Be Vigilant Warned by God – Part 1

Graham Watts with an introduction to today's message. Be vigilant worn by God. This is a warning that goes out to every body so will be caught by surprise when severe judgment falls on your listening to living in the light and welcome to this week's addition with Bible teacher and grandma's.

Over the next few weeks and will be teaching a powerful series of messages reminding us to be vigilant peers and with the message, focusing on Joel chapter 1, first presented in 2018, but is still relevant today on USA Today, the page right below the fold headline that said warning signals about gunmen somehow went unheeded and it was talking about Devon Kelly and the shooting in Texas and all of the things that people should have picked up on and I will list them because they're rough but thing after thing after thing for people should have known they were warned that this is a very vicious dangerous man. But none of the warnings were heated and ends, he burst into the church and was 26 people and runs 20 others and in front I thought about it and I know God is allowed and people ask why and who knows what I think the fact it's in a church makes it more horrifying to me, but I wanted God.

Could you be giving us a picture of what's going to happen to our whole nation within a short period of time, and I don't know what it's going to be, but I believe disasters coming like I've never seen before judgment is coming. Another example that would be familiar to you on April 10, 1912, was that natives swing the biggest most luxurious greatest ship ever built, left Southampton, England on her maiden voyage and ends on April 11 she was warned you're headed for an ice flow.

You need to adjust your course April 12. She was born April 13. She was born April 14. She got seven different warnings you're headed for an ice flow. You need to change course. You're headed for destruction. You need to alter your direction and the telegraph operator got all those messages anywhere from but on the Titanic. They were partying. They were having a good time. There were sending messages back and forth to Europe and United States. There was no time for him to pay attention to him. So he just read the warnings, but didn't heed them. 1120 on the night of April 14 the Titanic at an iceberg and 220.

On the morning of April 15.

She went down and the rest is history. And I see the picture of the Titanic as a picture of our ship of state and with the greatest nation ever most prosperous, most luxurious, you know, the United States has never been a nation like ours and were going in the wrong direction were headed for an ice flow where headed for destruction. And God is sending us warning after warning after warning, and were not heeding the warnings and so that's where I'm very concerned that were going to wake up one morning and find something disastrous is happened in our nation that we will wish that we had heeded the warnings about so you open your Bibles to the book of Joel and this is the subject of the book of Joel and you can look on your iPad or iPhone. I have a hard copy because I love the hard copy of my Bible.

I love the market. I love to weep over it. I love the have the dates regatta spoken to me through it you know so.

But I also use electronic copies but just turn to Joel chapter 1. I'm not going to read the chapter so if you don't mind.

For sake of time, I'll just refer to the verses as we go through them but Joel is challenging us to be vigilant because were being warned by God. That judgment is coming.

That's the whole message of his book judgment is coming judgment is imminent, and when I say judgment, severe judgment, some major disaster that will alter our nation, probably for forever, so warnings are credible. The warnings are comprehensive and the warnings are compelling.

So let's look first of all, at the back of their credible their unassailable inverse one because he says this is the word of the Lord, you can't get more credible than that this is God's word and means God is a gentleman. He doesn't lie. He doesn't mock his children.

He doesn't play games with guys he says what he means and he means what he says. And so this is the word of the Lord is coming from Joel and it's even more interesting perhaps when it says this is the word of the Lord to Joel, son of Kathy. Well that's all we know about Joel right there.

We don't know who Pat Fewell was except he was Joel's father went on who Joel was, except he was that the real son. We don't know if Joel ministered in the northern kingdom right before this Assyrians invaded. We don't know if he ministered in the southern kingdom right before the Babylonians came in and invaded. We don't know anything about who his target audience was or what his timeframe was in that interesting and you know why I think it's because his message transcends time and when Joel was given the message by God and I'm assuming he went on he preached it because you know you could write it out and print it off and handed out like tracks they must've gone around preaching and preaching and preaching and preaching, but then he didn't write it down and why did he write it down. I believe it's because it's God's message to you and me today. So this is the word of the Lord. A message transcends time and is passed over several thousand years and is dropped in our laps for this particular time is the word of the Lord. These warnings are credible and in verse two it says here this and Joel calls attention to this message and I would do the same thing here this this is the word of the Lord, and if we're living in the final hour and I believe we are.

