{"id":5803,"date":"2015-02-21T21:52:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-22T01:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=5803"},"modified":"2015-03-03T18:06:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T22:06:52","slug":"sound-the-trumpet-21815","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=5803","title":{"rendered":"Sound the Trumpet (2\/18\/15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor Jim’s sermon on Ash Wednesday challenged us to pay special attention to our relationship with God during this season of Lent.\u00a0 What do we need to walk away from in order to walk closer to God?
\n<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The passage was from Joel 2.\u00a0 Click the below “Play” button and follo<\/span><\/em>w along…<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t

Joel 2:1-18<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand:<\/p>\n

2 A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations.<\/p>\n

3 A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns; The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; surely nothing shall escape them.<\/p>\n

4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds, so they run.<\/p>\n

5 With a noise like chariots Over mountaintops they leap,Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, Like a strong people set in battle array.<\/p>\n

6 Before them the people writhe in pain;All faces are drained of color.<\/p>\n

7 They run like mighty men, they climb the wall like men of war; every one marches in formation, And they do not break ranks.<\/p>\n

8 They do not push one another;\u00a0 every one marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, they are not cut down.<\/p>\n

9 They run to and fro in the city, they run on the wall;\u00a0 they climb into the houses,\u00a0 they enter at the windows like a thief.<\/p>\n

10 The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble; the sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness.<\/p>\n

11 The Lord gives voice before His army, For His camp is very great; For strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; Who can endure it?<\/p>\n

12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”<\/p>\n

13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.<\/p>\n

14 Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him \u2014 A grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?<\/p>\n

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly;<\/p>\n

16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes; let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room.<\/p>\n

17 Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples,’Where is their God?'”<\/p>\n

18 Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, and pity His people. NKJV<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

What’s all that Trumpet Noise All About???<\/span><\/h3>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t
In his biography, Benjamin Franklin related that he asked himself two questions at the beginning and ending of every day:<\/span><\/p>\n
    \n
  1. Morning:\u00a0 What good SHALL I do today?<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Evening:\u00a0 What good HAVE I done today?<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"Trumpet_<\/a>Blow the trumpet.\u00a0 Examine your life.\u00a0 Joel tells us to “Blow the Trumpet.”\u00a0 Many times in the Bible, the use of a trumpet signaled an event of some religious purpose. Much like the ringing of church bells, it was used to call the congregation together for meetings, to usher the beginning of the month,\u00a0 and to note solemn days and festive occasions.<\/p>\n

    But in this passage, Joel is using the trumpet to sound an alarm and alert all the people to the seriousness of the crises.\u00a0 Crisis?\u00a0 What crisis???\u00a0 The crisis was that (much like today!), people are not remaining in covenant with God.\u00a0 We’ve gone our own way, taken on our own sense of\u00a0 right and wrong.\u00a0 God calls that sin.\u00a0 Judgement is coming and hope is gone. The trumpet represents utter desperation.\u00a0 Joel is calling us to repent.\u00a0 Examine our lives and move closer to God. Renew the covenant with Him.\u00a0 Just like this season of Lent, Joel’s trumpet was a call to make some changes.\u00a0 A call to repent.<\/p>\n

    Repentance.\u00a0 What’s that mean???<\/p>\n

    Repentance Means Renewal<\/span><\/h3>\n

    It’s possible for people to repent and yet try to recycle or maintain some sinful habit in their lives.\u00a0 Repentance is about confession our sins to God and then seek to live a life that is in keeping with that repentance.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Matt 3:8…..<\/span><\/p>\n

    Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Fruit.\u00a0 Fruit is fresh.\u00a0 Fruit is good.\u00a0 Fruit is something on the vine that wasn’t\u00a0 there before.\u00a0 Fruit is growth.\u00a0 Repentance is an about face; getting rid of the old and dead and replacing it with something new and life giving.<\/p>\n

    In Matthew 9:17, Jesus indicates that radical change is needed; the old ways won’t work:<\/p>\n

    \n

    Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    \u00a0Paul follows the same theme in 2 Corinthians 5:17:<\/p>\n

    \n

    Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
    \nthe old has gone, the new has come!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    How well do we discard things that are a source of grief in our spiritual lives?\u00a0 Do we find ourselves trying to rebuild certain parts of our lives with unfruitful things of the past?\u00a0 To repent, we must be certain we do not repent in part, but that we repent completely.\u00a0 We can’t hang on to some part of our sin and pretend that it doesn’t make any difference.<\/p>\n

    Repentance Means a Change in Heart<\/span><\/h3>\n

    To both the Hebrews and Greeks, the heart was the seat of one’s emotions.\u00a0 Joel tells us to “Rend your hearts and not your garments.”\u00a0 When you “repent”…\u00a0 honestly… do you really make a deep down change of heart, or do you go through the motions.\u00a0 Do you “tear your garments” by saying the right “churchy” things without having a true heart felt sense of remorse?<\/p>\n

    Joel’s trumpet calls us to have a total\u00a0 whole hearted change… not a half hearted kind of\u00a0 “pious fraud.”<\/p>\n

    There are several instances in the Bible where God\u00a0 showed mercy where He could\u00a0 have unleashed His wrath for those who refused to repent.\u00a0 Consider the following examples that show how merciful God was… and is:<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

    \n\t\t\t\t