Sunday Morning Worship Service
by Nathan Whitley
August 1, 2021 · First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Joel 2:23-27, Hosea 4:6, 1 Peter 1:7, Isaiah 53:2, Isaiah 53:8

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/nathan-whitley--sunday-morning-worship-service-188
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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you can start making your way back to your seats and you can have a seat while you're there it's great to be in the house of the lord today with god's people they're singing about the kingdom [Music] a kingdom has a king but then a kingdom with a king has a people and we are subject to him and if a king would come through the town the people would honor the king that's why we're here today we're here to honor the king of kings and the lord of lords the church is not a social club it's not a social club this is not where you come and talk about the week's events though we might do that and fellowship but we are here with one purpose to see the king worshiped and to see more people added to the kingdom that's why we're here that's why we gather here we gather here for that purpose and when we cease to do that we cease to be the church and we cease to be the kingdom but i'm honored to be with in the house of the king today with the king's people one more time would you clap your hands unto the lord and thank god for the kingdom get your bibles your tablets your devices and turn to joel chapter number two and as you are turning there swiping there clicking there looking there we are so glad to have home after uh some some uh procedures we're so glad to have sister cindy lynn back home welcome sister cindy back we're so glad that she's here praying the lord we continue to heal and touch her we're so glad to have a great family here with us this weekend we're so glad to have josh and taylor ellard here with us can we welcome them today we're so glad to have them shannon and hopes family we're so glad to have brother shannon's mom and dad here could we welcome brother and sister ellard here today we're so glad that y'all are here making your way here and we have listen revival is continuing and we have one more to get baptized today at the conclusion of our service we're so glad that melody ali is going to get baptized today oh i think we should give the king praise for that we got another one to get baptized i'm not sure if we need to start serving coffee at the front door as soon as you walk in or a red bull it looks like some of y'all are hungover from sleep and tired from this week but i want you to know i've come to worship today i've come to preach today i've come to see something happen today oh someone say amen joel chapter number two we're going to read it verse number 23 pastor and sister mccool they are in kentucky preaching some services there this weekend sister ashley and myself tomorrow are going to be heading to augsburg germany to be with the krauses they're going to have a youth camp they had to reschedule it from last year since the shutdown so we're going tomorrow so ashley and myself we covered your prayers for a safe trip there and home starting tomorrow and i want to i'm praying that the lord would pour out his spirit there in augsburg with all these churches gathering there i believe a revival is in germany and we can take we've been having and experiencing here and take it with us over there and pray the lord would pour out his spirit in their in those services joel chapter number 22 begin at verse number 23 be glad then ye children of zion and rejoice in the lord your god for he hath given you the former reign moderately and he will cause to come down for you the rain the former rain and the latter rain in the first month and the floors shall be full of wheat and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil look at this verse here and i will restore someone say restore [Music] i will restore to you the years that the locusts hath eaten the canker worm the caterpillar the palmer were my great army which i sent among you and you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the lord your god that hath dealt wondrously with you and my people shall never be ashamed this morning i want to preach to you from the word of the lord restoring the locust years restoring the locust years would you let me pray for a moment father we thank you for the word of god it's a lamp into our feet and a light into our path lord i pray right now that your word would go forth and be good seed that would find good ground upon the hearts of your people that it might bring forth a harvest in our lives but i pray right now that your spirit would touch and comfort those and i pray for a great spirit of restoration here today in jesus name we pray and everyone said amen why don't you clap your hands unto the lord today oh hallelujah restoring the locusts years have you ever lost anything have you ever lost anything oh i've lost some things before haven't you just it just drives you crazy when you figure you lost something you just know you've seen it right i know i've seen it and some and somebody like myself go where did you have it last well if i knew that i would have been there by now i don't know where i had it last i've lost it have you ever broke something that you really really loved something that you enjoyed maybe something of value broke something lost something it just oh it just irritates you doesn't it but you know lots of things can be found and restored money can be found and restored property can be restored broken down cars cracked paint old houses all can be restored relationships can even be restored but there's one thing that can never be restored and that's time time flies and it never returns years pass and we never get them back time brothers and sisters is the currency of life everyone in this room has started their christian walk at different stages of their life no doubt many feel an overwhelming sense of regret over what was lost or regret over wasted time years months weeks and days have been lost never to be regained questions new believers may ask themselves is why didn't i start this sooner why did i wait so long to give my life to christ ever ever ask that of yourself heard someone ask that or perhaps they say this i have so much time to make up yet god promises the impossible in joel 2 25 he says i will restore the years that the