Good morning. Last night as I was reading God’s word and as He was speaking to me about today’s sermon, I thought, “What does the book of Joel have to do with us today?” Well, if you read your bible and you study the different things that the different authors wrote about, you’ll see that God put them into situations and circumstances to illustrate what He was trying to show them. For example, He would have one look at a plumb line and talk about how Israel was not measuring up. Then, He would have another look at a pot of boiling water and He would speak to them about how God’s anger was about to boil over onto Israel because of their sin.

Well, the Lord led me to scripture in the book of Joel and I feel like it applies to our church and to Christians everywhere today. I believe that the Lord wants to speak to us through the book of Joel and that He has a special word for you and for me. So turn to Joel chapter one and starting with verse four:

“What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten.

“What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten.

“What the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

Now, Joel was talking about things that were happening and had happened. The people of Israel were going through droughts and pestilence and they had locust coming and eating their crops and Joel was talking about the destruction of the crops. He was saying, “Look, what this locust left, the next locust came and ate… and what that one left, the next one came and got… and so on. Now what the Lord is speaking to our hearts and lives today is that many times we feel this way. We feel like what the one locust didn’t get, the other one got. You know something, church? It never fails that something starts chewing on us. So, what I want to ask you this morning is, “What’s chewing on you?" What is chewing on you today?”

Sometimes it’s the pastor. Sometimes it’s the way the church looks. Sometimes it’s the music. Sometimes it’s your family. Sometimes it’s your job. Sometimes it’s that car that gives you trouble starting in the morning. It seems that there is always something chewing on you… and did it ever occur to you that the devil has sent that something to you to steal your joy? He’s trying to take that fire out of your heart and out of your life. Let me tell you something, folks, if I know that I have a pest problem I go get some bug bombs and I kill them dudes. Right? If you got ants in your house, you go get some bug spray and spray them dudes out. If you got something chewing on you, you don’t need to let it go on. If something’s chewing on you, you need to get rid of it. It’s a pest! It’s a bug! Get rid of it!

Do you know what they would do with things like this? When a swarm of locusts would come in, they would not try to swat at them or try to scare them off. They would let them light on a field and get to chewing real good. Then they would set that field on fire. They would burn up an entire field just so that they could save all of the other fields around. You see, sometimes it takes a little sacrifice of something in order to save the rest of that something. Sometimes you have to be humble and willing to sacrifice to save the other fields. But sometimes we’re selfish. We want whatever is chewing on us to chew on everyone else. We say, “If I have to suffer, let everyone else suffer.” They didn’t do that back then. They said, “If you sacrifice your field… if you would be willing to sacrifice your field to save the rest, we’ll take care of you. We’ll share our crops with you. Well, the Lord said to me, “Joey, that’s the way the church needs to be.” We need to go to each other and try to take care of our problems before they go any further. Let’s bless each other and try our best to help. Now I don’t always do that and you don’t always do that… let’s just be honest… but if we would be willing to say, “I’ll give up this or sacrifice that in order to save the crop… in order to save the church…” we could really get somewhere.

Now the next part of the message is from verses 19-20. If you’ll look there, it says:

“O Lord to you we cry out,

For fire has consumed the open pastures

And flame has burned up all the trees of the field.

The beasts of the field also cry out to you,

For the water has dried up and fire has consumed the open pasture.”

The question the Lord is asking you today is, “Have you hit a dry spell? What’s wrong? Have you hit a dry spell?” If you read the scripture you will find that we’re not talking about a fire drying up the creeks and the water. Fire doesn’t dry a creek up; it just jumps it. We’re talking about a drought. They had a drought so severe that the leaves had fallen off of the trees. The trees had begun to die. The fields were just burned up. There wasn’t anything left. How many of you remember the drought last year? Man it was so dry… I was visiting a friend’s church over in Lake City and I twisted my ankle in a crack in the ground. The ground was just cracked open. Big cracks, man, and they were deep. You know, sometimes we have such a spiritual drought in our hearts and lives that our hearts just crack open. They crack open because they’re so dried out and they haven’t had the Spirit of God in so long. And we just don’t know what to do. That’s what this ground is like. It hasn’t had water in so long and it dries up so hard that it begins to pull against itself. But I’ll tell you… I would have liked to have been there for that first rain, because that water just runs down in that crack until it fills that empty space up.

