02/14/24 - Ash Wednesday Service

North Harbor Community Church

Ash Wednesday

Sermon Passage: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Locusts Invade like an Army

2 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.

2 It is a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of thick clouds and deep blackness.

Suddenly, like dawn spreading across the mountains,

a great and mighty army appears.

Nothing like it has been seen before

or will ever be seen again.

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A Call to Repentance

12 That is why the Lord says,

“Turn to me now, while there is time.

Give me your hearts.

Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

13 Don’t tear your clothing in your grief,

but tear your hearts instead.”

Return to the Lord your God,

for he is merciful and compassionate,

slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

He is eager to relent and not punish.

14 Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve,

sending you a blessing instead of this curse.

Perhaps you will be able to offer grain and wine

to the Lord your God as before.

15 Blow the ram’s horn in Jerusalem!

Announce a time of fasting;

call the people together

for a solemn meeting.

16 Gather all the people—

the elders, the children, and even the babies.

Call the bridegroom from his quarters

and the bride from her private room.

17 Let the priests, who minister in the Lord’s presence,

stand and weep between the entry room to the Temple and the altar.

Let them pray, “Spare your people, Lord!

Don’t let your special possession become an object of mockery.

Don’t let them become a joke for unbelieving foreigners who say,

‘Has the God of Israel left them?’”