Dharius Daniels - It's a Heart Attack

The second chapter beginning at the 23rd verse of Joel—how many are ready for the word today? It says this: «Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He has given you the former rain faithfully; and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat; the vats shall overflow with new wine. Also, I will restore to you the years that the swarming locusts have eaten, the crawling locusts, the consuming locusts, the chewing locusts, and my great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; and my people will never be put to shame.»

I want to use for a subject today something that I believe describes many of our dilemmas, and the subject is simple: it’s a heart attack. Somebody say «heart attack» today, family. This book of Joel is one of the most profound prophetic books in the Old Testament, and for me, the profundity of this particular part of Joel is tied to a principle he propagates in this passage that everyone who is going to live according to God’s intent must embrace and accept. If you’re going to live well, you must understand the principle that is placed in the pages of this passage. You can’t leave home without this—it’s the principle of recovery. The necessity of this principle rests in a reality that is unsettling and difficult for many people to embrace. But listen to me, family—here it is: recovery is necessary because loss is inevitable. Everyone who lives will, at some point, face loss. You’ll face loss, number one, because you live in an imperfect world, and because you live in an imperfect world, life happens. And sometimes when life happens, loss happens. When life happens, it brings those unexplainable experiences that inconvenience us and impact us, for which there is no explanation. It’s just like when life happens—it’s like, «What’s up with this?» The Bible says it rains on the just and the unjust, the believer and the unbeliever, the atheist and the agnostic. Life happens—tornados and hurricanes, earthquakes and accidents, recessions and downturns, layoffs, sickness and disease, funerals and death—life happens, and sometimes, when life happens, it brings loss.

But loss doesn’t only come because we live in an imperfect world; this imperfect world is populated with imperfect people. There are times when you and I become victims of someone else’s imperfection. Did you hear what I just said? Sometimes life happens, and then other times, people happen. Thievery, lying, betrayal, gossip, drunk drivers—exploitation, people happen. It is the downside of the blessing of relationships. The same person close enough to make you smile is also close enough to make you cry. It’s the vulnerability you cannot avoid with intimacy. You can’t love greatly without the potential to be hurt deeply—it’s the downside of the blessing. But included in this population of imperfect people are you and me, so sometimes life happens, then there are other times people happen, and then there are times we happen.

I need a few more amens than that. I think sometimes life happens, sometimes people happen, and sometimes we happen—that we’re dealing with situations that are a consequence of self-sabotage. They’re some calamities connected to our choices. Every decision is pregnant with the potential to produce a season, and some seasons are lost. Because loss is inevitable, in order for a person to experience life as God intended, they have to learn how to deal with loss without losing. You got it? Just because you had a loss doesn’t mean you have to lose. I want to know, is there anybody here with a Mamba mentality? I want to know, is there anybody here that has an attitude that says, «One way or another, I’m going to find a way to win?» Just because you experienced loss doesn’t mean you have to lose.

Since loss is inevitable, the quintessential question that must be answered by all of us is not what you believe about loss, because it will ring your doorbell whether you believe it or not. The quintessential question we need to ask is: what do you believe about recovery? Because whether we win or lose isn’t based on what we believe about loss; it’s based on what we believe about recovery. Is recovery possible? Is recovery feasible? Is recovery likely? Is recovery within the realm of what is possible for me? Can God fix it? Can God turn it around? Can God bring me back? For me, I would argue that you cannot fully believe the gospel and not believe in recovery, because the gospel—the good news about Jesus—is a powerful story about Jesus’s ability to recover from something no one recovers from. Yeah, the resurrection was a powerful picture and the epitome of recovery. When Jesus got out of the grave, it was a powerful picture of what can happen to you and me. If He can recover from the grave and the betrayal that put Him there, then so can you and I recover. Recover! But they recover, but I try to recover, and they won’t recover. And she said recover; he said recover. But I try to recover, and it’s been too long, Rick! Because if you say you can’t, you are right. But if you say you can…