Your heart might be in a spiritual drought today. Your heart may be cracked. Bad things might have happened, but I tell you, if you’ll open up your heart and your life, God will open up the windows of Heaven and He will fill those cracks with the Spirit of God. Amen.

You see, God can’t fill a hardened heart with His Spirit. He sends His rain down on it and it just bounces right off. It’s like when you get flash floods, nothing gets in. The Spirit of God may be speaking to you and He may be telling you, “Look, your heart has gotten so hard that I can’t get in. You won’t let me in. You won’t open your ears. You won’t open your heart. You won’t open your eyes to see what’s going on.” Let me tell you something… if your heart gets that hard, He’s going to wait until it cracks open before He sends His rain. God knows where your heart is and he knows what condition it is in. But I know this: God is looking for a chance and an opportunity to pour His Spirit down upon you and move in your heart and life.

Do you know any better high that the Holy Spirit? Do you know anything better that having God in your heart? If you do, that may be why you don’t have His Spirit in your life. If I knew anything better that having God in my life, I wouldn’t be in church on Sunday. If I knew anything better, I wouldn’t be seeking His Spirit. So, if we think that God is worthwhile, why don’t we open our hearts to Him and let Him come in? Why don’t we let Him work? Why don’t we just open our hard hearts and say, “God just fill up that empty space.”? It might be pain and suffering you’ve had for years and years. It might be a broken heart. I don’t know. It might be fear or stress, but whatever it is, God can fill that up. God can use you today and work in your heart.

What’s chewing at you?

Are you in a spiritual drought?

In Joel chapter two and verses 12-13, we find a very familiar verse of scripture. It reads:

“’Therefore,’ says the Lord, ‘turn to me with all your heart.

‘With dancing and weeping and mourning.

‘So rend your hearts and not your garments.

‘Return to God, for He is gracious and merciful,

‘Slow to anger and full of great kindness.’”

Now pay attention, because this is the point. God says change your inside, not your outside. When you leave here, change your heart and not your face. See, we act like one person in here, but when we get out in the world, we are an entirely different person. We get up on Sunday and put on our church clothes and all of the sudden we have a church face. All of the sudden we have a church attitude. All of the sudden we’re so nice. But then we get in the car after church and we say, “Did you see what so-and-so was wearing? I can’t believe they would wear that to church.” And all of the sudden we’re a completely different person.

The Lord wants us to change our hearts and not our faces. Change our insides, not our outsides. If you have to pretend to be something or somebody you’re not when you're at church, you’re not right with God. You’re not right with God. Something’s wrong. If you can’t be the same person in church and at home and on Saturday night, than you’re cheating yourself and God. You’re fooling yourself, but you’re not fooling God. I said you’re not fooling God. Yes, God knows when you’re using the bathroom.

Don’t try to fake it for me. Don’t put on an act for your pastor. It isn’t about your pastor. It’s about you and God. When you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, do you see yourself for who you really are? Do you see yourself for who you really are? I look at myself and many times I don’t like what I see. I don’t like who I am. I like who God thinks I am and what God sees in me, but I don’t always like who I am. I pray every day that God would change me just a little bit. That He would make me just a little bit better.

Too many times we are so busy looking on the outside and we don’t see that we’re being eaten up on the inside. We don’t see that we’re drying out. Joel was telling these people to quit worrying about what’s up outside and fix what’s up inside.

I have never believed that you can be saved by walking an aisle and praying a prayer. Walking an aisle and praying a prayer is an outward act. Walking an aisle doesn’t save you. Praying a prayer doesn’t save you. It has to be an inward change. It’s not who you are, but whom you have. It’s not what you do, but what you get. It’s a changing of the inside. God is the only one who can help you make that change.

What’s chewing on you?

Are you in a spiritual drought?

Turn to God and let Him change you.

-Rev. Joey Rupard-

Ask Him to change your life today. Ask Him to make you a new creation as He promised He would do. Accept Jesus as your savior and begin a new life of wonder like you never thought you could experience. He loves you and He will never leave you or forsake you. His burden is light and His yoke is easy. Tell Him you want to be His.

-Caulfer Life-