all right you guys ready to grow today ready for life to get better how many of you came to church today expecting for God to do something great in your life thing then you should come you should come amen you know I love it when my kids come to my house and and they expect something good I believe God expected wants you to come to his house expecting something good in your father's house saying ma'am amen we're going to continue today in our study on the subject of as you can see behind me on the big sign I will restore you're gonna read the verse that that statement came out of today that is a literal quote from Scripture that God has made that promise to you we got on this study last week and I shared with you that you know just kind of a as the thought that why am i why am i teaching on this and why is this such a big part of New Testament life because all of us as I said to you last week have discovered that life can be complicated all right the life is oftentimes made up of good times and sometimes bad times and at times in our lives we experience loss in our lives loss of relationships money opportunities health friends even time we lose it oftentimes we realize that this loss occurs because of our own choices many times it's because of the choices of others their choices affect us sometimes it's a combination of my choice and their choice or your choice and someone else's choice combined to bring about a loss and this sometimes those losses come simply because there is a devil in the earth who comes to steal to kill and to destroy and what we discovered is is that it creates in us these losses creating us a void and we end up living our life with a sense of loss and regret and yet we live but what we do oftentimes is we just learn to live with it and we think that we've got to just carry this void this hurt this dark room in our house with us when in fact God has willed and purposed and planned restoration for every one of you to bring restoration to your life it's his will and his plan you'll remember that I told you last week that all of this teaching was birthed out of a statement the Lord made to me for our church many years ago went through a terrible period a 6-year period went for three years we went down down down down down until we went from nineteen hundred and attendance on Sunday down to nine hundred we'd saved a half a million dollars in the ten years prior to that to pay for the land across the street we had a 1 million dollar balloon note that we had to pay at the end of those three years the half a million was gone and we still owed the million dollars it looked like we were gonna lose everything I was had kind of mentally prepared myself to have to close the church I mean it was terrible time and then at the end of three years it began to turn and it took us three years to get back to where we had been six years prior and for a long time after that I lived my life saying to myself that I was I had six years of my life stolen we had six years of our church life stolen and I used it to motivate me and actually drove myself probably further than I should have driven myself because I was so determined in my own effort to try to get that six years back but here's what loss does to you as an example I'm not trying to I know some of you can talk more about this even better than I can but what I found when you live with loss with a sense of loss instead of with believing God for restoration is that even in your happy moments those happy moments aren't as joyful as they could be because that loss keeps coming up into your mind and it continues to rob you of all the joy of your life no matter even how good your life may be it's still being wrong of you because you carried that sense of loss that regret with you into your future I told you that on the day that the night that we moved into this building it was an incredible night some of you were here that night you were in one of the two services it was a marvelous night cold remember how cold it was on December the 31st freezing cold and we had two dedications services that night the building was way beyond full like super max over max we won't even talk about how many people were here it was it was it was spectacular and I remember I came in the first service and I was standing right over there and the room was completely full the the the the vomit orys they call him it could have come up with a better name for those right I call him the exits and the entrances right I don't know anybody vomiting when they come into the church so you know it's just I'm sorry that's just the way I was not now I've planted that in your head I'm sorry so you know the entrances and the exits for full people were standing with spectacular I had a bunch of my friends over here and they all looked at me some of them had tears in their eyes even and they said Charles this is spectacular and you know what it was an incredible night and I was grateful but yet that loss just jumped up in my mind has anybody know what I'm talking about it just jumps it in your mind and I said we should have been here six years before even that night I remember we went home we're selling I Rochelle was so excited night and I just told her she was so happy and I just told her I said yeah but we should have been here six years before never forget she looked at me she said well Charles were here now but you know what happens to you is that that loss anybody know what I'm talking about that loss just keeps stealing from you just keeps taking more out of your life it just keeps taking from you and so a few months after