Book of Joel - The Pattern of Sound Teaching

MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE TODAY FROM THE BOOK OF JOEL

  Please watch the Video Before Reading the Lesson Plan    

Church: Sardis                                   Lesson 30 out of 39 lessons            Theme: Holy Spirit

Background Information

* We asked in the book of 1 Kings, “How can the creation know how to accept the Holy Spirit?

* In Esther, we were awakened to learn how the world will try to confuse the message of Jesus’ sacrifice by making laws that will satisfy the flesh.

* In Isaiah, we learned from the Spirit of the Lord how to remember to be a witness who can understand how to present our body as a living sacrifice by responding to the calling of the Holy Spirit.

Statement of Faith to Say Amen to for the Book of Joel:

I can be a witness who lines up my testimony with the Chief Cornerstone (the sacrifice Christ made) by remembering to accept God’s grace by teaching each new generation about the oncoming day of the Lord.

Essential Question

Does the world teach us how we are to teach future generations about the oncoming day of the Lord?

Book of Joel

Have students read pages 150-153 in The Pattern of Sound Teaching.

After students read the information ask them, "What do you want to talk about?"

Remember the Issue:

Realizing that Jesus made a sacrifice for our sin and how He can make an intersession for us is important. The world is not teaching us how to look to Jesus’ sacrifice and to be prepared to suffer and be ridiculed in order to pass the Holy Spirit on to the next generation.

Remember the Truth Jesus Brought:

We are responsible for teaching our family the lesson of how the living water of the Holy Spirit will satisfy us, and people who are satisfying the flesh will not go on forever.

Remember the Rock God Established:

Joel tells people to pass down the message to the fourth generation because the day of the Lord will be a day like nothing that has ever happened before. Children are told to tell their children about this story. Then, their children are told to tell their children, and their children are to pass it down to their children to another generation. The remnant will be what is left after the palmerworm, locust, cankerworm, and caterpillar destruction. Only a small remnant of people will be saved. The final generation will eat everything that is left. It will begin by cutting, then swarming, then hopping, and ending with destruction.

The message is to drunkards. Joel says, “Wake up, drunkards!” When people are drunk with alcohol, they are not filled with the Holy Spirit. Joel says the grapevines are their idols. Wine will not satisfy us; only living water will satisfy us. This is the message we need to teach our family. When people are in an untoward situation, they need to call on the Holy Spirit and have a revival. The Holy Spirit is a comforter. If someone is in an untoward situation, the Holy Spirit is their only hope. An untoward situation is a situation that someone did not cause, and they have no control over what is happening. When there is no food because everything has burned up, and the water has dried up, the question will be how will people act. Will they bear fruit? The only thing we know about Joel is that he was the son of Pethuel (Pethuel bore good fruit).

The question is, “How do you react when you are in a situation that you can’t control?” During a crisis, a person’s true character is revealed. Will you turn to wine? Or will you turn to the Holy Spirit?

When people are in an untoward situation, they need to repent and call on the Holy Spirit in a revival.

The Bible tells us that the trumpet will blow, and people will know that the day of the Lord will be coming soon. First, dark, gloomy, and thick clouds will cover the Earth. Then a massive army will come and lay waste to the Earth. This army looks like horses that gallop in perfect sequence. When people see them, their faces will reek of horror. The army will climb over the wall and into the windows. The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars will not shine any longer.

This is the most awful day in the history of the Earth, and it is utter destruction. Joel says that there will never be a day more awful than this to the end.

Even in this time of utter horror, the Lord tells people to come to Him with a true heart by fasting, weeping, and mourning. The Lord will be jealous for His land and pity His people.

The Lord will then save a remnant in Jerusalem and Zion. All the nations will be called into the valley of Jehoshaphat for judgment. The Lord will judge all the people.

There will be an untoward generation. It is a generation of people who are offensive, and who cause people around them to be unhappy and miserable.

People who surrender their heart will be the remnant that call on the Holy Spirit. They will be saved on the day of the Lord. We are to hold onto what we have and be baptized in the spirit. We are to live by the spirit and not the flesh. What is the fate of people who blaspheme the Holy Spirit? This is an unpardonable sin. God’s wrath.

An amazing thing will come to pass on that day. The mountains will drop down new wine and the hills will flow with milk. Judah will live forever! Jerusalem will go from generation to generation! The Lord will avenge the innocent blood that was shed. The law created an awareness of sin. The law cannot make us surrender our heart to give us a new spirit. People will be saved on the day of the Lord who have a heart that is weighed and measured in the spirit and not found wanting.

Activity:

Do the BLOG below.

Conclusion:

Does the world teach us how to call on the Holy Spirit when we are surrounded by an untoward generation? Does the world teach us about the day of the Lord and how to be saved by Jesus?

Next Lesson:

In the next Lesson, Habakkuk is the prophet who communicates with the Holy Spirit, and he learns that at an appointed time there will be wrath of woes for people who are living by the flesh. When

someone does not listen to the Holy Spirit; they will face God’s wrath. A sinful behavior that bears lukewarm faith is to listen to the Jezebel spirit and blaspheme the Holy Spirit which is an unforgivable sin.

BLOG: Write a statement of faith on how the Spirit of God will fill and sanctify your heart by cultivating and conditioning the self-controlled fruit of the spirit that is beginning to ripen with modesty that loves the brotherhood of Christ, fear God, and honor the king to come into fruition to bear witness with the Spirit of God to fill the third spiritual stone pillar of sanctification in the church of Sardis.

PROMP STARTER (optional)

My statement of faith to be sanctified through building the third foundational pillar of sanctification in the church of Sardis is defined as always being ready to __________________________ against ___________________________with the fifth line of defense which is _________________________________________. The goal of sanctification is Christlikeness. Christlikeness is where the fruit of the spirit begins to come into fruition of the spirit that can be identified as ________________________________.

Melody's Statement of Faith (I modeled my statement of faith; you can use it for yours and tweak it if you want):

Sanctification is a work in progress where being a credible witness with a spirit like Isaiah will grow into being Christlike through bearing witness with the Spirit Himself to give me modesty through understanding that I am a child of God. My statement of faith is that I will bear witness with the Spirit Himself because I will have a spirit that will share the Lord’s agenda with the next generation by being prepared to be ridiculed for speaking against satisfying the flesh. The Spirit Himself will prune away branches that are not coming into fruition. I will need to continue the pattern of justification and sanctification, and when the Spirit Himself bears witness with me, it increases my faith in Jesus; I can feel it!

Because your statement of faith is an important part of salvation, please write a statement of faith on how the Spirit of God will cultivate and condition your fruit of the spirit that is beginning to ripen into coming into fruition to fill the third stone pillar of sanctification in Jesus' Church of Sardis, in the comments section below.