There's nothing you can do that's more important than listening to what God has to say, because God has a lot that he wants to say he will warn you, he will direct you. You will protect you, he will guide you, but you need to hear what he has to say such a great example of this. Genesis chapter 6 when Noah was walking with God and as he walked with God. God told him I'm going to destroy the whole world, and if not, I had made the time to listen to what God had to say and if he had heard the word and he is the word we wouldn't be here today so listen to the word about here. This and get other people to hear this. Think you can get other people to hear this. If you're not hearing this can't get other people to pay attention to God's word if you're not paying attention to God's so I know you are because that's why you're here. I'm praying that because you're here and you hear this, that when you go home you can get other people to hear this, get up, get them into a Bible study, get them into your church. In this final hour is nothing you can do that's more important than listening to what God has to say.

So warnings are credible, their unassailable indisputable because it's God's word and the warnings are unique.

There unprecedented verse two he says says anything ever happened like this before implying nothing like this is ever happened before its record-breaking record-breaking disasters in our generation. What do you know of in our generation that's unprecedented.

And now we have different generations. Obviously my generation can we have so many veterans and I don't know where you fought where you served with some of you may have been in World War II goes back that far. But Pearl Harbor was something that was unprecedented for that's not my generation so in my generation. I guess we would have to skip forward to 9/11 is anything like that ever happened in our nation before and then I look at other things are happening in our world, like the medieval butchery of ISIS and the rise of terrorism and then I look at what's happening in our own streets with San Bernardino and Orlando and the Boston Marathon and New York City in the shooting in Texas and Las Vegas and has anything like this ever happened before.

It's unprecedented what's going on and that's not counting the natural disaster so the warnings are unique and their universal in verse two it says these are for the elders closer old gray haired people like me for the older generation verse three it says it's for the young for the children and grandchildren. The millennial's in the generation X and Y now understand as a generation zillion girl tatted up and have purple hair and they wear hoodies and iPads and iPods and almost can understand what they're saying but it's for them, and verse five it says it's for drunkards and I'm just going to say that those are people who sin openly and so just people who flaunt their sin. They don't care who knows it and it's for sinners verses nine and 13 as for the priest. The religious people. The traditionalist ones are all buttoned up across Saugerties and got a Verizon think they're right with God because they do all the stuff that's it's for them. Verse 11 for the farmers for the working people.

Verse 14 is for all who live in the land. It's for every body. This is a warning that goes out to every body.

So who will be caught by surprise when severe judgment falls on America because they weren't heeding the warnings. Don't let it be known that it be me so warnings are unassailable as God's word unprecedented never happened before. Universal there for every body and the warnings are comprehensive. They're coming at us from every angle, every level, every area in that stunning so we just going to think about it for a few moments. Joel's message basically is judgment is coming. This is the final hour and some speaking of severe judgment and in the Old Testament. When people didn't pay attention to God's word. They didn't heed what he had to say that he would speak to them through natural disasters or environmental disasters. And so that's where Joel starts with environmental disasters because really he speaking of a locust plague in verse four we just read it and he says with a locust swarm is left the great locus of eating what the great locus of left the young locusts have eaten what jungle does have left other locus of any just going to the different stages of a locust and at every stage. They were absent, destructive, until in the end nothing was left in the land was stripped bare because there was no vegetation there were no animals, everything that the people were starving. Nothing like that ever happened before, but Joel saw in the locust plague and illustration and examples are like what I was trying to paint with what happened in Texas, but he saw that as an example for his entire nation and so the warning was that there were an environmental disaster that was unique that ravished the land. Nothing like that ever happened before. So this just apply that what environmental disasters have we seen that are unprecedented.

Nothing like this is ever happened before.

