Joel toward the very end of the Old Testament. You've got all the minor prophets there.
Joel chapter 2. Joel chapter 2. Follow along silently with brother Daniel as he reads.
Joel chapter 2 beginning in verse number 1.
Joel chapter 2.
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the
land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. A day of darkness and of
gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness. As the morning spread upon the mountains of great
people and strong, there has not been ever the like, neither shall any more after it,
even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame
burneth. The land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness,
yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses,
and as horsemen so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on top of mountains shall they leap,
like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in the battle
array. Before their face the people shall be much pained, all the faces shall gather blackness.
They shall run like mighty men. They shall climb the wall like men of war. They shall march
every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks. Neither shall one thrust another.
They shall walk every one in his path, and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be
wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city. They shall run upon the walls. They shall climb
up upon the houses. They shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before
them. The heavens shall tremble. The sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw
their shining, and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army, for his camp is very great,
for he is strong that executed his word, for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible,
and who can abide it? Therefore also now, sayeth the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart,
and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart, and not your
garments, and turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger,
and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent,
and leave a blessing behind him, even a meat offering, and a drink offering unto the Lord
your God. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. Gather the children. Loose that suck the breasts.
Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests,
the minister of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar. Let them say, Spare thy people,
O Lord, and give not thy heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Wherefore
should they say among the people, Where is our God? Then will the Lord be jealous for his land,
and pity his people. Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you
corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith, and I will no more make you a reproach
among the heathen. But I will move far off from you, the northern army, and will drive from him,
and drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his
hind parts toward the utmost sea. And his sting shall come up, and his ill saber shall come up,
because he hath done great things. Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will
do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness do
spring. For the tree beareth her fruit, and the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.
Be glad, then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he hath given you the
former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you to rain the former rain,
and the latter rain in the first month. And the floor shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall
overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust have eaten,
the canker worm and the caterpillar, and the palmer worm, my great army which I sent among you.
And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God,
that hath dealt wondrously with you. My people shall never be ashamed, and ye shall know that I
am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else, and my people shall never
be ashamed. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream visions, and your
young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants, and upon the house handmaids,
in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will show forth in the heavens, and in the earth,
blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. And the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon
into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered, for in Mount Zion and Jerusalem
shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.
Brother Masson will you pray for us?
Father in heaven, we ask now that you would bless the preaching of your word, Lord. We long to hear
from you this morning what you have for us, Lord. Pray each one of us would set our hearts and minds
to the things above, and the things in the word of God. We ask now your blessing, and please fill
Pastor Anderson with your spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The title of my sermon this morning
is Reclaim What's Yours. This is a stupid billboard that I've been seeing all over Phoenix.
Who knows what I'm talking about? This bill, almost everybody. The, uh, Gila River casinos,
right? And they've got all these advertisements up and down the freeway, and their slogan is
Reclaim What's Yours. Now for a while I wondered, what is this slogan supposed to mean? You know,
reclaim what's yours. What are they talking about? And then my wife said to me that they're
basically telling you, come back and get the money that we stole from you last time you were here.
You know, come back and reclaim what we took from you that's yours. I was like, wow, is that really
what that means? But I thought about, I couldn't think of anything else that it could possibly mean
other than that, so I think that she's right. And then I asked somebody else, what do you think it
means? And they told me the exact same thing. And so this cheesy billboard campaign that's all over
our city right now, Reclaim What's Yours, I'm going to actually give you a biblical perspective
on what it really means to reclaim what's yours and how to actually reclaim what you've lost
through a life of sin. Now let me start out by just talking about the wickedness of gambling.
If you would flip over to Proverbs chapter 28. Proverbs chapter 28, because a casino is one of
the worst places that you could go. It's a total den of iniquity. And even people who would try to
justify the gambling itself, you can't justify the atmosphere of a casino where prostitutes hang out,
hookers hang out, there's drinking. It's all an unsavory atmosphere at the casino. But even in and
of itself, gambling is ungodly. Look if you would at Proverbs chapter 28 verse 19. The Bible reads,
He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread. He's saying, look, if you actually work
hard and do the backbreaking labor out in the sun, you're going to have plenty of bread, you're going
to have the money that you need. But he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty
enough. A faithful man shall abound with blessings. You know what faithful means? Somebody who's
reliable, they're always there. You know if you're actually showing up to work and being consistent,
a faithful man shall abound with blessings. But he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be
innocent. And what is gambling if it's not making haste to be rich? You don't want to work for your
money. You don't want to show up to work every day. You just want to pull a lever and boom, you hit
the jackpot. You want to just roll the dice and hit the jackpot, spin the wheel and hit the jackpot.
