Sermon – Joel 2:23-32 – Stewardship

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Joel 2:23-32 – Stewardship

First Presbyterian  Church of Ocean City

October 23, 2016

            Today is Stewardship Sunday.  This is the day each year we make a commitment by entering into a covenant with God to support his church.  I have sent letters to members of the church thanking them for supporting Grace and me in our ministry here with you.  Like the Levites in ancient times, we are here at the call of God to serve this church.  And you have responded generously.  Soon your pastor nominating committee will find you new pastor, whom you should also support generously. There are pledge cards in your bulletin today.  When you fill out these cards the session of the church and your pastor nominating committee will know how much to offer the new pastor in compensation.  So I ask you to take out the pledge card from your bulletin and hold it throughout this sermon.  When I am finished,  we will pray and fill out the cards.  Then you will have an opportunity to bring those cards forward as a sign that you will support God's work in this church.  Trustees will them collect these cards and tabulate your pledges.  Let's pray.

            “Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification.  Amen.”   (John Calvin)

            Today we will be looking at the Book of Joel.  Joel was a prophet.  His name means literally, “Yahweh is God.”  This is the bedrock of our faith, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit we worship is God.  We don't know when Joel lived.  So this book could have been written at any time in Israel's history.  It could even be written today.

            The Book of Joel starts with a natural disaster.  Locusts have arrived, swarm after swarm. They are on everything.  You can't get away from the constant buzzing sound of their wings.  They are the most annoying things you can imagine.  In this midst of this infestation of locusts, God sent his prophet Joel to give his people the bad news.  Joel went first to the taverns and told the drunks that the locust were stripping the grape vines bare.  There would me no new wine this year.  Then he went to the temple and told the priests that there would be no drink offering and no grain offering this year.  And finally Joel went to the farmers and told them what they already knew.  There would be no harvest this year.  All of this means shortages, famine and starvation.

            Joel then returned to the temple and told the priests that it was time to call a solemn assembly.  People had to be gathered to confess their evil ways.  They had to repent of their sin and turn to God.  They had to read the Bible and do what it says. 

            We heard all of this from Jeremiah.  In Jeremiah's day the people ignored him. They mocked him.  And threw him in jail.  But in Joel's day the people did what he said.  They confessed their sin and turned to God.   And God forgave them and blessed them.

Joel 2:19 The Lord replied[a] to them: “I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil,enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations.  20 “I will drive the northern horde far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land;  its eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea and its western ranks in the Mediterranean Sea.  And its stench will go up; its smell will rise.”

            God sent a great Northeaster.   Wind from the northeast blew for days.  And locusts where blown into the sea.  Great is our God!  And with that God sent his prophet to the world he had created with some good news.

           

Surely he has done great things! 21     Do not be afraid, land of Judah be glad and rejoice.
Surely the Lord has done great things! 22     Do not be afraid, you wild animals, for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.

            And God also sent his prophet Joel to speak with his people.

23 Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains
 because he is faithful.  He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.
24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain;the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

            We learn from this that when we are right with God we will live a world of abundance.  The shelves in Food Lion will overflow.  Clean, drinkable water will come from our taps whenever we want it.  We can call anyone anywhere with phones in our pockets.  More information than any library could contain is available anytime with the internet.  And we have so much leisure time people can sit on a beach for a couple weeks every year.  We live in a world of abundance because God has blessed us so richly. 

            Now that we have been richly blessed it is time to enter into a covenant with God.  Here are terms from the prophet Joel.  This is what God will do.

25 “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the great locust and the young locust,
the other locusts and the locust swarm[b]—my great army that I sent among you.  26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,

            So God has promised that whenever disaster falls upon us, and it will, God will be there with us to comfort us in our misery, strengthen us to persevere, and restore to us his blessings.  That is what God will do for us.  Now, what should we do for God?  Let's go back to the prophet Joel.

 and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. 27 Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.

            God has blessed us richly with a world of abundance.  What should be our response?  According to Joel we are to praise God because he is with us.  We are to worship God.  We are to pray to God.  We are to study and obey God's word.  We are to care for God's church by inviting people to believe in him and contributing to its operation.  Joel puts it this way.

Joel 3:18b A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house and will water the valley of acacias.

            Joel has prophesied that a river of living water will flow from the church to bless our communities and the world.  This prophecy from Joel was fulfilled when Jesus stood in the Jerusalem during they harvest festival of Tabernacles and did this:

John 7:37  37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”[c] 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. 

            The church is today the source of living water that the world needs.  Our proclamation of Jesus Christ brings to the earth the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is with us now in worship and flows from this place into the world.  You will carry the Holy Spirit into world as a great blessing.  For this blessing to continue to flow from this place you must support the church financially out of the abundance God has blessed you with.

So now, take out the pledge cards from your bulletin.  Hold them in you hands and pray with me.

            “Almighty God, we thank you for all the gifts You have given us:  our lives, our loved ones, all that we have and all that we are.  Most of all, we thank You for Jesus, your Son and our Redeemer, who came among us to show us the way to eternal life.  Jesus was the perfect steward of your gifts, showing that complete trust in you is necessary, and that giving of self is a most important part of following Him.  May the offerings of our time, our talents, and our material resources be made in the same spirit of sacrifice that Jesus taught us by His life and death for us.

            Oh Lord, giver of life and source of our freedom, we are reminded that yours is “the earth in its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it” We know that it is from your hand that we received all we have and are and will be.  Gracious and loving God, we understand that you call us to be the stewards of Your abundance, the caretakers of all you have entrusted to us.  Help us always to use your gifts wisely and teach us to share them generously.  May out faithful stewardship bear witness to the love of Christ in our lives. 

            Loving God, I come to you in thanksgiving, knowing that all I am and all that I have is a gift from you.  In faith and love, help me to do your will.  I am listening, Lord God.  Speak your words into the depth of my soul, that I may hear you clearly.  I offer to you this day all the facets of my life, whether it be at home, at work, or at school---to be patient, to be merciful, to be generous, to be holy.  Give me the wisdom and insight to understand your will for me and the fervor to fulfill my good intentions.  I offer my gifts of time, talent and possessions to you as a true act of faith, to reflect my love for you and my neighbor.  Help me to reach out to others as you my God have reached out to me.  In Jesus' name we pray.  Amen.

(http://wjpresbytery.org/contentpages/17172/67479107-dbbe-4e90-a20f-09bd5fb2fa16/Stewardship.aspx)

            Let us pray silently.  While praying take the pledge card and fill it out.  Please come forward and place it in the plate.  If you cannot come for the trustees will come to you.

When we have finished we will sing together Precious Lord, Take My Hand #463.