that I was at a conference and I told that story and I told how I felt and when I was driving back that night the Lord spoke to me and said why do you continue to think believe and speak this way if you will believe me I will restore to you all the years and all the fruit that was stolen from you and you will live your life with satisfaction instead of regret that sent me on a journey to back all of that up scripturally just and it's one thing for you to believe God spoke to you the other thing for you to back it up scription if you can't back it up scripturally then God didn't speak to you alright and so the first place I ended up well I took you there last week with ax to the third chapter and I'll summarize for you Peter speaking to I told you last week on the day of Pentecost it wouldn't was a few days after that but he was speaking and he said that that in between the time that Jesus came the first time then he comes the second time that God had declared that everything that can be restored shall be then Jesus will come back so you and I are living in that time period when God wants to bring restoration to our lives it is a New Testament promise a New Testament reality and I know for some of you right now you're thinking pastor that's great but you don't know what I lost no I don't I don't know what you lost I don't know some of you had your innocence stolen from you and you were a child I'm sorry for that I'm sorry that you came in contact with evil people I apologize to you know restoration doesn't mean God's gonna take you back to when you were eight and you don't come in contact with that but listen because your head cannot define what restoration is don't allow doubt to rob you from God's definition of restoration in that area of your life okay I'm not trying to belabor the point but let me say it because maybe it'll help somebody listen I'm believing for restoration in my life like you're believing for yours I also understand that I'm not going home today and Rachelle's going to be in my house so does that mean there is no restoration no there is restoration for me there is restoration for you but don't let your head say well that can't happen so there's no no no let God define that restoration in your life let him define it but don't let your mind stop the promise from coming to pass in your life does that help anybody Amen I don't know what that means to me I don't know what it may mean to you in the area of your loss of your hurt I don't know but that doesn't mean that God can't bring restoration to your life doesn't mean he can't do it so let God be bigger than your doubt amen until you know what the fact kill the doubt - shut up and open your heart up to the bigness of your father amen now in some areas of restoration you can see right well pastor you know we went through a bad turn when we lost our house well God can get you a new house do you know how simple that is for God come on he split the Red Sea he raised Jesus from the dead he forgave your sins he can get you another house they haven't quit building houses well pastor my credit God can do things with credit there's all kinds of people in here this shouldn't have been able to buy stuff that have stuff today because God did something a Miss told me there are things that like that right I mean there's some of these things are you you can see all right so turn to your Bible now with me to the book of Joel the second chapter Joel chapter 2 now Joel is kind of at the end of the Old Testament the fastest way to find it is to go to the table of contents that's what I did any minute and then put a marker cuz we're gonna come back we're gonna be here in it this weekend next week are you ready to jump into the new stuff today Joel chapter 2 while you're turning there let me make this figma to you if you found Joel to once you find it look back up at me let me make a couple of statements to you we can we need and we should change our expectation to restoration instead of loss you know what when Rachelle left me I told my friends the guys that I'm accountable to you know I have friends and then I have friends that I'm accountable to you know guys that watch over my soul like Hebrews says and and I told my friends I said listen I'm making a promise I had them all in a room basically together except for Brian I had to tell Brian separately but the other guys that kind of had them all there and I I told all them I said look I'm telling you all this and I'm and I want you to watch over me and I said and I've made it I made up my mind I made a promise to myself and I make a promise you I've already told my kids I said I'm not gonna go through life and this is the way I defined it because this happened to me I'm not gonna go through life with a limp and I said that I want you guys that if you see me acting that way I want you to give me a good swift kick and they all went whoa Charles you know okay I said no I said I'm not gonna be this way I had to find it I said I'm not gonna be that guy that was that guy but is now this guy I said I don't want people behind my back when I walk away to go Oh remember when Charles was that guy but now he's this guy I said I'm not gonna be this guy I'm gonna be that guy and then now the reason why I said that was because I was believing for restoration does that make sense to you right not of my own will no it takes Jesus in your life believing his promises and drawing upon his strength to cause you to get well to be happy again to be restored have you found Joel - alright let me show you who he's talking to look at verse 15 blow the trumpet