You're making haste to be rich and the Bible says if you do so, you will not be innocent. It said in
the previous verse, he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough. And let me tell
you something, if you're fooled by these ad campaigns and billboards from the casino, you're following
vain persons. You know what does vain mean? Vein means empty, pointless, meaningless. You want to
talk about some meaningless slogans. So as I was preparing this sermon because I was trying to make
sure that I'm not misunderstanding their slogan, you know I'm looking at the billboards. Well I went
online and there's a 60-second video commercial associated with these billboards and you want to
talk about just the vainness and lightness and emptiness of this commercial. He's like over the
years you've trusted us. It's like what? Like you trust the casino? I trust them. He's like over the
years you've trusted us. We've played together. We, it shows them you know rolling the dice. We've
stayed together. It shows them like in the bedroom like having a pillow fight in their hotel destroying
a hotel room and then it's like we've played together. We've stayed together and we've grown
stronger together. I'm like how did you grow stronger? Is it a gym? Is it a gymnasium? I mean
you're going to the casino and you're growing stronger together. Really how can anyone make a case
that partying at a casino makes you like a stronger person? It builds character, right? The casino builds
muscle. It made absolutely no sense at all but you know what that is? When you listen to that kind of
advertising you're following vain persons. Vain and light people making all these empty promises
coming at you with all these platitudes that don't even mean anything. It means nothing. If you ask
that guy what did you just say? He wouldn't even be able to explain to you what he just said and then
he's like so you do you. It's I mean you know it would come a long way since like Rene Descartes
or something you know. I think therefore I am or something. It's like you do you and then he just
like puts on a mask real cool like yeah. Folks if you follow vain persons you will have poverty
enough. You go out there. You till the land. You're faithful. You show up to work. You're going to have
the money that you need. You're going to have some bread, amen. It says that he that make it a haste
to be rich shall not be innocent. Verse number 21. To have respect of persons is not good for a piece
of bread that man will transgress. He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye and consider it not
that poverty shall come upon him. If you hasten to be rich you have an evil eye and you consider not
that poverty shall come upon you. Flip over you would to Proverbs 23. Keep that evil the evil eye
in mind right. If you hasten to be rich you've got an evil eye and of course we think to Jesus
Christ in the Sermon on the Mount where he preaches about the light of the body is the eye. If therefore
thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light but if thine eye be evil thy whole body
shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that
darkness. And look what the Bible says in Proverbs 23 verse 1. When thou sittest thee with a ruler
consider diligently what is before thee and put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to
appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties for they are a deceitful meat. Labor not to be rich.
Cease from thine own wisdom. He's saying look do not make it your goal to be rich. Not set out to
become rich. Don't look at those dainty meats that are eaten by the rich and famous and desire
that kind of food. It's vanity. You don't need that kind of food. Just eat normal food. You don't
need all these little sprinkled with gold dust burgers from cows that have been force-fed beer
and truffles or something in Japan. Isn't there some kind of a meat like that? Shoving beer and
truffle down some cow's throat so that some rich person can eat that beef. You know what just give
me a normal burger. You know we don't need these ultra fancy expensive meals and look I'm sort of
a foodie. I'm a connoisseur but you know what there comes a point where the food's good and
it's good enough. You know Chan Pan Thai cuisine amen it's good enough. You know it's the best.
You don't have to go any higher than that uh but these people you know they've got all their dainty
meats. It's a deceitful meat. He says don't desire that. Don't lust after that. Don't set out to be
rich because the Bible says they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many
foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money
is the root of all evil. So those of you who would like to justify gambling or justify the casino,
how can you justify such an institution when the love of money is the root of all evil and it's
basically a place characterized by what? The love of money. It's all about just loving money just
you want to get in there and get some money and look I've talked to enough people that have been
into gambling to know everything that goes along with gambling and everything that goes along with
those buildings that are packed 24 hours a day seven days a week with people who are being ripped
off and suffering the consequences of sin. Labor not to be rich verse four. Cease from thine own
wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not for riches certainly make themselves wings.
They fly as an eagle toward heaven. So you can picture those little bags of money with wings
flying away that are sometimes shown on cartoons. Riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly
as an eagle toward heaven. Verse number six. Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye.
Now you remember the evil eye he said is what you have when you make haste to be rich. The evil eye
is the covetous eye. The eye of the person who is characterized by the love of money. Somebody
who loves money and hastens to be rich has an evil eye and the Bible says don't eat the bread of him
that hath an evil eye and do not desire his dainty meats for as he thinketh in his heart so is he.
