Return To The Lord With All Your Heart | Paul Tan-Chi | October 18, 2026

0:00 Have you ever been caught up with life that you slowly drifted away from God? Maybe other priorities, unhealthy habits, or the desire to fit in have taken His place? But here's the good news no matter how far we've drifted, no matter how much we've sinned, God is gracious and compassionate, and He calls us to return to Him with all our hearts. Join us as we discover how to recognize God's wake-Up call, how to truly repent and be restored. And remember that God is the ultimate victor. Watch this video. Do you enjoy,

0:46 have you been enjoying our series Minor League, Major Impact? I asked Pastor Marty and the team, why did you choose this series? And he said, you know, many times in life we feel like our lives are not very significant, especially for the young people. Sometimes we think, I'm speaking as if I'm young. I'm speaking as if I'm a young person. Sometimes young people think that, what can I really do? My, I'm young. Well, we have been learning from the different books. We've been looking at these books, are short books in the Bible. Right? But have you been impacted in a major way by them? Yes. So look at your neighbor and say minor league, major impact. You may feel like you're a minor person,

1:32 but you can have a major impact in this world. Amen. Now, what did we learn from the book of Habakkuk as a review? In Habakkuk, we learned that in life we can get disillusioned, right? And what happens when we get disillusioned? Sometimes we can start to doubt God. But we learned from the book of Habakkuk that when disillusioned, we should, what? Turn to God. We should trust God. Turn to God. Wait on God and worship God. Last week, from the book of Haggai, what did we learn? We learned that even though when we know what the right thing to do is, we can have a tendency to have delayed obedience. Yes?

2:18 And last week we learned, don't wait to put God first. And we looked at Haggai and we learned that we should, we should reflect, reorder, and we should also rebuild. Today, we're going to look at the book of Joel. And in the book of Joel, the one main idea that we're going to take home by God's grace, Lord willing, is return to the Lord with all your heart. Can you say that with me? Return to the Lord with all your heart. Those of you that are worshiping with us online, we want to say hello. And I want you to also say in your screen or in your place of worship. Return to the Lord with all your heart. So one more time.

3:04 Let's all say it together. Return to the Lord with all your heart. Why is the heart so important? Have you ever found yourself looking back in your life and then wondering, wow, how did I end up here? You know, you used to be so excited to read the Bible. You used to be so excited to worship the Lord. You used to be so excited to share the gospel. It's not that you, you wake up one day and you say, I'm going to stop loving God. But little things have crept in and slowly but surely we have, we have drifted. There is something that the Bible describes the heart, which is not a very nice description, but it's true. Look at what the Bible says the heart is..

3:50 What? More deceitful. That's the Hebrew word aqov, which actually means deceptive, corrupted insidious crooked. This is the description of our heart and is more deceitful than, what? Than all else, and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? And the reason why I am opening with this reality is because sometimes we may think, well, I don't need to return to the Lord, but honestly, on a daily basis, I need to return to the Lord with all my heart, because my heart can easily be deceived. How many of you are students, can you raise your hands?

4:37 Let's praise God for the students in the in the house. You know when you enter into school, let's say into college, you have this desire to really honor God through your life, through your studies. But you're with your friends and your friends make fun of a certain person and you find yourself making fun of that person, too. How come? Because you don't want to be left out. So you're making fun now of a person. And you never, you never thought you would do that, but you're doing that. And then you're now taking your exam. And students, what do you realize in college? Everyone.. What? cheats. Everybody's cheating in class. And so

5:24 you just, everybody's doing it, so you know, you cheat. And then you meet an interesting person. And you know, you know that you really, actually shouldn't be in a relationship yet because you can't get married. But for whatever reason, there's that attraction. The friendship grows. You start holding hands and slowly but surely, you find your place in the, in a in a spot where, wow, I am I'm having sex before marriage. I didn't plan to do that. But that is the deceptiveness of the heart. It could be, as parents, we have children. We love our children. We want what's best for our children. But our children can very easily