in Zion Zion is the Old Testament name for what we call the church blow the trumpet in Zion so he said waking his Church up all right now jump with me over to verse 23 he said be glad then ye children of Zion or you children of the church so he's speaking to you and me he's talking to us in the life at this time he said be glad then he children of Zion and rejoice in the Lord your God the word Lord there is Yahweh which is redeemer deliverer Savior so he's talking to those of us that are in relationship with Jesus Christ the church us in this room today the New Testament believer God says rejoice be glad give God thanks amen in your relationship with Jesus so he said rejoice look what he said be glad you children of Zion rejoice in Jesus your God for he has given you the former rain moderately and he will cause and he will cause to come down on you for you the rain the former rain and the latter rain in the first month now in the Bible rain is either literal or figurative here it is figurative and when it's de figurative it represents God's blessings and times plural of joy so we sit throughout your life God is gonna rain on you blessings and times of joy so that's where he starts right with blessings and times of joy not just one time 20 years ago the former rain no no the former and the latter so it's just gonna rain through your life hallelu all right that is God's spoken word for us in the New Testament the fruit of it is 24 and your floor shall be full of wheat are you gonna live fruitful lives then the fat shall overflow with wine and oil verse 25 and I will restore to you I love that I love that personal pronoun you he could have said and I will restore to them and then we would have all debated who the them is he took the them out and put the you in and that you is you huh he said and I will restore to you now remember we learned last week in Exodus 20 when God was defining restitution under the I mean restoration under the law God said when you come before Elohim for restoration say to him that is mine so now I read to you today God said I will restore to you so say it with me that is mine one more time like you mean it that is mine amen amen so he said and I will restore to you the years the years now remember how I ended up in here it's because of those six years right and God said to me I will restore to you the years that you lost and the fruit you'll get it all back and you'll live with satisfaction instead of regret all right so here he says I will restore to you the years I think it's important for a few of you in here because a few of you your loss goes way back your hurt goes a long time ago and you've been going through life or you've got your house and you got a room that you won't go in so there's too much hurt in there and now Jesus is to you in the New Testament in this room today he has come to you and he's saying to you all of those years I'm gonna restore now your heads gonna tell you how tell your head and look at him and say that is mine amen that is mine alright let's continue now watch what he said he said and I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten interesting term the locusts you know God could have talked about tornadoes winds floods storms rains disasters war but he picked the locusts now I'm just nerdy enough to watch National Geographic and those kind of stations and history you know on occasion alright I don't watch everything but some of it so when I saw this I began to do a lot of research about locusts I'm probably gonna give you more than you care to know alright but well I won't give you as much as I know but I'm gonna try to help you understand it locusts are very interesting one of the things that's interesting the part of the world where locusts manifest and thank God we don't haven't been attacked in El Paso all right but in parts of the world Africa and other parts of the world India you know they had they deal with locusts and what's interesting about locusts is is that they they suddenly appear and then they're suddenly gone they just they're there and then they're gone and when they're gone they leave devastation behind they will strip all of the leaves off of trees they'll eat all of the wheat in the field all of the apples all of the food they'll eat everything they've been known to eat the bark off of trees while they're there I saw a documentary one time where some locusts of a swarm of locusts came through and there's millions of them and a swarm minions alright one of them they estimated one time had a billion all right it was so huge and and and it came up and the farmers left their plows in the field they had wooden ploughs and when they came back though would of the plow was eaten it was gone all there was was the metal in the ground I mean they'd bring absolute devastation okay comes out of nowhere and it's gone you know I was I was studying this yesterday and I went to lunch and I picked up Dale Paso Times and I was reading it and I they're having a trial when they're about to have a trial for something that happened last year of Christmas that I've forgotten about some of you may remember it but on Christmas Eve of last year two three three twenty year olds a brother and a sister and a fiance were in a car on Christmas Eve and a guy who was drunk and was out on probation for an already drunk driving charge I'm still waiting for somebody to explain to me how this continues to happen ran a red light and killed all three of them in their 20s kill them all not trying to play on that other than to say that when I read that and I was reminded of it I thought