Eat and drink sayeth he to thee but his heart is not with thee. He doesn't love you. He doesn't
care about you. He's not trying to help you. Think about this. Think about these guys who do these
infomercials and they're like I found the secrets to the stock market and I just really want to
share these with you you know and if you call this 1-900 number it's only $500 a minute and
we're going to explain to you all the secrets and click here and get my DVD set. I want to tell you
all the inside. Why would he want to tell you that? If he knows all the secrets he'll do it
himself. He's not going to tell anybody. Why would he want to share that with you? I'm going to share
you all my greatest real estate secrets. No you're not. You're going to keep all the best stuff for
yourself but he says oh man eat and drink but his heart is not with you and let me tell you something
and look you know I almost started preaching as Donald Trump because guess what I've been
pastoring for 15 years and I was preaching against Donald Trump before he ever ran for office in
sermons like this so let's just forget that he's a president right now. Let's forget that he was
banned by Twitter. Welcome to the club Donald. All right I know what you're feeling right now
you know I really do but let's just forget about all the political stuff for a minute
and let's go back to the old preaching that I did against Donald Trump like 10 or 15
years ago how he loves money, he's covetous, he runs a bunch of casinos and him and Robert
Kiyosaki or whatever are always writing all these books telling you how to get rich and make money
and you know what they train people to love money you know and I remember in the 80s it was Amway
and my parents went to an Amway meeting with their friends and my dad came home
and I was just a little kid I said dad how was it he said son it was like a church service except
the god was money he said we literally sang hymns about money we sang hymns and songs like about
how we're going to be rich and money and then he said then the preaching started and he said the
Amway speaker got up and he's like would you rather have friends or you're going to lose
friends he was like you're going to suffer persecution for the cause of Amway it was like
the kind of sermon you expect here in a Baptist church hey you're going to lose friends you know
you got to stand up for Christ and and lay it all on the altar this guy's getting up and preaching
that about how getting rich is everything getting the house is everything getting the cars everything
and you know these people have an evil eye don't eat their bread don't desire their dainty meat
of course they're going to tell you eat and drink but their heart's not with you they don't love you
because they love money you can't serve god and mammon those who love god love you also because
the bible says everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that has begotten of him
you know if we love god we love the brethren these people don't love god they love money
that's their god their god is their belly and they might say to you eat and drink and you do you
but what they really are saying is like we screw you that's what they really mean their
heart is not they're out to rip you off and steal your money they don't care about you they don't
love you they don't just want to help you like realize who you really are and be yourself and
reclaim what's yours the morsel which thou has eaten verse eight shout thou vomit up and lose
thy sweet words and then this is this this verse number nine is is for me as the pastor speak not
in the ears of a fool for able to despise the wisdom of thy words you try to preach this to
somebody who's stupid and they're going to say no i'm going to go to the casino anyway
and they're not going to get it that you're telling them these things for their own benefit
see the preacher he says eat and drink his heart's actually with you he's actually saying hey i love
you don't fornicate don't drink don't go to the casino don't go to bars don't go to these places
he's he's not telling you that for his benefit he's telling you that for you the casino man he's
telling you you do you reclaim what's yours but what he's actually doing is trying to suck you
into his trap so he can bleed you of all your money now go if you would to ecclesiastes chapter
five ecclesiastes chapter five remember the title of the sermon is reclaim what's yours
so right now we're just talking about how the casino is lying to you and they cannot deliver
on what they're offering to do they're offering to help you reclaim what's yours
they're not going to help you reclaim what's yours they're just going to take more from you
and more you are throwing good money after bad if you go to the casino to try to reclaim what's
yours look at ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 10 he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with
silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase this is also vanity saying look riches money
winning at the casino it's never going to satisfy you you're always going to want more
when goods increase they are increased that eat them and i've experienced this in my own life
about every two years or so and what good is there to the owners thereof save the beholding of them
with their eyes so you get all these goods you get all this money and you have these guys that
have a garage with like 10 sports cars in it you don't have time to drive them all you know you've
got all these possessions and what good are they but just the beholding of them with your eyes you
oh you can look at your car your house your artwork whatever it's all vanity it's a waste
verse 12 on the other hand the sleep of a laboring man is sweet whether he eat little or much but the
abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep so when you go out and you guys that work hard you
know what i'm talking about you you work hard and you break your back out there and then when you
get to bed at night doesn't it feel so good to just lay in bed at night just ah relax and you're
sleep is sweet unto you as daniel the prophet said his my sleep was sweet unto me the sweet
the sleep of a laboring man is like that whether he eats the truffles or not he sleeps well and you
