It’s Not Too Late to Come Home to God

Oct 18, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Even Now: Returning When All Seems Lost

When locusts strip life bare – relationships fractured, dreams devoured, hope buried under shame – the words "even now" pierce the darkness. Joel’s prophecy meets us in the rubble of our worst choices and deepest regrets. God’s call isn’t conditional on our cleanup efforts. The invitation comes drenched in divine compassion, not as a reward for good behavior but as a gift from a Father who runs toward dust-covered children. Restoration begins when we turn toward grace rather than trying to earn it. [33:47]

“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” 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. (Joel 2:12-13, NIV)

Reflection: What “locust swarm” in your life feels irreversible? How does God’s character, described here, rewrite the story of what’s possible?

Day 2: Rending Hearts, Not Garments

Torn robes meant little when hearts remained hardened. Joel confronts the danger of performative faith – religious gestures that never touch the soul’s core. True repentance isn’t measured by public tears but by private surrender. Like soil broken for planting, a rent heart makes space for new growth. This isn’t self-loathing but honest admission: we come home empty-handed, trusting the Father’s embrace more than our ability to self-correct. [34:08]

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. (Psalm 51:17, NIV)

Reflection: Where have you substituted outward rituals (church attendance, prayers, service) for the harder work of letting God reshape your desires?

Day 3: Restoring the Years the Locusts Have Eaten

God’s restoration isn’t a time machine erasing scars but a redemption machine weaving loss into wisdom. The locusts’ devastation becomes fertile ground for miracles. Joel’s promise – “I will repay you for the years” – transforms regret into testimony. What was stolen becomes a platform for God’s abundance. This isn’t about recovering the past but discovering how even our ruins can glorify Him. [41:00]

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten… 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.” (Joel 2:25-26, NIV)

Reflection: What “lost years” do you struggle to release? How might God use those very wounds to nourish others?

Day 4: Lavishly Poured: The Spirit’s Overflowing Promise

The Father doesn’t just open the door – He fills the house. After restoration comes anointing. Joel’s vision of Spirit outpouring (quoted at Pentecost) reveals God’s endgame: not resuming old routines but unleashing new purpose. This isn’t a trickle of mercy but a flood of empowerment. The same Spirit that resurrected Christ fuels ordinary people to live audacious lives of hope. [48:40]

“I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” (Joel 2:28-29, NIV)

Reflection: What God-sized dream feels impossible for you? How does the Spirit’s lavish presence change that equation?

Day 5: The Father’s Hands: Coming Home Without Condemnation

Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son painting shows the father’s hands – one masculine and strong, the other feminine and tender. This is God’s posture: power restrained by love, justice softened by mercy. The locusts of failure and shame lose their grip when we fix our eyes on those waiting hands. Coming home isn’t about groveling but collapsing into the embrace that says, “You’re mine – let’s feast.” [53:34]

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him… “Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again!” (Luke 15:20, 23-24, NIV)

Reflection: What keeps you “a long way off” from God today? How would receiving His embrace change your next step?

Sermon Summary

Joel begins with a land stripped bare. Locust after locust eats what the last one left, and then an invading army takes the same picture even further. The question underneath all that loss is simple and heavy: is it too late? Is there any way back after time, opportunities, relationships, and hope have been devoured?

Joel’s structure moves from disaster to return and then from return to restoration. The turning point comes in God’s words: “Even now, return to me with all your heart.” God does not wait until the damage is cleaned up or the people have earned another chance. God calls them home right in the middle of the mess.

Repentance in Joel is not a performance. “Rend your heart, not your garments” means that God is not looking for a big outward show of sorrow. God looks for a heart that has honestly broken over sin and is willing to leave things behind. Grace comes first, long before repentance ever gets off the ground. God is already moving toward broken people before broken people know how to move toward God.

God’s character makes the invitation possible. Joel reaches back to the God who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love. The golden calf did not cancel God’s mercy, and locust losses do not cancel it either. The Father in the prodigal-son story runs toward the son who has lost everything, not because the son deserves a place at the table, but because he is still a son.