locusts has eaten the immediate meaning of this promise is clear god's people had suffered the complete destruction of their entire harvest through swarms of locusts that marched like an insect army through the fields destroying crops multiplying their number as they went for four consecutive years the harvest was completely wiped out god's people were brought to their knees in more ways than one but the lord became jealous for his land and had pity upon his people god said behold i'm sending to you grain wine and oil and you shall be satisfied god said in the coming years your fields will yield an abundance that would make up for what has been lost he says the threshing floor shall be full of grain the vats shall overflow with wine and oil you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied what a wonderful promise to god's people that he would restore what the locusts had destroyed and yet this wonderful promise for those people meant that years of abundant harvest would follow years of desolation brought about by these locusts but god brothers and sisters has put this promise in the bible even for us today locust years there can be locust years in our lives but what do locust years look like for us locust years are years that you just can't get back and they come in all sorts of varieties number one locust years are fruitless years locust years are fruitless years a lot was accomplished in the years the locusts had eaten the israelites hard work after everything was destroyed the people must have thought all of this work and what do we have to show for it some of you know this pain in the world of business a failed venture a bad investment a misguided policy and all the effort that you put in day by day month by month year by year led only to massive disappointment perhaps it's bankruptcy failure to save or simply blowing through your money instead of wisely handling your finances the locus of frivolity ate your harvest perhaps it's broken relationships you might think all these years i spent in that relationship and it's over nothing but fighting and mistrust and what do i have to show for it you think what has come of all of my time and my effort locus years are painful years i'm thinking of those who have lost a loved one you had plans for the future but now you fear the coming years may be empty i'm thinking also of those who live with the illness and the body or in the mind you assume that you would always be able to do what you used to do you have to find a way to live with the disappointment that you cannot do what you used to do these painful locusts are simply beyond your control locus years are selfish years here's a story that's been repeated a myriad of times throughout history there's a person let's just call him john all right who had a spiritual encounter with jesus at a camp meeting or a special service but that experience didn't run deep faith in jesus was just a slice of the pie of his busy life filled with all the things that john wanted to pursue then one day god gets a hold of john he is spiritually awakened and he says to himself what in the world have i been doing there's no substance in my life i really want it to count for jesus i want to live in the power of the spirit i want to make a difference in the world but the locusts have eaten half of my life i've wasted my years on my self here's another familiar story there's a young lady let's just call her sally who was baptized and filled with the holy ghost rather than get involved and serve she instead chooses to only come to church for fellowship and social needs she's into how people see her and is concerned that she's liked then there comes a moment when she realizes that people's opinions and preferences are fleeting and unfulfilling she begins to think there's got to be more for the church so she begins to serve others but feels the overwhelming sense of regret of putting her needs first instead of others for all of that time previously locus years are selfish years are you still there today locust years are loveless years a division comes to a family alienating loved ones children grow up and those years cannot be recovered and marriage quietly endures in which love has been burning low for quite some time you see a couple who are in love and you say i just wish i could be loved like that or perhaps you have not found or met the person you would like to meet and you remain single and you feel like you're just wasting your days without a family or a marriage it feels like everyone else is moving on it feels like life is moving on without you and you can just never get those years back the locusts have just simply eaten them locust years listen to me now are rebellious years perhaps you grew up in the church with many blessings but in your heart you wanted to rebel you didn't fully understand this urge but you gave yourself to it instead of bringing you pleasure rebellion only brought you pain now you look back on those years with regret because the years the locusts have eaten are you hearing me today locust years are misdirected years the path you chose in your career at college was a dead end it just didn't fit often in your mind and sometimes in your conversation you say how did i end up here if only if only i had made that move if only i had taken that opportunity if only i had chosen a different path but the moment the opportunity has passed it's gone you can't go back to it and you're left with locust years has anybody ever felt that way before you might have felt this this you you fit into some of these categories you feel like life has just left you wounded and broken and you feel like your decisions and the path you have taken has been squandered but how about this locust years can be christless years all christless years are locust years i want you to think about where you are at this moment in your life think about have you really made a commitment to jesus ask anyone who came to faith in christ later in life and they will tell you they wish they had come to jesus sooner what a waste what a waste i've squandered it they say something like this how how much foolishness i would have avoided how much more good i might have done through my life these are the locust years and if we're not careful we'll come to church we'll come and be a part of the church or we'll be a partaker of the church or a partaker of of the of the christian experience and yet all the while