know what that's work that's something that money can't buy i mean look at michael jackson right
he's got all the fame and money but every single night he literally had a doctor use anesthesia
to put him to bed every night you know like when you go to surgery and they anesthetize you
who's ever been put under completely under by the doctor before surgery or something i just did for
the first time like a year ago or whenever that was when my throat got operated on and it was easy
i mean it was just like they're like all right see you know and it was just like you're just gone
michael jackson did that every night he had to be tranquilized to bed every night they would
literally use what they would put you under general anesthesia every night and then if that's
what killed him the freak may he rot in hell but the point is you know the sleep of a laboring man
is sweet and money can't buy that because the richest people have the hardest time going to
sleep and then poor people that are working hard they sleep like a baby and you know what there's
something to be said for that i'd rather eat some some basic meals and bean and rice burritos and be
able to sleep well at night than to eat a bunch of fancy food and toss and turn all night because
sleep deprivation is one of the worst things that you can go through the abundance of the rich will
not suffer him to sleep it says it will not allow him to sleep verse 13 there's a sore evil which
i've seen under the sun namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt so money is not
the answer to all your problems in many ways money can destroy you how many people have won the
lottery and they get destroyed and think about how many people have been destroyed by prosperity
because the bible says the prosperity of fools shall destroy them and so these rock stars and
hollywood stars the more money they get the more damage they do to themselves they're actually
better off when they had a humble means and so it says here riches sometimes could be kept for the
owners they're up to their hurt but those riches perish by evil travail verse 14 and he beget at
the sun and there's nothing in his hand as he came forth of his mother's womb naked shall he return
to go as he came and shall take nothing of his labor which he may carry away in his hand and this
also is the sore evil that in all points as he came so shall he go and what profit hath he that
labored for the wind all his days also he eateth in darkness and he hath much sorrow and wrath with
his sickness sounds great huh don't you just want to be rich you know maybe you can get a discount
on one of those donald trump or robert kiyosaki books so that you can have this wonderful life
being described in ecclesiastes well you know what count me out i'd rather just work hard be faithful
show up every day and sleep like a baby every night that's the better way to live your life
now let's go to joel chapter 2 and we'll talk about how to reclaim what's yours
reclaim what's yours is the casino going to help you reclaim it no way but look at joel chapter 2
verse 25 the bible says in joel 2 verse 25 and i will restore to you the years that the locust
hath eaten the canker worm and the caterpillar and the palmer worm my great army which i sent
among you so these people's livelihood has been destroyed by these pests whether it be locusts
canker worms caterpillars palm worms these are eating up the crops they're eating up their
increase and he says that they were my great army which i sent among you so what he's saying there
is that to punish the israelites he sent these pests to eat up their crops he damaged their
goods in order to punish them because they turned away from the lord and worshipped other gods or
whatever it was that they were doing so god sent his army of natural disasters to mess with them
and they ended up losing a lot of their profits but god says in verse 25 i will restore to you
the years that the locusts have eaten now stop and think about this sin has consequences in
our lives and especially those that got saved later in life or maybe you got right with god
later in life you might have done some damage to your body damage to your bank account damage to
relationships you've just done some damage to your life over the years and so think about it
from that perspective these people had some damage that had happened because of their sin
their crops were damaged they don't have enough food the worms ate their goods and so they've lost
a lot of wealth sort of like the guy who went to the casino and he lost all his money mortgage his
house mortgages vehicles whatever okay maybe you've done irreparable damage to your body
relationships you know maybe you got a criminal record you know just all the all the bad side
effects of of committing sin because whenever we sin obviously it causes bad things to happen
and what god's saying here is i will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten
god is saying that he can actually restore some of those things that we've lost some of the time
that we've lost some of the money that we've lost maybe a reputation that's been lost he's saying
i'll restore to you those things so let's just throw out some random numbers just to kind of
help understand this verse okay you know let's say these people had been storing up goods let's
say they've been saving up like you know ten thousand dollars every year or something they're
kind of just stockpiling whatever and they saved up ten grand the first year and ten grand the next
year and ten grand you know so they've done this for like 10 years they've got like a hundred
thousand dollars in savings right then god sends his judgment and they lose everything they lose
it all right god's saying look if you'll turn to me i can restore that to you and i can actually
build you back up to where you were and obviously these people aren't dealing with a bank account
but you know they have their flocks and their herds and their crops so you know let's say they
built up their herd and they built up their stockpiles of food and everything and let's say
god sent a disease he sent a pestilence he sent these critters to eat it up you know god's saying