So let me just pull out to all right and I want to go back when we had a solar eclipse that went across the nation and I wrote a blog on it because I was very concerned Jewish rabbis. As I understand, believe that a lunar eclipse, the blood moon is a warning to Israel, but a solar eclipse is a warning to secular nations. Gentile nation and that solar eclipse went from the coaster bargain down to the coast of South Carolina. It was called America's eclipse and Americans went out they were partying, having picnics wearing the sunglasses. It was so much fun and I got all my goodness they don't know what's happening is God warning our entire nation on judgment is coming severe judgment disasters going to strike and within three days of that's America's eclipse hurricane Harvey made landfall down the Gulf Coast 130 mile-per-hour winds she dropped up to 5 feet of rain on the Houston area. She broke Katrina's record, but double all the water, the Katrina remember that and heartbeat dumped twice as much water in the Gulf Coast.

She stated hurricane strength of 117 hours after landfall. That was a record 63 people were killed directly. 27.

Indirectly she cost $198 billion. The costliest disaster ever in American history. And while we were still watching the waters received.

They hadn't even fully receded hurricane comes and she's the strongest one Atlantic that would seen for a long time. You remember it was almost eerie to see that huge hurricane forming down the southern part of Atlantic income inclined to see the spreader for weakens and then to see that she was wire almost twice as wide as a whole. Florida Peninsula hitting the islands and then hitting the keys on September 10 sustained wind speed of 183 miles an hour and 134 fatalities $63 billion in damage. Harvey and Irma, together with the costliest disasters in history.

So just keep that in mind I know we had Maria, but Maria came to the islands and hit Puerto Rico but he didn't hit mainland real estate suggests Harvey and Irma okay and because were so fixated on hurricanes.

We almost didn't notice that the West was on fire.

I mean, when I went to research it for you.

It was so much more than I had even know my brother lives up in Seattle and so I talked to him and he said every time he went out the actual over the place and air quality was really bad and I was aware of the fires but it's just stunning. They swept through California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, just up into Canada, but the two that stood out to me. One was Labor Day weekend because it was the largest fire ever in the city limits of Los Angeles and more than 7000 acres were consumed 20,000 people were evacuated 5800 structures were damaged or destroyed. Cost $2 billion justified. And that's not counting rebuilding after the fire swept through and in the second fire was just a couple of weeks later in October the Napa Valley fire 56,000 acres were consumed including the wine country remember seeing those pictures of all the vineyards discharged and then we had the two earthquakes in Mexico and I know that's not America but I want to make a point.

So 8.2, and in 7.1 without about a week of each other and this is what's so interesting your member in first Kings 19 after Elijah had defeated the priest of bail on Mount caramel and then Jezebel had threatened his life and so Elijah had been terrified and he ran all the way to Mount Corbin. He was hiding in a cave and God said Lodge. I want you to come out here and he stood in the mouth of the cave and there was the sound of a great rushing wind, and then there was an earthquake and then there was a fire and then there was a still small voice God use the earthquake, wind and fire to get Elijah's attention because God had something he wanted to say and so I just submit do you has got about a step earthquakes, wind and fire because he has something he's wanting to say to our whole nation and in somebody else pointed out this verse to me that I wouldn't have seen had they not pointed out to me which you know do that for each other okay because it's interesting, but Genesis chapter 41 when Joseph is interpreting Pharaoh's dreams. Memory had two dreams and he had one where the lien here is the fat ears of corn and then he had one where the lien cows ate up the fat cows and he did know what that meant. So Joseph goes into interpret the dreams and he says this in verse 32.

He says the reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God and God will do it soon so is God saying after two hurricanes and two major forest fires and two earthquakes and then to shootings Las Vegas and Sullivan Springs is God saying I firmly decide I'm going to do this and I don't know if that's true or not but I think it's very serious and I think we need to take it very seriously and let me tell you this, God is warning us. Yes, he is but warnings convey hope don't play because he would not be warning us if it was to and I believe were on the brink of it being too late, but that's from giving the message not to scare the GPs out of the not to depress you, but that we might cry out to God and ask him to relents of the disaster that's coming. But let me go on because that's the environmental disaster. Joel then talks about social disaster. He says in verse five is back in Joel chapter 1 verse five wake up you drunkards and we ends. Of course, drunkards, alcohol abuse alcohol related accidents are the leading cause of death of young people in United States.

