What is the most difficult time you have had to face in your life?  Have you ever gone without food, clothing, or shelter?  Do you know what it means to have nothing?

In the book of Joel, Chapter 1 verses 1 -4, Joel tells the people of Judah that a great devastation is coming like never seen before.  This disaster is painted as a swarm of locusts that would eat everything in its path. There would be absolutely nothing left.

Why was God going to do this?  Because Judah had departed from God’s teaching. They had not obeyed his word. They had become a people who pretended to love God, while living immoral lives.

The call-in verse 5 of chapter 1 is to “wake up”.  Many need to hear this message today. All you need to do is look around and the moral decay of our country is all around us. Spiritual and physical death is rampant.  Sin is flaunted in the face of God. And guess what, Christians are not immune to this condition. When we push God out of our thinking, we replace him with something.  Everyone believes something. You are either serving God, or you are serving yourself.  The problem with most today, is I’m going to do what I want to do.

The problem with our world is not guns, it isn’t the shortage of food, it isn’t the shortage of homes. We have all the money we want for the things we want. We build bigger armies, bigger bombs, and bigger houses. The problem is the shortage of love. It’s the shortage of obedience to God.  John Stott once wrote regarding man’s sinful ways, is that the issue is  “Hardness of heart that moves to darkness of heart that moves to deadness that moves to recklessness that is unrestrained unhindered abandonment to sin.”  I’m afraid this sums up our society and our culture today.  We praise sin while we put down God.

What we need today in our land is a wakeup call.  We need God to send the locust to purge us of our sin. Yes, this does mean the innocent will suffer. Yes, it will be unbearable for many of us. But if it leads to a purging of sin, and a returning to God, will you pray for it? Or have you become comfortable living in a hard, dark hearted world? Repentance will only come with a “wake up” call.  It has always been that way.  From Genesis to Revelation. God send us a wakeup call.  And this is Jesse Walker with the Glenwood Church of Christ.