about the locusts when they got up that morning none of them thought that was it this was the end of their life and yet the locusts came through could we say amen to that Wow so that's the nature of locusts the nature and God is making us aware of that right that they come suddenly they disappear suddenly in the Bible locust represents a day a time or a season of devastation a day a time or a season remember when I was describing that 6-year period that three-year period in particular was a season what in a day it wasn't a time it was a season of devastation and yet even if you've come through a season of devastation God wants to bring restoration to your life all right now watch what he says they're learning anything good huh and he says and I restore to you the years the locusts is eaten the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the Palma worm and the King James says says my great armor a centum you but you know this is not correctly translated what he should have said was the great army that came among you because God does not tempt us and try any man could of here gunning man James the first chapter okay so God did not sin the army was poorly translated but it was an army that came and look what it look what he says so he says I will restore what the locust has eaten and you shall eat in plenty see that's not supposed to happen when the locusts come through when the locusts come through what comes next is famine and death that's what comes through it's bad enough the locusts comes but it's what they leave behind is famine and death because there's nothing to eat they strip everything they take everything away and yet God said even what the locust has eaten you will eat in plenty and look what he said and be satisfied remember what God said to me and you'll live your life with satisfaction instead of regret so here is the promise now let's break this down look at verse 25 with me again and he said I will restore to you the years that the locust is eaten the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the farmer worm the great army that came among you all right now when I looked at this years ago I thought that God said okay there's the locusts and then there's this thing called the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the Palma worm these are different kind of pests but as I studied it I discovered that in fact they are not they are different stages of the locust development coming against your life different stages look at that listen to me now this is going to help you a lot okay in the next few minutes all right so here I believe that what God is showing us is is that no matter what stage loss is at in your life no matter what stage the locust is attacking your life God can stop it and bring restoration to you no matter what stage it may be but I believe he's also telling us that we need to be aware of this locust that's in our house so that we believe for restoration instead of letting me letting it grow to full maturity all right let me explain to you what I mean that'll make it'll make sense to you he said first said the locust comes the cankerworm the cankerworm is the creeping stage of the locust this when it doesn't have its wings yet all right it kind of just creeps along boy what a descriptive word right creeping destruction okay this creeping destruction to make no mistake just because they can't fly doesn't mean that locust won't eat that locust is eating it's taking the bark off and stripping these trees is climbing on the apples it's getting the fruit it's getting the wheat in the field right it's there it just moves slow and creeps along and you know when I saw that you know I just became aware in my life that I need to pay attention or maybe this will help hope it helps you there you need to pay attention you know and I've seen this cannot just be real trying to help people today and not not worry about stepping on toes all right listen I've seen this happen and this happens it may be happening in your life today or somebody you know right that that locust is in your marriage in the creeping stage okay it's not full-out destruction it's not wholesale destruction of your marriage but you can feel it back in down you can feel it losing some life you can feel it losing some energy you know what's happening to you you've got that creeping stage right that locust has creeped into your home maybe your health right that creeping stage of that locust is in your life maybe it's your relationship with your kids or maybe it's your business maybe it's your dream about what life is going to be and yet now there's something over here gnawing on your chewing right am i heaven by dick you haven't lost anything nobody's gone to the attorney but it's not what it was it's that creeping stage of the locust in your life creeping stage and we've been taught well it's not that bad I mean nobody's moved out you know I still feel pretty good I don't believe God wants you to live with pretty good huh that creeping is that make sense to you today right that creeping stage of the locust rights not full-out destruction but if you don't deal with it it's gonna mature to full-out destruction just cuz it doesn't have his wings today doesn't mean the wings aren't in there the DNA is in that locust to become the full-on flying beast all right second stage caterpillar the caterpillar is the second stage it's bigger it moves quicker it's more destructive still can't fly but it's bigger moves quicker more destructive eats more consumes more not wholesale destruction yet but it's on its way right the nature of loss