Even Now

(Zechariah 1:3) Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me, and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty.

(Joel 2:1) Sound the trumpet in Jerusalem! Raise the alarm on my holy mountain! Let everyone tremble in fear because the day of the Lord is upon us.

(Joel 2:12-14) “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” 13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. 14  Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing— grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.

1. Even now, God is us to . 

(Joel 2:12-13) “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” 13 Rend your heart and not your garments.

Sin will take you further than you want to go,  keep you longer than you want to stay  and cost you more than you want to pay. – Adrian Rogers

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2. Even now, God is full of and

(Joel 2:13b) Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

(Ephesians 2:4-7) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

(1 John 1:9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

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3. Even now, God will what was .

(Joel 2:25-27) I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten … 26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. 27 Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.

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