we're allowing the locusts to eat all of our fruit and to eat all of our harvest brothers and sisters i want one more i didn't put this in my notes and let me tell you one more locus year wasted time wasted time how much time do we waste you know we look have you ever been to a restaurant and this is this i feel the holy ghost right now you you go to a restaurant and you look you look in the back of the restaurant and you see the dumpsters the dumpster is full of leftovers you see the things that they didn't get to cook with you see all the scraps that people left on their table have you ever seen that you see you order so much food you think you know your eyes are bigger than your stomach and you don't you think you're gonna eat all this and you just don't do it so they just throw it away and they throw it in the dumpsters large bags bags bags full of scraps and leftovers just thrown away wasted time brothers and sisters we are putting time into garbage bags as we watch netflix for hours on end and scroll mindlessly through facebook and instagram waiting for the next update waiting for that's why they've changed the algorithms on social media that's why they don't want you to get to the last post they hide things so you'll come back to it later so why how did i miss that because you you were scrolling forever and you're just waiting to find something new some new video some new joke some new update wasting our years locus years in entertainment things that will bring no value and all we are doing is shoving our time into a garbage bag and tossing it out losing all the things that we could do that's locust years do you know what i'm talking about today do you feel what i'm talking about today but take heart take heart be encouraged because there's hope there is hope because god can restore your lost locust years he can restore what you squandered he could restore what life has taken from you he can restore it all he tells them i will restore what the locust has eaten i can re he can take the impossible and make it possible he says you shall know you shall know that i am in the midst of israel let me tell you how you can have your locust years restored through jesus number one you can restore the locust years through communion with god through communion he says you shall know that i'm in the midst of israel and i am the lord your god these people who had their their crops their harvest all their hard work all those years they had they lost everything and the lord is telling them i can restore it and you're going to know me you're going to know me you're going to come into contact with me jesus listen to me now jesus can restore lost years by deepening your fellowship with him this is far greater than just simply becoming religious or being some i'm a spiritual person some might say no this is i know him i have come into contact with him who can restore why don't you ask him for that today why don't you ask him for this type of communion today lord i've spent too many years without you too many years at his distance from you fill my heart with love and gratitude for jesus let the loss of these years make my love for christ greater than it could have ever been restore what the locust has stolen communion listen to me now communion is partaking of prayer and scripture when's the last time you spent a moment in prayer i'm not just talking about sundays i'm not just talking about camp meeting i'm talking about tuning everything else out and beginning to talk to him you know prayer listen to me we make prayers so complicated we make prayer so complicated our western minds have so complicated prayer that we don't even want to pray because we feel like it's such a duty to pray so we have to thou knowest thou knowest thou thee o goddest cometh down to me oh father and we we have to we like we have to talk in in king james version and we don't talk that way if i looked at my wife and said thou art the most beautifulest thing i've ever seen she'd say what no i say baby you are beautiful you are i talk to her so she can understand me you know there's not a code to be broken in prayer you know and let me just let me just just let me just go ahead and step on your pentecostal theology for a moment you don't have to talk in tongues every time you pray there's there's there's we we have been so taught that uh over the years in our movement that you if you're if you're not talking in tongues and seeing visions and seeing angels y'all if an angel showed up when i was praying did you ever read your bible when angels showed up this is the first thing they say don't be afraid god you got to see an angel i don't want to see one i don't have the heart capacity i'm scared but all you have to do in prayer is simply come to him and say lord i love you lord i love you and he understands that he understands i praise you today lord i love you today i know i've lost life and lost years to the locusts and frivolity and wasted time but lord here i am today and i love you i'm thankful for what you've done in my life that's all you had to start with in this prayer and thanksgiving to say i love you lord lord without you i am nothing lord i have allowed the locust to come and eat up my life but lord here i am today to pray and to commune with you the other part of communion is not just prayer but it is taking god's word and opening up and reading it and studying it you need to have more word in your life than just preaching on sundays you need to have more word and scripture in your life than you do this on wednesday nights well i don't understand it but start open it up and start and that's also what we have done in our movements we have allowed to make bible reading so complicated i remember i remember i was a young man probably 15 years old and and i played drums and we had a we had a at our church we had a like a spring conference or a fall conference i can't remember the time of year it was it was just this big deal and i came off the drums and i had heard preaching and teaching all my life grew up around it and i'll never forget that i came down off the platform and i went to go and get a drink at the fountain before i went to go catch my seat and i heard the preacher say let's go to genesis chapter number 15. he would read a verse there he goes now let's go over to revelation chapter number 21 and then he go and he goes let's go now let's go to mark chapter number five and he goes let's