is the nature of devastation to nature of loss in your life right it's the nature of it it may start with the day grow into a week and becomes a season Wow then the palm worm the palm worm the Bible dictionary says is the gnawing locust the gnawing locust listen to this which usually doesn't destroy or devour the crop but affects it so that this doesn't devour the crop but it affects the crop hmm your marriage isn't over but it's not what it could be or what it once was hmm why because those little gnawing locusts are in your house chomp chomp chomp it's quite descriptive isn't it I really appreciate this kind of clarity from God personally I love this I love it when God expands it out for me because I need all the wisdom I can get all the insight it's amazing huh this knowing so lick the humidity doesn't destroy the crop doesn't devour the crop just to fix it and God says to you and to me today I don't care what stage devastation is in your life recognize it and believe for me to bring restoration to your life you don't have to wait until it's completely wiped out amen recognize it address it right call it what it is go over there to that Palma warm and step on it go over to that caterpillar and step on it right tell it no more look at restoration and say that is mine this is not mine amen and don't put up with it anymore change believe God pastors gone too far no it hasn't there's restoration for your life amen all right let's continue on did that make sense to you all right he said the great army which was sent among you write this down the word army there means strength wealth but write this down those strong for war those strong for war those strong for war I'm sure there are many people in this room today along with me could will tell you some of you younger younger guys in here listening to us we're gonna help you there are people thank god there's not a multitude of them but there are people in this world that you will meet that are strong for war it is their nature it is their personality to want to fight they like to fight they in joy fighting they live to fight they are strong for it they enjoy it and if you encounter them you need to be careful with them you need to watch out for their strong for war now all of us at times need to be strong in war but as a difference between being strong in war and being strong for war I am NOT for war but I can be strong in it if I have to be but here he said these are strong for war can I help some young people in here today all of you should say that's me faster amen I'm young all right so anyway let me help some of you that are just dating and all that good stuff if you are dating somebody right now that is loves to argue with you and has to fight with you and turns everything into a fight and always has to have their way and won't give it up and won't back down and can't change anything run from that bus all but pastor he's so cute in his jeans he won't be looking cute at three o'clock in the morning when he has been hammering on you for six hours verbally trying to beat you down for six hours he not gonna be looking too thin and maybe then you'll remember that Sunday morning when I told you to walk no I didn't say to walk I told you to run amen and it's not just guys some some of your sisters in here I mean you're like the reincarnation of Atilla the Hun you've come a long way baby I think even the book of Proverbs talks about don't live in a house with the contentious man or woman well I won't be contentious if they just admit that I'm always right ain't nobody always right it's only been one man on the planet that was always right and your name is not Jesus well it may be but you're not that one try to always clarify that in El Paso amen all right does that make sense to you almost done right look look at the next verse man I love this you're gonna love this watch this now look at look at look at the thing right God said I love the way I love the way he puts all this together he stalks off with rain he talked to all about your floors being full and your fats overflowing with wine and oil then he talks about the destruction in 25 and then he comes back in 26 and he says all right I will restore so the destruction comes I will restore the destruction comes I will restore and you you who you that he said he would restore to and you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of Jesus your God Yahweh Jesus your God you will praise the name of Jesus right you will praise the name of Jesus not not when the locust is there but after when God is restored to your life it's gonna bring restoration right he's gonna bring restoration it's gonna produce thanks to you thanks to him right you will praise the name of the Lord God watch these two statements I'll give this to you're gonna love it and you shall eat in plenty we see after the locusts comes there's nothing to eat but God said because of restoration you'll eat in plenty now I told you I told you last week about a guy that searched me out here in town don't come to church but these guys that knows of me more than he knows me and and he searched me out and he found me like a couple of weeks ago and we were talking in a place here in town and he had had terrible loss in his life a loss of a loved one and and he said to me said Charles I'll never be happy again I I just can't imagine living he said I pray everyday that God would just let me die there's probably a few people in here that have felt that one probably so I've got a friend of mine not this guy but another friend of mine that she's going through a terrible trial in his