6:09 become an idol in our life. The activities we plan for them, we're so focused on them succeeding, whether it be in sport or in academics or in their future, that we actually don't prioritize them growing in the knowledge and love of God, and we ourselves become distracted. We stop going to Dgroup. We stop leading because we have children. So the heart is really, really deceptive. I find myself sometimes saying, you know, this is a busy season of life. So I am, I can't I can't spend time with God right now because it's just a busy time. My heart is telling me that. But what am I really saying? What I'm really saying

6:54 is I am prioritizing something else rather than God. Which is what we learned last Sunday, right? Don't wait to put God first. So because the heart is very deceitful, I want to show this picture to you. What is this? It's the ocean. How many of you have swam in the ocean? Yes we're we live in the Philippines, by the way. So if you haven't swam in the ocean, you can drive a few kilometers and find the ocean. There are nice oceans in this country. It is fine to float in the ocean when there's no current. You can stay in the same spot. But I guarantee you, if those of you who swam in the ocean and I've done this, just floating, not paying attention, and I look and I realized I have drifted away from where

7:43 I had started and I didn't even notice it. How come? Because of the current that there is in the water. You know, we are living in a world that has a lot of current and our heart is very, very deceitful. So I pray that as we listen to God's Word for us today, we would not be distracted. We would not deceive ourselves. By the way, it's one thing to be deceived by somebody else. It's another thing to deceive yourself. And a lot of us live lives of self-deception. We're fooling ourselves. So let's all bow our heads and pray. And we'll get right into God's Word. Lord, we thank You that You so desire for us to return to You with all our heart.

8:29 So we commit to You our heart today. Lord, You know the condition of our heart. Sometimes I don't even know my own condition. So Lord I just pray that Your Word would be sharper than a double-edged sword. That Your Spirit would be the one to speak directly into our hearts. Because Lord we do want to return to You. We do want to follow You. We do want to live for You. So we pray in the name of Jesus Christ that you protect us from any distraction, whatever that may be. And I pray you keep our minds alert. And that would be Your words that would come from my mouth. Thank you for this awesome privilege to be Your messenger, and we commit to You our entire time of worship. In Your name we pray. Amen. So if the main idea is to return to the Lord with all your heart,

9:15 what can we learn from the book of Joel? We have to recognize God's wake-Up call. Number two, we have to repent and be restored. Number three, we need to remember God is the ultimate victor. And all of these keep pointing back to returning to the Lord with all our heart. So let's look at the book of Joel. The word of the Lord came to Joel. By the way, what does the word Joel mean? It means the Lord is God. So the word of the Lord came to Joel, and we actually don't know much about Joel, except that he was the son of Pethuel. We don't know where he lived. We don't really know when this was written, but he has a very important message.

10:00 He says, "hear this, O elders, and listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or in your father's days? Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons and their sons the next generation." The word of the Lord which came to Joel is for who? Not just for the elders. It's not just for the youth, right? It's not just for the youth month. It's for all of us. He says, I have a very, very important message for you. Don't miss it. What is this message? He says, He says, "has anything like this happened?" What happened? The.. "what

10:45 the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten. And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten. And what the creeping locust has left," The.. what? "The stripping locust has eaten." What is this describing? Absolute devastation. How many of you know what a locust is? A few of you. Well, I am like the rest of you who don't really know what a locust is, so I had to look it up. A locust looks like this. What does that look like? A grasshopper. And most locusts will live a very ordinary, unremarkable life. They're from an egg. They become like a grasshopper. They eat, they fly around, and then they die.

11:31 But every now and then, and in this case, there was a massive plague. Locusts, when they get together and there's a lack of food, they transform. From a Jekyll-and- Hyde-like transformation. You know, Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? They change color. And as they gather together, they become voracious, ravenous, pests. And if you look at what a locust can eat, one locust can eat two grams of food. ..as much as it weighs. There can be as many as 10 billion locusts in a swarm.