God’s promise to “repay” the years the locusts have eaten is not a threat or a debt collection notice. Restoration means wholeness, shalom, and God making right what sin and loss have shattered. The full barns, rain, grain, wine, and oil matter, but the restored relationship matters most. God desires to be not merely a distant God, but “your God,” near to his people and dwelling with them.

The contrast between “you can be anything” and “you are who you are” misses the truth. God’s image in a person is deeper than a past mistake, a wasted season, or a life once enslaved to sin. God’s grace can truly forgive, transform, and restore a soul. Joel’s final promise goes beyond coming home: God pours out his Spirit lavishly on all people, filling lives that once felt empty and sending restored people into the world with a story of grace.

Key Takeaways

1. Even now, God calls home
God’s invitation does not begin after a person has fixed the damage. God speaks “even now” into the exact place where failure, regret, and loss feel final. Grace makes a way home while the road still looks impossible. [35:17]
2. Rend the heart, not garments
Repentance is more than looking sorry or saying the right words. God sees through every outward display and looks for a heart that is willing to be broken open and changed. A changed heart eventually changes the life around it. [33:47]
3. God restores more than circumstances
God’s promise to repay locust years is a promise of shalom, of making people whole. Full barns and returned blessings are not the deepest gift. Restored relationship with God is the real center of restoration. [41:23]
4. Past failure does not define identity
God does not name a person by the worst thing that person has done. God’s grace begins transforming people into who he created them to be. Freedom in Christ means that old slavery does not get the final word. [45:57]
5. The Spirit fills restored lives
God does not merely welcome people back and leave them empty. God pours out his Spirit lavishly, like a life charged beyond empty-battery living. The Spirit turns a restored life into a witness of what God has done. [48:40]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[11:31] - Opening Prayer: Teach Me Your Path
[25:31] - Big Question: Is It Too Late?
[26:18] - Locust Swarms That Devour Everything
[27:30] - Joel’s Picture of Total Loss
[29:22] - When Life Has Locust Losses
[32:23] - The Turning Point: God Restores
[33:21] - Even Now, Return to God
[37:30] - Grace Comes Before Repentance
[40:21] - Restoring the Years Locusts Ate
[43:18] - The Optimism of Grace
[48:20] - God Pours Out His Spirit
[51:08] - The Prodigal Son Comes Home
[54:33] - Show Me Your Ways, O Lord
[58:24] - Five Practical Steps Toward Home

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Joel 2:12-13
“Even now, declares the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. 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.” [33:28]

Joel 2:25
“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you.” [40:19]

Joel 2:28
“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” [48:20]

Observation questions

In Joel 2:12–13, what actions are connected with returning to God, and what contrast is made between the heart and outward displays of grief? [33:41]
What picture of loss does the locust invasion create, and what kinds of “losses” were connected to that picture? [27:36]
According to Joel 2:25, what does God promise to do after the years of devastation, and how is that promise connected to wholeness? [40:46]
In Joel 2:28, who is included in God’s promise to pour out his Spirit, and what does that wide invitation show about God’s purposes? [50:12]

Interpretation questions

Why does God’s invitation to return “even now” matter in a situation where people have experienced both the consequences of sin and deep loss? [34:52]
What is the difference between repentance as an outward performance and repentance that comes from a genuinely changed heart? How would that difference show up in a person’s choices? [38:36]
God’s restoration includes provision for the land, but the deeper promise is restored relationship with God. Why is relationship with God the center of true restoration rather than simply getting back what was lost? [41:35]
Joel’s promise of the Spirit comes after the call to return and the promise of restoration. What does it mean that God not only welcomes restored people home but also fills and sends them? [48:32]