go to jared and he hasn't even told us his title yet and i'm thinking i'm 15 years old going i'll never be able to understand that that's why when you listen to me preach i'm staying right here in joel 2. i believe in cross-referencing i believe in going and checking your scriptures and and but listen sometimes we just need to stay where we are and be simple let's not over complicate the scriptures that's not over god does not want you to be ignorant of his word but my people he says to hosea are destroyed for a lack of knowledge so you need to have more than just simply preaching on sundays and we need preaching and teaching on wednesdays you need to get into the word of god every day that's communion and you can restore things in your life scripture brothers and sisters unfold the life's complexities just go read the psalms but it shows all of life's concerns but yet it gives us the remedy it gives us hope that he can restore what has been lost you know what we need more of we need more hope i'm hoping to give you some hope today i want to give you some hope about prayer that if you pray just all you have to do is just talk to him and if you just open up the word of god and just begin to read it and pray it back to him and pray it into your spirit he can begin to restore all the things that the locusts have eaten in your life the next way god can restore locust years is by multiplying your fruitfulness the harvest for these people have been wiped out for four years but god restored the years that the locusts had eaten by giving periodic harvests this makes me think of the parable that jesus talked about a harvest of 30 60 and 100 fold there's a huge difference now between these three types of harvests three years at one hundredfold is as much fruit as a decade at 30-fold so in essence he's saying i can multiply it just like that i can i can take 10 years at 30 or i can take three years at a hundred i can do it because i'm god i can restore what the locusts have eaten i can just do i can take the impossible and make it possible he can make he can give you a harvest of fruitfulness in a moment why don't you just ask him for it you have not because you ask not lord that's just how you pray lord the locusts have eaten too many years of my life you have called us as your disciples to bear fruit that will last too many fruitless years have passed me by now lord i'm asking you give me some years in which more lasting fruit will be birthed than in all the years of small harvests and locust years that's all you do is ask you for it all you gotta do is say lord i've squandered it i lost it i blew it but god i'm asking right now to have some fruit in my life i'm believing for a harvest fruitful years let me stop and just say this i felt this and i wrote this down in my notes you can't have a harvest where you didn't first plant a seed i think i preached this at the beginning of the year some of us are expecting a harvest of joy and happiness and yet we're keep sowing seeds of fear and doubt and unbelief we sow we sow seeds of anger and we're expecting a harvest of joy and happiness you're not going to have that you're going to have to if you want to harvest you're going to have to plant some seed the type of harvest is dependent upon the seed and how much you're willing to sow let me just stop and just say this real quick don't expect to have a fruitful ministry if you only think of christ on sundays well i wish i could preach are you when are you are you teaching me bible studies well no i'm just asking for somebody let me preach in the pulpit good luck you're if you want some seeds of fruitful ministry where are you sowing at what kind of seed are you sowing well i just i'm just believing you know i've heard i've heard people ask me this and i brought them i feel like i'm called to be a pastor i'm like are you sure because you can't even get here on time on sundays oh i'm sorry is that something i said oh i'm going to be evangelists we're going to go eat at shonies after service all the time oh brother whitley whitlam i travel around stay in hotels wear nice suits y'all i i did that i traveled full time as an evangelist and i spent many nights in my car god's honest truth didn't know where my next meal was going to come from i just knew god had called me and you think oh my god i'm going to be an evangelist well can you teach a sunday school class first well i'm not sure if i could do that well can you at least maybe do a discipleship class i mean dealing with all those sinners i want to go preach about revival and stuff oh you know y'all go hear me are you don't don't expect a ministry harvest where you're not willing to sow for ministering and sacrifice for ministry now let me just stop and just get to where everybody's living now don't expect a fruitful spiritual life if you only have communion with christ on sundays well i'm going to pastor for a little while if i have to get up here and pump and prime you to praise and worship if brother jeremy hill has to get up here and all this i think come on you've got to sing it one more time are you just standing like this what are you waiting on what what are you waiting on what that reveals to me what that reveals to me is that you've not worshiped him all week either well brother nate preached about that weeping again oh brother nate preaching about all that again that was really fun let me just stop and just if we're not doing it the whole week and you're expecting some type of angel dust to fall in this room make you a worshiper you need to come ready to worship worship in spirit and in truth i don't we don't need to have to pump you up and turn up the bass drum and turn up the bass guitar sing it one more time oh come on he's worthy of worship whether you feel like it or not and you're not going to have a healthy fruitful spiritual life if you're not doing it outside the walls of this church someone say amen whether you like it or not god can restore locust years by bringing long-term gain from short-term loss the effect of these great trials in your life will be that the tested genuineness of your faith first peter 1 7 may result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of jesus christ to praise glory and honor go to christ because his power has guarded you and kept you through the hardest years of your life thinking about years on closing years that the locust has eaten years that have been taken i