Sermon on God will Restore our lost Years | Papers Sociology of Religion

Leonard Theological College

Faculty Evaluator : Rev. Dr. Naveen Rao

Text : Joel 2:25

Student Preacher : Kamlesh Peter

Chapel Preaching on : 28.03.2021

THEME: GOD WILL RESTORE OUR LOST YEARS

Greetings: Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Indeed, it

is a great privilege and honour for me to stand before you all and preach the Word of God.

First of all, I would like to thank God almighty for choosing me for His ministry and enabling

me to preach His Holy Word. I would like to thank our respected Principal Rev. Dr. Naveen

Rao and all the faculty members for their valuable support and guidance throughout my

theological journey. I also thank my family, my friends, my classmates and to my sponsoring

body Mumbai Regional Conference for their valuable support and prayers.

Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our heart, be acceptable in your

sight, O Lord, our strength, and our redeemer, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Introduction:

When God created the universe from day one to day seven and from that time the time has

begun. God is the author and creator of time and allotted the time, which planet will take how

long time for one orbit. God also allotted the time and season for each crop, even what will be

the time for the waves of the seas God has decided. But in between some natural calamities

happens like Corona Pademic, when the bad years comes, but God is willing to restore that

bad time into good. And hence our topic for today’s meditation, “God will restore our lost

years,” by this we are going to gaze into the mystery of an amazing promise of God. It is a

mystery because restoring years is obviously impossible. We lose money and there are

different ways in which money can be restored. Property can be restore, we can restore an old

house, relationships can be restored, but one thing cannot ever be restored is time. But our

God is the God of restoration. When we read Leviticus Ch. 25 in that God had made the Year

of Jubilee, which came after every 49th, means Sabbatical Year, the year of restoration, in

which the people were released from their debts, from slavery and also their property

returned back to them. So, in this today’s meditation we going to hear a mystery, because

God is promising the impossible by saying, “I will restore to you all your lost years.”

Now, if we see the Background of this text or promise, God’s people had suffered the

complete destruction of their entire harvest. It had come through attack of locusts with their

great armies and had destroyed the entire harvest of the country. Not in one year but in four

continuous years. And because of this, the people of the promised land came on their knees

and asked mercy and forgiveness. And we can see the God’s answer to these people, in Joel

chapter 2 verse 25, where God says, I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten.

Now, everything that has been preserved in the Bible is not simply for the people to whom it

was first spoken long ago, but if it is in the Bible, God has put it for us too. So, the question

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Leonard Theological College Faculty Evaluator : Rev. Dr. Naveen Rao Text : Joel 2: Student Preacher : Kamlesh Peter Chapel Preaching on : 28.03. THEME: GOD WILL RESTORE OUR LOST YEARS Greetings: Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Indeed, it is a great privilege and honour for me to stand before you all and preach the Word of God. First of all, I would like to thank God almighty for choosing me for His ministry and enabling me to preach His Holy Word. I would like to thank our respected Principal Rev. Dr. Naveen Rao and all the faculty members for their valuable support and guidance throughout my theological journey. I also thank my family, my friends, my classmates and to my sponsoring body Mumbai Regional Conference for their valuable support and prayers. Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our heart, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength, and our redeemer, in Jesus’ Name, Amen. Introduction: When God created the universe from day one to day seven and from that time the time has begun. God is the author and creator of time and allotted the time, which planet will take how long time for one orbit. God also allotted the time and season for each crop, even what will be the time for the waves of the seas God has decided. But in between some natural calamities happens like Corona Pademic, when the bad years comes, but God is willing to restore that bad time into good. And hence our topic for today’s meditation, “God will restore our lost years,” by this we are going to gaze into the mystery of an amazing promise of God. It is a mystery because restoring years is obviously impossible. We lose money and there are different ways in which money can be restored. Property can be restore, we can restore an old house, relationships can be restored, but one thing cannot ever be restored is time. But our God is the God of restoration. When we read Leviticus Ch. 25 in that God had made the Year of Jubilee, which came after every 49th, means Sabbatical Year, the year of restoration, in which the people were released from their debts, from slavery and also their property returned back to them. So, in this today’s meditation we going to hear a mystery, because God is promising the impossible by saying, “I will restore to you all your lost years.” Now, if we see the Background of this text or promise, God’s people had suffered the complete destruction of their entire harvest. It had come through attack of locusts with their great armies and had destroyed the entire harvest of the country. Not in one year but in four continuous years. And because of this, the people of the promised land came on their knees and asked mercy and forgiveness. And we can see the God’s answer to these people, in Joel chapter 2 verse 25, where God says, I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten. Now, everything that has been preserved in the Bible is not simply for the people to whom it was first spoken long ago, but if it is in the Bible, God has put it for us too. So, the question

that we have to ask as we come to this great promise is what do the locust years look like for us? So, in this way the first point is:

1. Biblical Study of Locust Years: The locust years, wasted years, lost years are the years that we cannot get back. They come in many varieties such as, a. Fruitless years : Some of us know what that’s like in business, a failed project, a bad investment, a misguided policy and all of the effort that we have been putting in day by day, week by week and month by month and may be year by year and we thought that it was going to lead to something very very marvellous and what it’s led to has been massive disappointment and we say the locusts have eaten our all these hardworking years and what has come of all our effort after all that work. Locust years can be b. Painful years : Sorrowful years, years of suffering. The people, who have lost their loved one and they had plans for the future. They had it think out in their mind as to what this next year’s they are going to be like. They hope that these years would be full of joy and happiness, but now their whole life has changed and they find themselves feeling that they may be very empty. Locust years can be c. Loveless years: When there is a division comes to a family, there is a separation from a loved one. Years of lost children who have now grown up. Some of us know what it is to experience a marriage in which love has been burning low for many years. But after so many years when they realised that it was just a misunderstanding, they felt very sad for those lost loveless years. Lastly, Locust years can be d. Christless Years: Locust years can be considered for those people who has not yet made a wholehearted commitment to Jesus Christ. If we ask anyone who became a Christian later in life, they will tell us that they wished they had become a Christian Sooner. They will testify that how much foolishness they would have avoided if they had come to Christ earlier, how much more good might have been done. Now the question is, that how can God do the thing that is humanly impossible and restore the all lost year? So, to explain this our second point is: 2. Theology of Time: Whenever we speak about the years, it’s all about the time. Now, the ancient Greeks had two words for time, Chronos and Kairos. The word Chronos, which literally means 24 hours a day, chronological or quantitative time, means measuring time by seconds and minutes and days and weeks. It just like a logic we start from one to five, one, two, three, four, five. But it cannot jump from one to four or one to five. Now, the Kairos means Significant time or qualitative time. It is a divine time, time of God. Kairos time can jump anywhere from one to five, one to three or it can go back from five to one or five to three. God is never future, never past, He is always present. Present in sense there is not time for Him. According to Stephen

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