Application questions

Is there an area of life where regret, failure, or loss has made it feel “too late” to turn back to God? What would it look like to respond to God’s “even now” invitation this week? [35:09]
What might be an outward habit of looking spiritually healthy while avoiding a deeper heart issue? What honest prayer or concrete step could help bring that issue before God? [39:03]
What “locust loss” has become a weight that is still being carried—lost time, a broken relationship, missed opportunities, financial pressure, or something else? How might that loss be released to God instead of allowed to define the future? [58:40]
Is there a relationship where reconciliation may be possible through an apology, forgiveness, a conversation, or a wise first step? What is within personal control, and what needs to be entrusted to God? [59:03]
Where does the past still try to name or define identity? How does being created in God’s image and being transformed by grace speak a truer word about who a person is? [45:36]
In what ways does life feel spiritually drained or “low battery” right now? What practices or choices could help make more room for the Spirit’s filling and guidance this week? [49:03]
What part of God’s work in life could become a simple story of grace for someone else—a time of forgiveness, change, help, or restoration? Who might need to hear that story? [47:40]

Sermon Clips

46s

#ComeHome

“It's not too late. That that that word there that's translated even now, wagam ata, means it means even at this point, even despite all that has happened, even even even in spite of all that you've done, even in spite of all the mistakes you've made, all the mess you've made of your life, even now, even in spite of all of that, turn and come back. Come home. Come home. And we see that in the story of the the prodigal son. If you're familiar with that story, the son lost everything. And yet the father comes and runs to him and embraces him. Come home. It's not too late.”

50s

#GraceFirst

“And if God was gracious to his people, dancing around the golden calf, I think he can be gracious to you and whatever you've done, wherever you're at. Repentance is possible because grace comes first. Remember, we talked a lot about grace the last few weeks. God's grace always comes first. And it's his grace grace that allows us to come back and repent and turn and render our hearts and say, Lord, I wanna come back to you. I'm gonna lay all that other stuff to the side. I'm I'm gonna leave all that behind and come back to you because God is already moving towards us long before we move towards him. That's grace. God is already moving towards us long before we move towards him. It's God's character, not our performance.”

47s

#GodDefinesMe

“But we also are told that you you are who you are. You can't change. Your past defines who you are. We hear that sometimes, don't we? And that's not true either. Your past does not define who you are. Your past mistakes don't define who you are. Your your past life doesn't doesn't lock you in from here on out. The truth is that you were created in God's image, as was every human being on earth. And you were created... God created you to be someone special, someone unique. And you're not who your past says you are, you are who God says you are.”

36s

#AnyoneCanBeSaved

“And like we see in other places, Joel repeats the phrase, everyone, anyone, whosoever, whichever word you wanna use, who everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, everyone who turns their attention to the Lord and calls out saying, Lord, help me. I need you. Everyone who comes and rends their heart will be saved. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. No question there. Is it too late? No. Not at all.”

35s

#RestorationHope

“You lost a lot, yes, and now God is going to repay or give back or or complete the work that he started in you. I will repay you. I will make you complete. I will make you whole. I will bring shalom into this situation. It's it's not a refund, it's not a debt, it's wholeness. And again, we saw the rains returned. God is repaying the land for what was lost. The the barns are being filled up again. There's oil, there's wine, all the things that were lost are coming back.”

33s

#TransformedByGrace

“And when you turn to God, when you rend your heart, when you when you say, even now, Lord, despite everything, I I wanna turn back to you. God begins that process of transforming you into the person that he has created you to be. Amen? Not based on what you've done, not based on who you were, but based on who he has created you to be. And you are who you are today because of the grace of God working in your life.”

43s

#OpenDoor

“And so I would say to you, I would say to those in your family who who aren't walking with the Lord, it's not too late. God looks at your situation, and and it's not a guilt trip thing. He looks at your situation, and it's not it's not I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna get them back for all the all that they wasted. It's not it's not condemnation. It's not judgment. It's not it's not pointing a finger. But it's an open door. Come home. Come home.”

44s

#FreedomInChrist

“As Wesleyans, we we have this idea of, what we call the optimism of grace. The optimism of grace. And and basically, that means that we we believe that there is real forgiveness. You can truly be forgiven. We believe that there is real change that's possible in our lives. We can be changed and transformed. We don't have to be the person we were before. Not... We don't have to be enslaved to sin the way we have been. We can be set free. We can be transformed. We can have real life in Jesus Christ. We are not destined to a life of slavery and sin.”

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