is coming.

Here's the thing about the day of the Lord. Here's the thing about judgment with God.

God's not looking like sneaky, sneaky surprise. Here you go. Right?

God's saying like this is going to happen. This is going to take place.

And what we know by God, that God stands by his word.

And so if God says it, we can hold to it.

And he says judgment will come in the form of an invading army.

And just in the descriptions of this, of what we see in the descriptions of what is going to take place.

Like this is not an invading army that's just going to kind of come along beside and be like, it's okay.

Like you're ours now. We came to set you free.

No, no, no, no, no. They're coming to destroy.

It says that one of the descriptions of what they do, it says like before them, it's like the Garden of Eden.

And then behind them is like a wasteland.

Why? Because they've destroyed it all.

It's the picture that they are like horses with war horses that will trample over and on top with the chariots that are coming.

What is happening is destruction.

And God in his kindness, God in his mercy, God in his goodness is like,

I don't want you all of a sudden to be out there in the field trying to deal with the locusts.

And then you hear the rumbling of the horses coming and you had no clue what this is taking place.

God in his mercy says, look, here are the warning signs.

It's like, folks, like pay attention to this.

But so many times you and I miss it.

So many times in our sinful ignorance, we look past the caution signs of what God gives us.

Because we're looking ahead to what we believe is next.

When I was, how many of you, show of hands, we've got teenagers in the room, got some husbands who maybe haven't shared some secrets with their wives.

How many of you have ever gotten a speeding ticket?

Raise your hand.

Leave them up in the air for a second.

I want to see what we're working with.

I want to see whose hands are down.

Oh, that, Bryson, come on, you can do better than that.

All right, all right, it's right here, man.

I could see, I was like, really?

All right, all right, all right.

How many of you have had more than one?

Raise your hand.

All right, you put them down.

How many of you have had more than three?

Raise your hand.

That was a delay.

I feel like somebody got nudged.

I'm not going to say who, James.

All right, so I got my, I've had one.

I've had one.

Now, my wife has had one, too.

I found out last night.

I didn't know this.

Like, she got her first speeding ticket, like, her first week with her driver's license.

Now, her mom and dad are here this morning, so I'm going to call my mother-in-law up on stage to tell about that.

I'm just kidding.

I'm not going to do that.

Never give your mother-in-law a microphone when you're a pastor because then that just, it's freedom, right?

Do whatever they want to.

So, I got my, I've had one speeding ticket, one speeding ticket.

I was traveling from North Augusta to the Clemson to see some friends of mine, and I was in the big, booming metropolis of Abbeville, South Carolina.

Yep.

Those of you, and so I'm on the road, and I'm headed there, and it's 55 miles an hour.

How do I know that?

Because I, like, those signs, like, I'm looking for them.

Speed limit signs.

I don't like to go fast.

I've never liked to go fast.

Like, slow and steady.

That's me.

55 miles an hour.

Now, let me say this.

Let me say this.

When I drive, I follow the speed limit, kind of, right?

Right?

So, so, if you're, if you, if you're not paying for your own auto insurance, this does not apply to you, right?

If you're, if someone else is paying your auto insurance, then you drive whatever that sign says, or less.

But, like, I would go, like, 60 in a 55.

Right?

So, I'm leaving Abbeville, and I see I'm coming out of, like, 35, and it jumps from 35 to 55, so I jump up to 55.

And then I jump up to 60.

And I'm running about 62 miles an hour, my Jeep Cherokee, heading up to hang out with some buddies in Clemson, South Carolina.

And there's a turn that's coming up.

This wasn't my first trip to Clemson.

I've gone to Clemson many times.

And I know that the speed that I'm at, I can take that turn.

But there's a yellow sign right there to let me know that there's a turn.

But I pay attention to those yellow signs, really.

Like, who really pays attention to those yellow signs?

So, I go around that turn at 62 miles an hour.

And there, and there, silver cars.

It's very, I love them.

I appreciate them.

One of our South Carolina Highway Patrol officers.

