As far as I can tell, no one likes to be in the valley. However, it seems that none of us mind the mountain top. We all like to be on the mountain top, where the sun is shining on our face…..where everything is going the way we want it. We feel close to God on the mountain top……
But as the psalmist says, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” (Psalm 139:7-10)
The same God who meets us on the mountain top…..is with us in the valley…..friends, to get to the mountain top, you have to walk through the valley.
Life is an ebb and flow, like the waves of the sea, live is filled with ups and downs, mountain top experiences, and wanderings in the valley….and in the ebb and flow of life, the ordinary, and mundane, the hurts, the joys, the sorrows….the Lord is a refuge to his people….God is with his people…..
The book of Joel, unlike most OT writers, Joel gives no specific date for the writing of his book, but some of the events outlined in Joel’s book convinces most scholars that Joel was written somewhere around 835 BC, or about 835 years before the birth of Jesus, 2835 years before this morning.
Joels book begins his book by revealing to us there is a great famine in the land….Locusts have invaded the land of Judah and decimated its crops, the people….God’s people, have drifted away from the Lord, and through the mouth of the prophet, God admonishes his people that in this great valley of life, to repent and return to him,
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.”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 2:12-13)
It is only God who is able, with unimaginable strength, to pull his people out of the valley. Only God is able to restore the years that we spend wandering in the valley….the years that are taken away form us, by the locusts that ravage and devour our years….that create in us a famine in our soul, And though we don’t like to be there…..into the valley we must go.
And through the mouth of the prophet Joel, God declares a time to come, first a time when God declares,
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.” (Joel 2:28-29)
A time, a prophecy that has come to pass…… what was a prophecy for God’s people in Joel’s day, is history for me and you…..because on the day of Pentecost, God fulfilled his promise, God has poured out his Spirit on all flesh, and through the spark of the Holy Spirit, God has given life to his church…..and in these last days, in this church age, the age of of the dispensation of God’s grace, all people everywhere are able to call on the name of the Lord.
The same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is poured out on all people in all places and is tugging at the hearts of all humans to return to the Lord, to seek God while he may be found….because a day is coming when God will call all people to the valley go Jehoshaphat - that name Jehoshaphat, it means YHWH judges….oh the day of the Lord is coming, a day of darkness and gloom when all nations will be called into the valley of God’s judgement…..Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great”(Joel 3:13)…..people of God before that day comes…..we are not the be at rest, not to be tricked into the false peace of the world…..
Each Day, God’s people, and all people are in a battle…..and we should make ourselves ready for war. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”(Joel 3:10) Because before God calls the nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat, before that great and terrible Day of the Lord, God’s people and all people are in a spiritual battle….a battle of decisions.
"Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision." (Joel 3:14) The world is filled this morning with people, people that Christ Jesus died to save….and the Holy Spirit of God is tugging at their hearts…..oh they call themselves atheist and agnostics, spiritual but not religious, some say they don’t have time to think about such things, they are relishing in their sin, but in their heart, the truth bubbles up….where sin abounds grace abounds more, and God’s prevenient grace, grace that was poured out on all people….oh when from that old rugged cross Jesus cried out, “It is Finished” (John 19:30), and the vail in the temple was torn from top to bottom….God’s grace was poured out for all people, and the Holy Spirit tugs at the heart of every person to make the decision to come to the Lord. Yet so many, hiding behind false identities and lies spend their days in the valley of decision.
Many of you this morning…..oh you’ve been coming to this place or a place like it your entire life….you know all the stories, you’ve helped feed the hungry, maybe you’ve even served on a committee or two….you know what to say and when to say it….you look like you have it all put together, I don’t know who you are, but you do….because your heart tells a different story, oh we create so many reasons, oh when I’m older, I don’t want to right now, I’m still young, I don’t want to let something go, I just want to have some fun, and this morning you find yourself in the valley of decision.
There are some, who are wrapped in the bondage and chains of a secret sin, that thing that you know is killing you, you know is not honoring God, but its tentacles are wrapped around your life, and the fear of letting it go are greater than the desire to get away from it, and each morning when your eyes open in the valley of decision…..you pretend it’s not there.
Some of you….God is calling you into that next place in your relationship with Him, that part of his plan that is reserved for you….that call on your life that’s so heavy you can hardly breathe….the good work that you have been given the gifts and are equipped for…..that deeper relationship with Him, but you don’t have time….you’re afraid, I don’t want to suffer, I don’t know what people will say, what others might think…..and you find yourself in the valley of decision.
"The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people" (Joel 3:16)
"Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” 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 2:12-13)
Oh people of God, Christ Jesus is with us, and all people, in the valley of decision, oh when you hear his voice do not harden your hearts, but come running to him. Trust in his goodness, believe in his promises….oh dear ones he is able to make all things new, and he will make you new this morning, Oh dear ones our “God has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2 Timothy 1:8-9)
Don’t wait to the Day of the Lord to get ready to meet him, when you hear the trumpet blow……this age of grace is closed……this is the day, this is the hour…..won’t you come!
Consider,
Saints of God, in these last days, a spiritual battle rages, we need to arm ourselves for the fight. We need to get serious about our walk with the Lord, we need to get serious about living a holy life and listening to the voice of the Savior, listing to the voice of Jesus.
The Day of the Lord is coming, and the only thing we will bring before a Holy God is Jesus.
“Christ did not suffer and die to offer cheap grace. Jesus did not willingly go to the cross so we could have an easy life or offer a faith built on easy-believism. As someone said, ‘Salvation is free, but not cheap.’ It cost Jesus His life.” Philip Abu
