We Are Blessed Series

Joel 3:17-21

“We Are Blessed”

We are blessed because we can know God.

Vs. 17

• “You will know that I am the LORD your God.”

o Blessing begins with the knowledge of God.

o This type of knowledge is more than just knowing about something.

o Many people know about and even believe in God.

James 2:19 -- You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

o This idea of knowing God is much more personal that just a head knowledge.

We are blessed because He is our God.

• “I am the LORD your God.”

o That means so much more than just believing in God, its knowing that He is your God; having a personal relationship with Him.

o This is only possible because God has chosen to make Himself known to us.

Psalm 14:2-3 -- The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.

o But God has chosen to reveal Himself through His Son Jesus Christ which Hebrews 1:2 says, “He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.”

o God did this in order to bring to us His salvation.

Isaiah 46:13 -- “I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off; And My salvation will not delay. And I will grant salvation in Zion, And My glory for Israel.

We are blessed because He dwells with us.

• “Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain.”

o God will once again dwell in the midst of His people in His holy city.

Revelation 21:10-11 -- 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.

o But for us, we already have the presence of God with us, in the Holy Spirit of Promise.

John 14:16-17, 20 -- 16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

20 “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

We are blessed because He makes us holy.

• “Then shall Jerusalem be holy.”

o It will be holy because God’s presence is there.

o Peter makes this application to our very lives based on the fact that the presence of God does in fact dwell in us.

1 Peter 1:15-16 -- 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”

• “No strangers pass through her anymore.”

o Every living person will know and worship God.

Isaiah 11:9 -- 9 They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.

We are blessed because He restores us.

Vs. 18

• A restoration of all those things God had taken away in Chapter 1.

o “new wine”  1:5

o “flow with milk and honey”  1:10-12

o “fountain shall come forth…”  1:19-20

• God can take what we tear down and not only restore it, but make it better than it ever was.

o He is always doing that with our lives, but we must surrender to His will and not our own.

Vs. 19

• Again we see that God will judge His enemies; those who have shed innocent blood.

We are blessed because He has established us.

Vv. 20-21

• God promises to establish Judah forever and dwell in Zion; however only after they have been cleansed.

o Are we not so blessed that unlike Judah we do not have to look forward to that day, because it is already here.

1 Peter 2:9 -- 9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

We are blessed because we can declare His praises.

Isaiah 43:21 -- 21 “The people whom I formed for Myself will declare My praise.”