Boo!

Right?

Throws on his lights.

Pulls me over.

I'm terrified.

He said, do you know how fast you're going?

I said, yes, sir.

I was going 62 miles an hour.

He says, you were.

He said, that's a problem.

And I said, why is that a problem?

He said, because you're in a 40 mile per hour zone.

Now, sometimes, you know how you say things without thinking through them?

I said, I don't think so.

I said, I think I was going 62 and a 55.

So, if I'm getting a ticket, I would really prefer a 62 and a 55 and not a 62 and a 40 that you just told me.

And he said, would you see that yellow sign?

And I said, yeah, thinking like, no.

And he said, that's a 40.

So, you're in a 62 and a 40.

So, you're going to get a ticket for that.

Now, it's a different ticket than a regular speeding ticket.

But here's my point.

All along that road, and since then, to this day, this old man pays attention to them yellow signs.

Here's my point.

You and I get so comfortable just looking, spiritually speaking, for the speed limits and the stop signs

that we miss those warnings that God graciously gives us that we think are irrelevant and don't matter.

But God in his kindness, he's given them to us.

He's given them to us.

Like, we're just like, if we heard the rumbling of the army, then maybe we got time.

And God's like, well, it doesn't have to be that way.

It doesn't have to be that way because I'm giving you the signs.

I'm giving you the cautions.

I'm giving you the warnings.

You're like, well, Bo, what are they?

Well, it's his word.

You get the warning of God's word.

Right?

One of the beauties of God's word.

Like, if you want to know, like, what does God expect in the do's and don'ts of your life?

Go to the Bible.

Wonderful ways.

Do this.

Don't do this.

This is what your life should look like.

All, again, again, your do's and don'ts do not save you.

But in the transformation of your heart, of the expectation of your life, of the warnings,

it's like, where does it line up?

In his word, the do's and don'ts, his word tells us,

hey, guys, guess what?

Jesus will return.

And in his return, there's judgment.

Now, guess what?

It may happen now.

It may happen then.

We don't know.

But we know.

His word tells us he'll return.

His word tells us that heaven and hell are real.

And his word tells us that eternity is a long time.

And that your destination is one of two of those places.

That's it.

And his word says, if you want security in this, all right, here's the warning.

Come to Jesus.

So God gives us his word.

The second thing that God gives us is God gives us his people.

God gives us his people.

Right?

Like, you and I are this wonderful family that God gives us.

And that you and I are given with a purpose to work in the sanctification process,

in the equipping process, in the bettering process of one another.

And so God gives us one another.

So that's why I've said it a thousand times and I'll continue to say it a thousand times.

It's not about a personal relationship with Jesus that neglects all of those that God puts around you.

But God gives you a wonderful host of brothers and sisters in Christ to come alongside you.

Not to just say the good, easy things to you, by the way, and to me.

But to say the hard, difficult things that we need to hear time and time again.

And the third thing that God gives us as these warnings as a part of who we are is he gives us his Holy Spirit.

He gives us his Holy Spirit.

Not that we have to go seek and find the Holy Spirit, but as God's people and the promise that the Holy Spirit will come upon you

and the Holy Spirit, as a believer in Jesus Christ, he indwells within us and he speaks and he leads and he guides

and praise the Lord, he convicts us.

And that when he convicts us, we should celebrate God because there's a reason, because in his goodness, he's convicting and not judging.

And so there's repentance that's there.

So the question for you and for me, are you going to act or are you going to ignore?

Are you going to act or are you going to ignore?

Are you going to act on the warnings of God and the response that God's called you to?

Are you going to ignore?

And here's the deal.

I'm going to tell you, it happened a hundred times before I drove past that sign that I didn't get a ticket.

That one time, judgment happened.

The consequences were there.

And the pain and the suffering was there.

So you're going to act or you're going to ignore.

Let's keep on to verse 12.

Yet even now, declares, Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments.

Here's the question for you.

Not just act and ignore, but whole or part?

Whole or part?

So are you ready to act?