think of something that isaiah said in isaiah 53. he says in isaiah 53 i'm sorry brother derek i didn't give this to you for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground but it says in verse number eight and by isaiah 53 he was cut off out of the land of the living here was the lord jesus in the prime of his life he was three years into his ministry at 33 years old you would think that a man launching a new enterprise at the age of 33 has everything in front of him but isaiah says he was cut off he was cut off because he came under the judgment of our sins our sins our grief our sorrows were laid upon him our judgment fell on him our locust swarmed all over him the locust of regret pain sickness sin apathy greed lust jealousy were placed upon him the life of god's tender chute was cut off then on the third day death thought it had won the son of god rose in the third day with eternal life and he offers us those of us who have lost so much because of the locust years and he says i will restore what the locusts have eaten won't you stand with me today jesus will restore what the locusts have eaten he can restore and make new he can make the future days greater than the past days he offers hope and renewal to the devoured locust years of life [Music] won't you come today and the rain of mercy and grace shower over you bringing restoration [Music] i was 25 just about to turn 25 when when christ really got a hold of me [Music] turn me upside down turn me inside out and if you would have known me before that you thought there's no way there's no way god could use someone like him there's just no way and so when he just turned me upside down inside out i just thought okay what can i do for him and so i felt this call to preach [Music] and i told you that story earlier about listening to that one preacher take 15 million texts before he got to his title that youth service and i just remember i had a bible my mom had bought me a uh a schofield study bible and i was so excited man i was so excited to read it but i just kept remembering that moment like i'll never be able to understand it how can i put the puzzle pieces together because i don't know where the pieces are i just felt i just felt so con i just felt so overwhelmed and i'm going to share with you that i've shared this with a few other people and it's embarrassing and if you want to you know just you want to shame me that's fine i'll take it but so i read i thought well where can i start at so i started in matthew i thought i'm starting the new testament i can jesus is here okay let's just start right here that sounds good so i get through 28 chapters of matthew and jesus has died he's been resurrected and he's about to be ascended and i stopped and i said [Music] what's mark going to be about [Music] everything's already happened and now i grew up in a pentecostal church apostolic oneness church heard all the bible stories but no one ever no one ever taught me how to study my bible you were expected to live it so i started to cry because i thought matthew i thought was mark chapter number two is this the second is this part two of the story i was so i was so overcome with guilt and shame that i spent all those years and never opened my bible i remember crying i just remember crying i'll never be able to understand this book and the lord said keep reading just keep reading so i went on to mark i thought well that's the same story as matthew but it's a different way and it took me less time than matthew the only 16 chapters i thought well what's next and the lord said just keep reading i said all right so i got to luke and luke is long it's much longer than any other gospel i thought it's the same story as matthew and mark i i'm picking up on some things now what's john gonna be about and lord just said keep reading so i kept reading got to john got to acts got through the whole new testament in just a matter a short amount of time and the lord's like i showed you if you're willing to just keep reading i'll restore what's been lost we'll make up the time let me tell you something i've probably read this book and i'm not trying to brag i'm not trying to pat myself on the back i have read this book from cover to cover in the last 15 years i've read it no less than 30 times from cover to cover and you know what he's restoring some things some things that others have taken for granted he restored in me he said other people didn't want to they neglected it i'm going to give it to you if you're willing to if you'll just have some communion with me i'll restore what life and bad choices have ate up if you're willing to spend time with me and he'll do the same thing for you today but it takes the moment where you realize i need some restoration and some healing where you give him the guilt and the regret and the shame and you admit i've squandered i've wasted i've thrown it away i've missed out and he says like he said to me just keep reading maybe for you it's just just keep on worshiping maybe for you it's just keep on coming back just keep on trying i can restore what the locusts have won't you lift up your hands right now over the sanctuary maybe you've lost maybe you feel like you've lost maybe you feel like time has has just flown away never to return maybe it's there's some broken relationships maybe there's some sometimes you just life is just pain has come and sickness has come and and trials have come and it's stolen from you and the locusts have come and ate up the things of your life will there be somebody who'll come and make a prayer today and say lord i know that you could restore lord i know that you can restore what the locusts have eaten in my life come on will you come we've already had something who's coming right now why don't you make your way out of your seat right now as they begin to sing he can do the impossible by restoring that which has been lost he can restore that which has been lost in your life and so there's no way there's no possible way yes he can yes he can he can make it he can restore it he can make all things new he can make all things new come on in the name of jesus come on he can restore it oh yes [Music] it's all's not lost all's not lost he can restore it [Music] oh come on he's going to turn it for good come on you lift up your hands right now come on you let that be in prayer love respond unto me oh god restore it well i need some fruitful years god lord jesus