12:19 Can you, can you just think with me? 10 billion locusts. If they eat two grams each. That's 20 billion grams of vegetation. 20 million kilograms of vegetation. And they can span 100, 200km in one day. There can be so many that it's so dark, you can't even see the sun. So this is the plague. A plague like this had just ravaged Israel. Now, this is not even an accurate picture, because there would be a lot more locusts than that. But you get the idea. Imagine what you have worked for an entire year

13:06 is absolutely destroyed by this plague. So what is Joel saying? He's like, this.. "has anything like this happened in your days or in your father's days?" What's the message today? Return to the Lord, with what? With all your heart. Recognize God's wake-up call. Look at verse five. He says, "awake, drunkards, and weep. And wail all you wine drinkers on account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth." A lot of people are asleep, are asleep today. Literally. Well no I don't see anybody sleeping. You know, at the SNS service last night, I had to make them stand up because I saw a couple people sleeping.

13:52 But I realized it's so hard because it's so conducive. The light is dim. Honestly, if I was in the auditorium, I would fall asleep too listening to myself. But I praise God you guys are awake. But spiritually, are we awake? Because if you look at what's happening to our own country, isn't it crazy with this whole entire flood control scandal that exploded? And then all of a sudden, what do we experience? Rain after rain after rain after rain. It's like, okay, God, we get it. We gotta wake up. But sometimes we don't even recognize the wake up call in our life. God wakes us up because He loves us, not to frighten us.

14:38 Right? If you're a doctor and you're a good, loving doctor, and your patient, has a sickness that can be fixed, wouldn't you tell them what they have, so they can get cured? Of course you would. God loves you and He loves me. And He allows things in our life to wake us up. For the Israelites, it was complete economic devastation. And it feels like that's what actually happening in our country. It is so hard for businesses these days. It is. The environment is not conducive. We need to wake up. That is God's wake up call in our life. He uses those kind of struggles. The greatest loss

15:25 is not losing what we have. The reason why Joel says to wake up; because you can experience devastation economically. You can experience devastation relationally. You can experience devastation physically. But if we do not wake up, then it is a greater devastation. You see, the greatest loss is not losing what we have. It is losing sight of the God we need. And we can go through life not knowing, not realizing how much we really need God. What's our message today? Return to the Lord with all your heart. What's our first point? Recognize God's wake up call. Why is sin so serious?

16:13 In Joel chapter one, as we keep reading, verse seven. "It has made my vine a waste and my fig tree splinters. It has stripped them bare and cast them away. Their branches have become white." because of what the locust had done. They ate everything, even the branches. So sin is serious because God's judgment will bring devastating loss. Now, not every loss is punishment for sin, but for sure, when we choose sin, you have to understand, young people and old people, there is a consequence. Not old people, older people; young people and older people, that there is a consequence to sin. There's a judgment. There is devastation.

16:59 That's a reality. And we don't always think that because we don't experience the consequence immediately. But sin is very serious. That's why God wants to wake, wants us to wake up. Why, why else is sin serious? "The vine dries up and the fig tree fails;" The fruit.. "Pomegranate, the palm also. And the apple tree. All the trees of the field dry up. Indeed," read this with me, "Indeed, rejoicing dries up from the sons of men." Why do we sin in the first place? What is sin? What is the appeal of sin? Tell your neighbor, why do you sin? You can say it. Pleasure joy.

17:46 You feel that if I do this, it's going to be better for my family. We believe that by choosing sin, we will actually experience joy. Now the lie is, there is pleasure and there is some satisfaction in sin. But afterwards, look what happened here. Rejoicing dries up. Sin is serious because joy will disappear. It's all temporary. It's all momentary. It's not the real deal. It doesn't last. You can experience temporary pleasure in the moment. But then afterwards, I guarantee you, you're going to be miserable.