All right, so what next?

Well, here's what God's word said.

God's word says, return with all of your heart an undivided heart.

Remember back what Jesus said?

Blessed are the pure of heart.

And it was that concept that your heart was unified, unified in Christ, and not divided with this section going to Christ, and then the other 99 sections of our heart divided up amongst all the idols that we want to pursue.

Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, with mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments.

Let me ask you this, is your heart divided?

Is your heart divided?

Here's the answer to that, yes.

Yes.

So God says, return, return to me.

Jesus, in his words in Matthew 14.

I want you to get that Jesus so many times, the Bible will tell us that great crowds would begin to follow him.

And I began, I think that the reason why these things begin to happen is that great crowds begin to follow Jesus after a miracle, after a really profound teaching, because they didn't get it.

Because they believed that this was just like some easy new fluke thing.

They could be who they wanted to be, do what they wanted to do, follow this new radical Jesus guy.

And when the crowd began to get, to be a little too much sometimes, Jesus would turn and say some things that would fend the crowd.

So it says, now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, verse 26 of Luke 14,

And if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

I just imagine that some people walked away.

He's not done.

Verse 27.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it.

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish.

Or what king going out to encounter another king in a war will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000.

And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

So Jesus says, look, if you're going to follow me, you need to consider this.

You've got to bear your cross.

This is a picture of suffering.

This is a picture of work.

This is a picture of enduring.

This is a picture of difficulty.

There's no easy believism.

There's no I'm good.

Verse 33.

So therefore, any of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

And I imagine that crowd thinned.

Thinned.

Now, I'm not against big crowds, right?

I like big crowds.

We see in Revelation, there's going to be a big crowd with Jesus.

I think the piece of this is that Jesus, of what he's pushing toward, is saying, like, look, on the surface, we can have these false, fake reasons for wanting to come to Jesus.

But we need Jesus to say, but you need to take an inventory.

Where is your heart divided?

I think Jesus is love, right?

Like, I love my wife.

I love my kids.

They love me.

God's glorified and honored in that.

Here's the point of the beginning of that, is Jesus is like, you've got to take all that is the most sacred to you, whatever it is, and your eyes are not locked and fixed on them.

Your eyes are locked and fixed on me, is what Jesus says.

I'm your all.

I'm your pursuit.

I'm your purpose.

I'm your meaning.

If you want to be my disciple, this is what this looks like.

So, wholehearted relationship for Jesus begins in relationship with him and then builds on a daily walk with him.

This is who we are.

This is what we do.

That you and I, we need to stop setting aside for God.

We need to stop setting aside the things that we're okay with for God.

We've got to stop setting aside just the things we're comfortable with for God and start acknowledging that all that we have, that all that we are, that all that we hope for is his.

Is his.

And that the belief of our heart and an undivided and a unified heart for him is, Lord, do with it as you wish.

Do with it.

Do with all.

Lord, take my life and do with it as you please.

God, take my marriage and do with it as you please.

God, take my family and do with it as you please.

God, take my talent and do with it as you please.

God, take my hopes and dreams and do with it as you please.

God, take my finances and my retirement and my savings and my paycheck and do with them as you please.

God, take my hobbies and do with them as you please.

God, take my morning from when I wake to the morning to the evening when I go to bed and do with it as you please.

God, God, as I sleep in my heart and in my mind, set in them whatever you wish and do with them as you please.

This is the call.

This is the hope for our heart.

So he says, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, with mourning.

When we've done wrong, here's what you and I want to pay the price.

We want to pay the price and get it over with.

The state trooper, when he pulled me over that day, he said, if you want to, you can come to court and you can appeal this ticket.

Or you can just pay it.

And I thought in that moment, like, I was so terrified.

This was on a Friday and I knew this was before cell phones.

So I had to tell my dad until Sunday because I wouldn't talk to him until Sunday.

But I just wanted to be done.

I just wanted to be over with.

I just wanted to let my dad know.

I wanted to pay the price.

I wanted to be done.