life right now and he told another friend of ours that he was praying every day that God would just let him die that's quite a statement isn't it and yet into that into that kind of devastation God says I will restore and you will eat in plenty and you will be satisfied and you will praise Jesus for your life the life that you have after the restoration he's not asking you to praise him for the locusts he's telling you to get ready to praise him for the restoration that's gonna come into your life write this down you know me I gotta look upwards right III could assume me years ago that I knew what things meant I was shocked when I saw what it wasn't it said what it meant eat in plenty because I thought it meant eat in plenty that's what I thought I'm like okay I'm into that that's cool all right so he said eat in plenty but it's not what he said listen what he said he said right so so the devastation will come and God said you'll eat in plenty but the literal Hebrew takes he says you will eat up space you will eat up space no let's let your mind grab it you will eat up space you see what lost us lost makes you live small like that guy told me today I can never be happy again right and I looked at him and I said no I said I'm gonna pray God's gonna bring restoration to your life and you're gonna eat up space and in other words instead of your life being here your life is gonna start you're gonna start eating up space your life is gonna start expanding out you're gonna start eating up come on you're gonna start eating up space huh come on change your thinking right I'm gonna eat up space come on I'm gonna eat my life is gonna eat up can you see your life can you see your life eating up space amen you're gonna eat up space never remember remember the context that I studied this the first time the first time I study this right we were down to 900 all right actually we've gone back we run a couple thousand then remember what God said to me said I'll restore back to you so he said to you'll lead up space well that was when we were in that building and from that building we moved to this building and now we have grown to the size we are and more coming all the time every service we have new people coming every month we have 100 people join the church we're fixing to build that new campus over there and once we build that campus we're gonna feel God's going to fill that one up and then we'll go build another one and then we'll go build another one and then we'll go bill I don't know how far it's gonna go amen why because we're eating up space it's not just for us it's for you he said I will restore to you to you pastor my business used to be here now it's here I guess they got to learn to live with it why are you learning to live with it why can't you go get back to your space why can't you eat up that space amen it also means to lay claim to space lay claim to it what does lay claim say that's fine that's fine that's mine not you like that if you like that you're gonna love this cuz then he said and you'll be satisfied you'll be satisfied you'll be satisfied get ready that word satisfied are you ready it means the following it means you will have too much and you will enjoy his presence you will have too much and you will enjoy his presence you will have too much you will have passed that's not possible the locusts came through there's no fruit on the trees there's nothing in the field right there's nothing in my house I don't have anything L got said you're gonna have too much and you'll enjoy his presence you'll have too much and you will enjoy his presence you'll have too much come on I don't know what it means to you I don't know what it means to me it doesn't matter if I know what matters is he knows amen what matters is he knows and I just say yes Lord that's mine having too much is mine enjoying your presence is mine yeah I was out the other day in the city and I have the weirdest things happened to me if you figured that out people I'm telling you I know some of you think I make this stuff up I don't have to make it up so I had this guy walk up to me add a couple months ago and I could tell when he was coming at me that he was not a pleasant person had that kind of look on his face you know like he came walking on same way that Charles Neiman guy aren't you no way yeah and he said when asked me the question I said okay he said so how many people do you have in your church now and I didn't even give him the real number I just gave him a part of the real number and I told him I said oh we're about 20,000 members and he literally said this he said you have too much and I win Cory to God this one said you have too much and you know I stood there not looked at him and I just went I know a lot of you waiting for a smart aleck answer right I'm just I had a million of them in my head that comes to me very natural and I just looked at it and finally he just walked off house tell us am i back one of my friends in Princeton why didn't you say something I said why cast your pearls before the swine but then I don't have to I don't have we don't have to we don't have to explain or justify or apologize but see what God - now remember remember remember that comes from the time when it looked like we were gonna go under I'm telling you believe God for restoration in your life and God will bring you to the place to where you will say or somebody around you will say wow you have too much and you'll say I have so much because I have the presence of God that's it give him the best hangs up you're gonna give all day today stand your feet wouldn't be place