look i can give it back to you sort of like he did with jobe where jobe lost everything and then
god gave it back to him and at the end of the book of jobe he has more animals more herds more
servants god's saying so if you think about that slogan reclaim what's yours you know you've had
something that sin has taken away from you in your life you know and you say man i lost my 20s
i just wasted my 20s i i wasted my 30s and what do i do now but god's saying i can restore to
you that basically what he can do is he can make your 40s be twice as effective or your 50s or your
60s you know he can help you make up for lost time make up for the things that you've lost
but let's back up and see because he's not just telling everybody in the world hey i'm just going
to restore everybody what the locust has eaten let's back up and see what it takes to actually
reclaim what's yours because it's not a trip to the casino how do we as christians reclaim what's
ours that we've lost through a life of sin through bad decisions whatever through the casino you know
you went to casino you threw a bunch of money away i'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands
but how do you actually reclaim what's yours look at the bible says in verse 12 therefore also now
sayeth the lord turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with
mourning that's what we need in this country right now the bible says if my people which are called
by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways
then will i hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land the bible says
that we need to pray we need to humble ourselves we need to turn to lord that is the only solution
for this country by the way it's not a new social media where we can say whatever we want
although i would love to have that i'm i that'd be great but you know what they probably would
it'd be like well except guys like pastor anderson you know because we can't be having
that because last time i checked i don't remember donald trump pushing for free speech for us to rip
on homos last time i heard donald trump was talking about how wonderful homos are and he
hired more homos than any president in the history of america so put that in your pope and smack it
okay donald trump is not our savior donald trump's an ungodly casino owner who loves money and you
know why he's not being blessed by god right now because he doesn't love god because he's not the
called according to his purpose he doesn't care about god he doesn't care about the word of god
he doesn't care about the bible the only thing i like about donald trump is that he makes liberal's
heads explode that's the only thing i like about him but you know what is he a godly role model for
my children do i want my children to grow up and be like him no way and so the thing is god's not
blessing him god's not blessing america you know what do you think would be better for america
trump or biden trump is way better for america but america doesn't deserve trump america deserves
biden because america's wicked okay god's not blessing trump and god's not blessing america
because trump doesn't love god and america doesn't love god so both donald trump and america are
doomed that's the hard trick they're both doomed but you know what i'm doing great how are you doing
because all things work together for good to those that love god and to them who are the
called according to his purpose i'm doing great i feel great we're all doing great we love the
lord god's gonna bless us god's not gonna bless this country until we turn from our wicked ways
humble ourselves pray and seek the lord the answer is not in the white house in the church
house and so that's what needs to fix it and people are confused right now people uh that
were gung-ho for trump and then now they're getting disillusioned with trump well you know
what christ isn't going to disillusion you like that you know see i don't go through life confused
because my hope has found a resting place that's not donald trump so i'm not confused like i saw
a lot of the people that stormed the capital were basically saying hey blank you trump because
trump didn't support them you know they stormed the capital and they're like we're storming the
capital for you buddy and then he's like condemning them and they're like whoa you know and it's just
all they're all confused are we supposed to storm it or are we not supposed to storm it are we
supposed to to protest or riot or what do we do but the the point is folks god's not the author
of confusion and when you're following christ when you're following the bible things are clear
you know and and and christianity is clear but you know politics can get confusing
and it can become disappointing when you you know you get real excited about somebody you're
following somebody and then they don't do what what they said they would do or they don't do what
you thought they would do or whatever happens you know uh it can be disillusioning it can be
confusing and whatever and you say well biden stole the election i'm sure he did you know but
but the point is it's what we deserve right you know and and this is what i think is so funny
baptist preachers have been saying my entire life i've grown up baptist and my entire life it's like
god's gonna judge america god's gonna judge america gods and then god judges america and
everybody's like what what's going on this is what we've been saying so buckle up but let me
tell you something god can restore to us the years that the locust has eaten but we've got to turn
if you're in verse 12 there turn to the lord with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping
and with mourning and he says and rend your heart and not your garments because in the bible times
a lot of times people would would tear their clothing just as a sign of just being really
upset distraught they would just rip their clothes in order to just show how upset they are you know
clothes were more expensive back then too by the way because they had to all be handmade and he's
saying look don't just go through an outward show of crying and mourning and tearing your clothes
he's saying you know i want you to really feel it i want you to rend your heart and not your garment