I want to take care of this.

All of this.

I was angry.

I was annoyed.

But I just wanted to be gone.

I wanted to just pay the price and be done.

God says, though, like, return to me and then allow what's going to come from you to come from your heart so that when we return to him, when we've wandered, like, there is some weeping.

There's repenting.

There's fasting.

There's mourning.

But it's not done out of show.

It's done out of response.

Response.

Verse 13, second half of 13 through 14.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

He relents over disaster.

Who knows whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God.

So here's the challenge.

It's what we've been building toward, right?

Return to the Lord.

Why should you do this?

You know what I mean?

But this just kind of feels like, I mean, here's this God and it's the locust and it's an army.

Like, this is an unrealistic expectation.

Why should I return or why should I turn to Him?

Why should I turn to Him?

And so Joel, in this, he helps us understand who God is.

He says, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

He relents over disaster.

So he gives these descriptions.

He says that he's gracious.

He's gracious.

He freely offers his forgiveness.

He freely offers favor.

He freely offers kindness and mercy to people.

Even the people who don't deserve it.

Because there's not any of us who do.

That he's gracious.

That he freely gives us the gift of conviction.

If you're convicted over your sin, celebrate that.

Because it's evidence of the Holy Spirit in you.

And this is what God does.

He's gracious.

He's gracious and he's kind.

Then he says, he's merciful.

He's merciful.

When we deserve punishment, and we deserve punishment all the time.

But he doesn't punish us.

He doesn't.

In fact, what he does, what the Bible tells us, is that he blesses us instead.

And when we're found in him, that he doesn't punish us, that we still, like you and I, we're still messy, messed up people.

But instead of punishing, he blesses us.

The Bible tells us that you and I, we've been blessed in every spiritual realm in Christ Jesus.

Every single one of them.

So where does the punishment go?

Well, we went to Jesus on the cross.

He's merciful.

Jesus paid the price.

So we didn't have to.

It says he's slow to anger.

He's slow to anger.

This is a phrase that's hard for us to process.

So I want to do the best that I can to explain this.

He's slow to anger.

And it means that he is patient, but don't get him wrong.

Wrath is coming.

He is patient, but wrath is coming.

So here's the desperate cry for you to turn to Jesus if you've never turned to Christ and trusted him with your salvation.

You either stand in his forgiveness through the cross or you stand in his wrath because of your sin.

But he's slow to anger, so there's time.

There's time.

There's today.

There's now.

There's this moment for you, regardless of where you came from, regardless of where you find yourself, regardless of how you got here today, regardless of what brought you here today, to put your faith, your hope, your trust in Christ, and his work on the cross.

And to ask for God's forgiveness.

So you can stand in his forgiveness or you can stand in his wrath.

It says he abounds in steadfast love.

He abounds in steadfast love.

And this word steadfast means that his love is overflowing and available.

That the overflow will not cease.

But that the overflow is continual.

And it's available and it's available to all.

So I don't care how bad you've messed up.

I don't care what terrible, nasty, evil things that you've done that his love is overflowing.

His love is available for you.

I don't care how far back you feel like you are.

I can't come back.

I can't return.

You don't understand.

No, no, no.

I do understand.

Been there, done that.

Got the scars to show you.

And within that, his love is overflowing and his love is available.

Look at who Jesus brought alongside him.

Tax collectors.

Thieves.

Prostitutes.

Demon-possessed people.

The outcast.

The rejected.

And he says, no, let me tell you about God's love.

It's overflowing for you and it's available for you.

And they latched on to it.

But you know who else?

There's even some other religious.

For me too, Jesus?

Yeah, for you too.

So there's not a soul in this world.

There's not a soul in this room that his love is not overflowing and available for.

And then here's this last piece.

It says that he relents over disaster.

And there's this cool picture that we begin to see with this.

When we repent, God has announced judgment.

This is it.

God has announced.

And Joel 2, judgment's coming.

Judgment's coming.

And he's announced to you and I apart from Christ, right?

Judgment's coming.