18:31 How many of you have climbed Mount Pulag? Can you raise your hand? Yes. I praise God for all you brave souls. The first time I climbed Mount Pulag was with Jesse, Jesse Tan. That was like nine years ago. Well, last week, a couple of us fathers, there were four of us. We decided to take our boys up Mount Pulag as a rite of passage. And I could literally preach an entire sermon on that experience- on what Mount Pulag was like. Here's a picture. This was at 5:30, I think, in the morning. So we started climbing at, two. We made it to the top. It was difficult. It was tough. But there were different words of wisdom that were exchanged

19:19 from the fathers to the sons helping the sons understand what it means to be a man. This is a rite of passage. So Andrew is turning 13 in December. So I brought Andrew because I want to help them understand what does it mean to be a man? And I praise God for what, what was shared. I'm going to highlight one thing, one one phrase that caught my attention, which I believe would be a blessing to you. One of the gentlemen, one of the men shared this with the kids. Can you read it with me? Never judge an experience by how you feel in the moment, but by how you feel afterward. Let's say it again. All the young people in the house. That means all of you can read. You're all young. Never judge an experience by how you feel in the moment,

20:06 but by how you feel afterward. You see, sin is serious because your joy will disappear. Yes, there's pleasure in the moment, but afterwards it's a lifetime of regret. Your joy will disappear. Why is sin so serious? Joel 1:12 tells us "the grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord." What happened here? Remember in Habakkuk we learned not just to return to the Lord, not just to wait on the Lord, but to worship the Lord. You know when you sin, sin is serious because our worship and fellowship with God will.. what? Suffer.

20:51 So if there is sin in your life, God is saying, wake up. Recognize God's wake up call. Return to God. Don't you sin. It is not only going to destroy you, it's not only going to steal your joy, it affects your relationship with God. You know, I've been blessed by some of the young men in CCF. I've talked to some of them, and one of them I said, how have you remained pure? You see, this young person did not look at porn, didn't masturbate for five years. I said, how did you do it? He said, when I started making the connection that when I choose sin, I see that it affects

21:37 my relationship with God and the joy that I have with a relationship and the intimacy with God, I realize, is greater than whatever pleasure I was experiencing here. And I, I didn't want to trade this for the Lord. Your worship with God is affected when you and I hold on to sin. So God is saying, wake up. Whatever you're experiencing, if you're experiencing challenges, it may be because of sin in your life. It may not be, but it may be. And if it is, God is saying, what? Wake up, return to Me. Why is sin so serious? Look at verse 18, "How the beast groan!

22:22 The herds of the cattle wander aimlessly because there is no pasture for them. Even the flocks of the sheep suffer. Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness." It's the animals that are affected. Sin is so serious because its consequences will affect others. You know, I know a lot of people struggle with the thought of suicide, and they think that by committing suicide, then everything ends. You just talk to a family member who has experienced suicide in their family, consequence of sin is so great. It affects

23:08 so much more than what you think. A spouse falls into immorality. What does that do to the marriage? It is one of the most painful things for a spouse to have to go through. What does it do for the family? It's devastating. It's never just your sin. Your sin is affects the community. Your child. You get into some kind of addiction. Your sin affects your entire family. So don't deceive yourself. Don't deceive myself. Sin is serious. And that's why God is saying, wake up. Now what is the greatest

23:53 reason why sin is serious? Look at chapter two, verse 11. Can you read it with me? "The Lord utters His voice before His army. Surely His camp is very great. For strong is he who carries out His word. The day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome. And who can endure it?" Who can endure the day of the Lord? Tell me, who can? No one. You see, when you and I sin, ultimately, we're sinning against the most awesome, the most holy, the most righteous God. The most righteous being in this entire universe, the most powerful being.