and turn unto the lord your god for he's gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness
and repenteth him of the evil so god's not up in heaven just out to destroy you and he's just out
to just rub your nose in your past sins for the rest of your life and you know the stuff you did
five years ago he just wants to keep bringing that up and rubbing your nose in it that's not what the
bible says you know the bible says that god's up in heaven actually just waiting for you to
straighten up so that he can start blessing you and start restoring unto you some of these things
not to say that our past sins aren't sometimes going to come back and haunt us or that we're
going to have uh consequences that continue but it's not because god is still mad at us or
something you know i i talked to one person and they just said man you know these bad things are
happening to me and it's a result of my past sinful life and i feel like god's still mad at me
you know he's still punishing me and i said i said look if you are living for god right now
if you love god right now if you're living a pretty clean life right now going to church
going soul and you're doing what you're supposed to do there's no way god's mad at you right now
because his mercies are new every morning okay think about this in my marriage i shouldn't be
mad at my wife for what she did a week ago she shouldn't be mad at me for what i did two weeks
ago or something you know isn't god the same way where his mercies are new every morning and it
should be like okay let's start over reset button isn't that what god's gonna do so there's no way
that god is mad at you while you're living for god while you're serving him while you love him
he's not mad at you it's just sometimes you're still reaping consequences from back when he was
mad at you okay he was mad at you and you're you know it's going to continue to to bear fruit but
god is up in heaven just waiting he's gracious he's merciful he's slow to anger he's of great
kindness and look at this he repented him of the evil now evil is harming someone and so god
sometimes he says i'm going to harm you you know like he said to Nineveh yet 40 days and Nineveh
shall be overthrown but then he repented him of the evil that he had said that he would do unto
them and he did it not just like he told moses get out of my way moses i'm going to wipe these
people out i'm going to make you a great nation and then the lord repented of the evil that he
would said he would do unto them and he did it not god is a god who repents him of the evil
so even if he tells you you're going down i'm going to wipe you out if you say no god i'm sorry
and you pray and you weep and you fast and you mourn he'll back off i mean he told hezekiah get
your house in order you're going to die but then when hezekiah prayed and mourned he said okay i'll
give you 15 more years so god is a god who even when he tells you that you're getting punished
and you're getting judged it's never too late to turn around as his child as the prodigal sign
to come home and when you come home he's going to kill the fatted calf you're not necessarily
going to have the inheritance that the older brother has but he's going to kill the fatted
calf he's always happy to see you when you come back you know you can always come back to church
you can always come back to the lord and he's ready to forgive and forget and repent him of
the evil verse 14 who knoweth if he will return and repent he's saying look even when things are
looking really bad you know what it's still always worth a shot to turn back to the lord
because he's just so merciful and so ready to repent him of the evil who knoweth if he will
return and repent leave a blessing behind him even a meat offering and a drink offering unto
the lord your god blow the trumpet in zion sanctify a fast call a solemn assembly gather
the people sanctify the congregation assemble the elders gather the children and those that
suck the breasts and let the bridegroom go forth out of his chamber and the bride out of her closet
let the priests the ministers of the lord weep between the porch and the altar and let them say
spare thy people o lord and give not that heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them
wherefore should they say among the people where is their god then will the lord be jealous for
his land and pity his people yea the lord will answer and say unto his people behold
i'll send you corn and wine and oil and you should be satisfied therewith and i will no more
make you a reproach among the heathen but i will remove far off from you the northern army and will
drive him into a land barren and desolate you know that's what i'm going to do to your enemies he's
saying with his face toward the east sea his hind report toward the utmost sea and his stink shall
come up and his ill saver shall come up because he had done great things fear not o land be glad
and rejoice for the lord will do great things jump down to verse 24 just for sake of time
and the floors shall be full of wheat and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil and i will
restore to you the years that the locusts hath eaten the canker worm and the caterpillar and the
palmer worm my great army which i sent among you look you want to reclaim what's yours because
look any of us that have committed sin which is all of us sin has robbed us of something
every time we sin you know we get robbed of something it robs us of our joy it robs us
of prosperity it could rob us of our health it's robbing us and if you went to the casino
you really got robbed if you played the lottery you got robbed we've you know but we've all been
robbed on one scale or another but he says look if you've been robbed of these things
turn unto the lord and he can restore to you what you've lost he can restore unto you
that which you have been deprived of the casino you're throwing good money after bad
but if you really want to reclaim what's yours humble yourself turn to the lord pray unto god
you know think about our country has been a prosperous country
but you know a lot of people right now have lost
businesses lost money lost wealth you know i mean look i i don't really know how you measure the