It's coming.

But that God deserves the right to relent over disaster.

To relent over judgment.

So here's what that means.

That when we repent,

when we repent,

God is free in who he is to alter his announced judgment.

Here's what that means.

It's still coming.

But you'll be found in his forgiveness.

You'll be found in his mercy.

Because God always forgives the repentant.

Always.

Verse 15.

Blow the trumpet in Zion.

Consecrate a fast.

Call a solemn assembly.

Gather the people.

Consecrate the congregation.

Assemble the elders.

Gather the children.

Even nursing infants.

Let the bridegroom leave his room

and the bride her chamber.

Between the vestibule and the altar,

let the priest,

the ministers of the Lord,

weep and say,

spare your people, O Lord,

and make not your heritage a reproach.

By word among the nations,

why should they say among the people,

where is their God?

Lastly.

Come to Jesus.

You ever had somebody say to you,

we need to have a come to Jesus conversation?

That conversation is never intended to be good.

When the call

is to come to Jesus,

oh, it's better than you could ever possibly imagine.

Come to Jesus.

Well, I don't understand it all.

Neither do I.

Come to Jesus.

Well, boy, I'm still going to mess up.

I'm still going to do things wrong.

Oh, trust me.

Yes.

I know.

Come to Jesus.

Well, I don't know that if I can be as good.

I don't know that I can work out all the things

that I need to work out.

I don't know what's next.

I don't know what's there.

Come to Jesus.

1 Timothy 2, 5 and 6.

For there's one God

and there's one mediator between God and men.

The man Christ Jesus.

Who gave himself as a ransom for all.

Which is the testimony given at the proper time.

We have Jesus.

We just two weeks ago celebrated and talked about.

He died on the cross.

He died on the cross for your sins past, your sins present, your sins future.

He did so to pay for you.

For you.

There's a payment on your account for you.

For all who will come to him.

For all who will receive him.

How's your heart?

You know the answer to that question.

Do you need to turn to Jesus for the first time?

Do you need to set today that Jesus Christ, to surrender to him as the Lord and Savior of your life?

To admit that you're a sinner and capable of saving yourself.

To believe in Jesus Christ for who he is and what he's done and to confess him as Lord.

I want to ask you if you've never done that.

Would today be the day of your salvation and will you turn to Jesus?

The second thing.

Have you wandered some?

I'm not talking about like you're some awful, menace to society, evil person out there.

Man, has that path just wandered a little bit?

Maybe that path wandered a lot.

Man, you feel like I'm too far gone.

I'm just here out of guilt.

Do you need to return to Jesus?

You should return to him.

Not like the prodigal running home, met by the Father.

Would you return to him today and live in the blessing of your salvation?

Are you going to act or ignore the warning signs that God's word gives us?

In your heart, is this something that you're trying to manage the parts?

Or do you give him all?

Will you return to Jesus?

Will you come to him?

Would you pray with me?

God, we thank you for today.

For your kindness and for your mercy.

Lord, as we prepare to take the Lord's Supper together, acknowledging and recognizing the work done by Christ on the cross.

God, in the power of your Holy Spirit, I pray that our hearts will be examined.

Lord, if there's anyone here who has not come to you, professing Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior,

I pray that today would be the day of their salvation.

Today, in your drawing and in your leading and in your pursuing of them.

Lord, they would lay down any hindrance.

To stop them from coming to you.

And receive your grace and mercy.

Your kindness, your compassion.

And today, Lord, become a child of the living God.

Or God, today, is there sons and daughters in this room

who are on a path of wandering or a path of rebellion?

Living in the old.

Allowing the dead to rise up from within them.

Lord, today, they need to repent and return to you.

God, in the power of your Spirit, speak as only you can to know.

That's it for this week's message.

Be sure to check back next week for a new episode.

And in the meantime, you can visit us online at willowridgechurch.org

or by searching for Willow Ridge Church on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Thanks again for listening.

More episodes

Chapters

Creators and Guests

What is Willow Ridge Sermons?