24:38 The most terrifying consequence is facing God's righteous judgment. Do we have a holy God? We do. Is He awesome? Yes. Let's praise God for who He is. He is really awesome and holy. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the greatest consequences when we sin, we're sinning against God. So God is telling us, hey, return to Me. Recognize God's wake-Up call. Maybe you're not experiencing anything yet, but you're listening to this sermon. You're listening to this message, and you see from the life of the Israelites, complete devastation and how sin has impacted every part of their life. Or maybe you've experienced

25:25 the consequence of sin yourself. And if I were to end the message here, it would be very depressing. It'd be very terrifying. Before our second point, let me give you the good news. Let's read our memory verse together. "Yet even now." So in spite of all the stuff that was going on that we just read right. And in chapter two of verses 1 to 10, it talks about how the earth will tremble. But God now says this: "Yet even now," in verse 12 "declares the Lord, return to Me with all your heart and with fasting, weeping, and mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments.

26:10 Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and relenting of evil." What's the good news? Who invites us to return to the Lord with all our heart? God himself. The same God who says, look, this is how serious sin is, He is telling you and I to return to the Lord with what all your heart. And what is the basis? Is it our ability to repent or turn to God? It is founded on whose character? God's character.

26:55 One more time. Let's read this, "for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and relenting of evil." You see, our second point is repent and be restored. Return to the Lord with all your heart. Repent. Once you recognize that, okay Lord, I get it. There is sin in my life. There is compromise. I want to repent because of who You are. You are the one inviting me to repent. You are gracious. You are compassionate. You are a God of lovingkindness. Slow to anger. Would you repent today? What does repentance look like?

27:41 Say this with me. Whole hearted repentance. We need to repent with our whole heart. Remember, our heart is deceitful. So we need a whole heart to repent. Where do we see that? He says, "return to Me." With what? "All your heart." My dad always uses this example, right? How many of you are married, can you raise your hand? Okay. How many of you want your spouse to love you with 99% of their heart? None of us, right? He says you keep 1% just for that one person that you know, was your friend in high school. Your spouse will never agree. God is the same way. He says, return to Me. With what? All your heart. With your whole heart. And He says this.

28:26 "Rend your heart and not your garments." What does it mean to rend? I was thinking of wearing a shirt today and ripping it, but I feel that that may be too much for church. But it might work for youth month. A lot of people, when they sin in the Old Testament, they rip their clothes as a sign of what? Repentance. But you see, you and I can cry. We can be sorry. At the same time, maybe our heart is not truly repentant. Have you met people like that? Have you, have you actually seen yourself do that same kind of, I guess I would say

29:13 I don't want to call it acting, but our heart is deceitful and we can. But I guarantee you, if you're truly repentant in your heart, these things are a part of it. Fasting, weeping, and mourning. So it's not saying that those things aren't important. Those are external manifestations of what what is happening inside your heart. But don't focus on the external stuff, because the external stuff can happen and your heart is not truly repentant. You see, true repentance is not merely feeling sorry for sin. It is what a wholehearted turning away from sin and returning to our gracious God. Let's say this is your sin over here, okay. I'm

29:58 not saying that these people here are sinful, okay? You guys are good people. But let's say this is your sin over here. When we are, when we recognize God's wake-Up call, sometimes we say, okay, Lord, I'm going to stop. I'm going to stop sinning. So you let go of your sin, but you're still, you're still here. Sin is still there. To repent is not just letting go. It's, it's turning. Metanoia is a change of heart. Your heart is here. God is saying, return to Me. So you turn to God and you hold on to God. I've had friends that have deleted phone numbers because that particular phone number causes them to sin. Got rid of it.