wealth of a nation but i don't think being 20 trillion dollars in debt counts as being a wealthy
nation i don't know i used to joke around when when when that pedophile michael jackson was still
alive and some of you that listen to his music shame on you you shouldn't be listening to that
guy but you know i remember back when he was alive i used to say well i'm richer than michael
jackson because michael jackson is 20 million dollars in debt and i'm only a few hundred bucks
in debt so i'm you know i've got a greater net worth than michael jackson because michael
jackson's net worth is negative 20 million nobody here has a lower than negative 20 million
and so you know god can restore unto us what we've lost go to jeremiah chapter
30 the last place we'll turn jeremiah chapter 30
you know i was thinking about all the taxes that i've paid over the years and and you know you
hate paying taxes and you know i ran my own business for many years and when you run your own
business it's not deducted from your check you know you have to pay the taxes you you pay all
of it yourself and i remember just writing a check every april for around like eight thousand
dollars now that was even with having a lot of kids and stuff i was just like eight grand put
that check in the mail and you feel that more than just you know a little bit being deducted every
time and as a pastor your tax kind of the same way you pay self-employment tax and so as a pastor
i write a check every april but i've got so many kids now that number's gone down quite a bit thank
god i've got all these wonderful little write-offs these wonderful little tax credits that whose feet
go pitter-patter around my home but the thing about that is you know i was sitting down and
thinking about it today how much money i've gotten back from the government in recent years
and i was thinking about how much money they took from me and it was like man they're taking my
money they're taking so much money but then it's like these stimuluses roll around and it's like
600 bucks per person you know and i've got 11 kids so it's everybody's like a measly 600 bucks
i'm like 600 times 13 and i'm thinking you know what hey god's giving me back some of what they
took from me you know they took too much from me and god's giving me some of it back and then i
got audited a while back and they gave me a bunch of money back and i was like score and so you know
god can find a way to restore things to you that the casino took from you you know if you lost a
bunch of money to the casino you know nuts to it let them have that money but let me tell you
something if you start serving god god can take care of your needs and i'm not saying he's going
to make you rich i don't want to be rich if you want to be rich shame on you i want to be like
the guy in proverbs chapter 30 that says give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food
convenient for me lest i be full and deny thee and say who is the lord or lest i be poor and steal
and take the name of my god in vain i don't want to be poor i don't want to be rich i just want to
get by right and that should be our desire as christians just a middle a middle class or just a
middle of the road when it comes to finances i don't want to be dirt poor i'm sure you don't want
but i don't want to be rich either you know i just want to have what i need to provide for my family
so reclaim what's yours you say well pastor anderson you know i've lost my purity i've lost
my money i lost my retirement i lost my good name i've lost my reputation i've got a criminal record
i've you know i've ruined my health and look obviously yeah you can do permanent damage to
your life which is why we shouldn't play with sin but god can restore some things to you
just like he restored unto joe not that joe did anything wrong but god can restore those
things to you the devil is not going to restore you anything he'll make all the promises and
deliver you nothing it's about getting right with god and look if you today no matter what
your past is if you today say you know what i'm going to get serious about living for god
i want to get serious about reading my bible being in church you know i'm going to go out and be a
silent partner on soul winning i'm going to go out there and be a silent partner on soul winning
i want to get involved i want to get involved you know x y and z sins in my life that i've been
doing and struggling with you know what i'm going to start getting rid of that stuff and you know
what i want to start praying to god every day and loving god and thanking god and just meditating on
the things of god and reading my bible you know what if you do that god's not god's not going to
be like oh yeah oh oh look who's mr spiritual now huh oh now you're so spiritual what about last
month what about do you think that's what god's going to do who do you think you are acting all
spiritual i know what you've been into is that what he's going to say now look you might have
some friends say that to you well get away from those people because those are the wrong kind of
friends because godly friends are always ready to forgive and forget you know godly friends are
there to receive you when you come back to church when you come back to the lord godly friends don't
hang stupid things that you did in the past that you've already repented of they're not going to
hang that stuff over your head you know if i did something last week that was stupid and i said hey
i'm sorry i shouldn't have done that and then somebody gets that apology and then they keep
bringing it up i'm just like this person's not my friend that's not the christian virtue of
forgiveness and so you know god is forgiving and so he's ready for you to get right with god as
soon as you're ready to get right with god he's ready to to bring you back into the fold and look
obviously it's impossible to ever lose your salvation because god gave us eternal life and
we shall never perish and no one can pluck us out of his hand but we can lose the joy of our
salvation we can lose fellowship with with with uh our christian brothers because we get out of
church and we can lose uh the blessings and so forth but look god is ready to just restore unto
us what we've lost if we will do what pray get right with him make things right and start getting