We spend more on alcohol than we do on cancer so number one drug problem in America it's risen 49% since the year 2001 in eight Americans is an alcoholic one in four adults under the age of 30 are alcoholics, 20% of college students are alcoholics, 88,000 people last year that from alcohol related causes. And that's not counting the rates and the wife abuse and stabbings know that, stuff social disaster opioids drug overdose is the leading cause of death under age of 50. Listen to this 47,000 died from drug overdoses in 2014 and 2016, 64,000 died from drug overdoses between 26 and 36 million people are addicted to thousand 15, there were an average of 91 opioid deaths per day. No wonder the president has declared a national emergency. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in 15 to 24-year-olds. I just heard on the news last night, I heard right that it's up 40% over last year. Active shooters this is stunning from 2000 to 2006 there were six per year 2014 to 2015 there were 20 per year. The first 275 days of this year there were 273 mass shootings.

That's almost One-A-Day. We had 59 children Las Vegas 500 wounded Sutherland Springs 26 killed 20 wounded and social disasters. Hollywood melting down NFL collapsing you know it's a disaster. Isn't everywhere you look, it's a disaster. Financial disaster verse five wine is snatched from their lips in Joel's day one wasn't a luxury. It was a necessity.

It was a dietary staple, something isn't just like that the things we need can be snatched away taken from us and I can't do numbers but as of September 1. Our national debt was almost $21 trillion at $62,000 for every person living in the United States $169,000 for every taxpayer. That's a disaster. Anybody who does a budget knows that you can't do that national disaster when he says in verses six and seven, the nation has invaded. He was referring to the locus of a single locus. As an example of a nation that was invading his nation and I'll look at Europe and the largest migration in human history is taking place as the people from the Middle East are fleeing the slaughter in their moving into Europe and Europe if they're not careful they going to become a Muslim empire within peers there being invaded and I believe we are being invaded also and I'm all for immigration illegal immigration on up appreciate very much the people come from other countries. We all did you know some point in time, but I believe were being invaded that. That's a cover for people coming in who want to take us down so you can call it immigration open borders. It's an invasion and it's a national disaster. He was speaking of the locus coming in so wasn't just people coming in because locus are people so there was a nonhuman army that was invading and I thought what nonhuman armies are invading America and I've been stunned at the rise of immorality, pornography makes over $100 billion a year more than Apple, Google, Yahoo, eBay, Microsoft and Amazon, that's a disaster. Generational hatred and prejudice the racial divide that became very obvious in Charlottesville between lack lives matter and the white supremacists and then what was seething underneath just bowled over. Until now, it's just like poison all over our nation. Anti-Semitism is soaring on college campuses.

There was a 45% increase in anti-Semitic activity or incidents from 2015 to 2016. Listen to this. There was 86% increase from 2016 to 2070 at is an ugly cancer that summoned our nation and the worst invasion of all to me from a nonhuman standpoint is unbelief. The rise of secularism and humanism and atheism and agnosticism and just the nation that has no fear of God and faith in God and actually has replace that with something of a defiance of God of the living God. So what disaster are you aware of its in a nonhuman form and then the spiritual disaster in verse nine says the grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off the sacrifices ceased because the people had nothing to sacrifice the locus it eaten everything and when the locus date everything the animals got off there was nothing to sacrifice. And so they felt cut off from God.

They felt abandoned by God. They could go to the temple of worship, they could offer their sacrifices and they felt separated from God and after tremendous disaster. One of the first things we hear. Where was God where is God in all this.

It's a spiritual disaster we feel abandoned by God.

Where is God. He could've stopped that he didn't. He must not carry must not be there to see what happens and sort of fixes spiritually and that's a disaster. You and I know that there are times and we can feel abandoned by God, or abandon felt cut off and isolated.

I have but I know according to Hebrews 13 God is said I will never leave you never forsake you.

You been listening to living in the light and when you go to n-gram lots.org there are free resources to help you in your study of God's word and his desire is that you embrace God filled life step-by-step choice by choice living in the light