on the right path he'll restore those things in verse 17 of chapter 30 he says for i will restore
health unto thee and i will heal thee of thy wounds saith the lord because they called thee
an outcast saying this is zion whom no man seeketh after thus saith the lord i'll bring again the
captivity of jacob's tents and have mercy on his dwelling places and the city shall be builded upon
her own heap and the palace shall remain after the man are there of course this was literally
fulfilled when ezra and nehemiah you know rebuilt jerusalem and came back shortly after this you
know even in the lifetime that this was penned you know within a within one generation jeremiah
is preaching this you know it happened you know they came back into the land they rebuilt
jerusalem they built the wall they built the temple and everything but you know you can take
a spiritual application of this as well you know let's say your life has become a ruinous heap
because of the casino because of the bar because of the the women and the the drugs and the the
crime whatever but you know what god will allow you to rebuild the city on its own heap you know
god will actually restore unto you what you've lost and let you live a happy victorious godly
christian life once again and look if you're not saved yeah you know there becomes a point where
it's too late for you if you're not saved you know people die without christ it's too late for them
it's over for them and even some people that aren't even dead yet you know they've crossed
a line where they're a reprobate you know they they blaspheme the holy ghost or whatever and
it's like they're doomed it's too late for them but let me tell you something if you're saved
as long as you are breathing air god is not done with you because if god were done with you you'd
be dead anybody who is saved and living on this earth god has a reason why you're here otherwise
he'll just take you home and god does obviously get frustrated with even his children like look
at king saul you know king saul pushed it too far and and god said tomorrow you're going to
die in battle but as long as you're alive it's not too late to get things right with god and press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of god in christ jesus you know you think about
the casino what's everybody hoping for the big jackpot when they play the lotto they want the
big jackpot well you know what i want to press toward the mark for the prize 10 million dollars
no i want to press for the prize of the high calling of god in christ jesus so i'm still
hoping to hit the jackpot in my christian life even though i've screwed up in the past i still
want to hit the jackpot amen i want to press for the mark and look paul was a guy who screwed up
a lot because he was a guy who did what he spent time persecuting the church of god
he said i'm the chief of sinners but he said forgetting those things which are behind
reaching forth under those things which are before i press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of god christ jesus he didn't say you know what i'm just trying to be a b-minus
christian because of my past so i feel like if i can just get a b-minus i'm great because my past
he's like no i'm going for an a-plus i'm running to obtain i'm i'm in it to win it and he didn't
let his past hold him back he said look i'm gonna forget the things which are behind i'm going for
the high calling of god christ jesus and you know that's what we should do forget what's behind
reclaim what's yours at gila river casino no no let's forget that that he that we've ever been
to heal and i've never been there thank god but if you've been there hey let's forget that you've
ever even been there forget the things that are behind don't be like yeah but they took five
thousand dollars from me i want to go get some of it back folks just let them take it to hell with
them let them take it to hell with them because it's not worth it to go back in there and you're
just going to throw good money after bad money you've got to forget the things that are behind
what's done is done what the casino took from you is gone forever kiss it goodbye and say i'm going
to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of god christ jesus and you'll find that
the lord will restore to you some of what you've lost sometimes he'll even give you more than what
you've lost you know he'll give you blessings that you can't even imagine because the bible
talks about how he'll sometimes show us great and mighty things that we know not and and and just
unspeakable joys and blessings that we can't even predict serving god is where it's at my friend and
so don't buy into the cheap vein light ad campaign of the gila river casino listen to what the lord's
telling you today and reclaim what's yours let's buy a word of prayer father we thank you so much
for the fact that you're forgiving lord because we've all made mistakes and and done things that
we've regretted lord thank you that your mercies are new every morning and lord i pray that every
single person who's here today would start living a zealous christian life if they're not already
or or if they already are that they would just continue and not be discouraged not to to to turn
aside in these difficult times lord help us all to just stay on track and and and work hard and
love you with all our heart and mind and soul and strength lord and lord i just pray that no one
that's under the sound of my voice whether they be children teenagers whatever i pray that none of
them would ever be deceived by what what's being offered down at the casino or any of these other
ungodly institutions lord give us all the wisdom to know that it's all fake and it's a lie and a
fraud and we ask these things in jesus name amen all right let's sing one more song before we go
let's do song number 361 did you think to pray 361
song number 361
gray 361
hey you left your room this morning
if you think to pray
in the name of christ our savior
oh
don't forget to pray
did you
forget to pray
did you think to pray
my brother as you might forgive another who had crossed your way
oh
don't forget to pray
all
yes don't forget to pray all right where this business