30:45 I have friends that leave devices outside of their bedroom because that device causes them to sin. So when you repent with your heart, you're taking action. You're not just giving lip service. It's not like you got caught, and now you're so repentant and you're sorry and you're crying. You can worship the Lord and you can cry. But what is going on in your heart? God is saying, I want whole hearted repentance. You know when you bring sin to light, it really helps with repentance. Which is sometimes we keep the sin to ourself because we're ashamed. So we don't want to tell people that we're struggling with this. But true repentance means

31:30 you're an open book. I'm struggling with this and I want to return to the Lord. Who is the One that invites us to return to the Lord? God Himself. Yes, the consequence of sin can get our attention, but it is the kindness of God that leads us to what? Repentance. God is gracious. He is compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in what? Lovingkindness. Look at this, he says, "wWho knows whether He will not turn and relent." I ask myself, why? Why did he word it that way? Why did he say, who knows whether God will not turn and relent?

32:17 I realize to repent means to have humility. What's the difference between entitlement and humility? Entitlement is like this. Lord, I'm sorry, I, I repent of my sin Now, please fix all my business problems. I repented already, I, I made bad decisions, I repent; take away all the consequences. Is it a formula like that when it comes to God? No. God promises to forgive us. We see that in first John chapter one verse nine he says, "if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of all our sins." But many times you and I want God to remove the earthly

33:04 consequences of our sin. But I realize, as we pray, as we repent, we need humble repentance. We are trusting the character of God, the goodness of God. Yes, He forgives us. Lord, I made bad choices. I've blown up my family. Will You forgive me? Does the Lord forgive you? Yes. You repent with all your heart. He forgives you. What about the consequences of the sin? Our second point is to repent and be restored. Look at this,

33:50 verse 25. "Then I will make up for you the years that the swarming locust has eaten." You know when you come before God with humility, knowing His character, knowing His goodness, look at what God actually does. It's not a formula where you repent, and then God's going to take away all the consequences. He forgives you completely. But if you look at the book of Joel and I love this verse because and I'll explain to you after we read it, let's read it. "Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten; the creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locusts, my great army, which I sent among you." Do you see the sovereignty of God? God allowed the locusts to come and destroy, devastate the land.

34:37 But God is saying, as you repent and return to the Lord with all your heart. He says, the years that these same locusts there were, there were four types, right? Exactly the same. He says, I will make up for you the years that the swarming locusts have eaten. Verse 26, "You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you." Can you read this with me? "Who has dealt wondrously with you. Then my people will never be put to shame." You know, I know many of us have made mistakes in life and sometimes we feel we've just blown it. I think of that verse because my,

35:24 my brother, where is he? He's over there. But he will often speak about how in his life he felt like there was a season of his life where he just, you know, got lost in gaming and just made, didn't use his time well. But he would use this verse. And I've seen in his life, I've seen it in, in many of your lives, how God has restored the years that the locust has eaten. And it's an amazing God that we serve. He is compassionate. He is gracious. Praise God. Let's praise God, our God. And so He tells us, look, hey guys, wake up, but return to Me with all your heart. Repent.

36:10 God forgives us. Sometimes the consequences stay with us for the rest of our life. But you will see in the passage. Ultimately, when it comes to the final reckoning, God is a just God and you can trust Him even though you're still going through consequences. You may have repented, but there are still consequences in your life. I'm here to also encourage you.. hold on to God's promises. The final chapter is not yet over. Let's keep reading. "Do you not think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that", what? "The kindness of God leads you to repentance." The seriousness of sin should wake us up, but the kindness of God should draw

36:55 you back to Him. Pastor Ricky, if he was preaching, he would say, but wait, there's what? There's more. "Thus, you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other. And my people will" what? "Never be put to shame." You know, the greatest blessing is God's presence. The greatest blessing of returning to God is not getting the crops restored, not getting your health restored. Of course, all of that is wonderful, financially getting restored. But read this with me. The greatest blessing is returning to God is not getting back what we lost. It is getting back

37:42 to the God we need. You see, when you repent, God restores your relationship with Him and it's amazing. God is truly all we need and He takes care of everything else. But don't, don't treat God as a formula, Lord, I repent and so You have to fix all my problems in my life. Don't miss out on the greatest blessing. This is the greatest blessing, A relationship with the Lord. And there's more. Look at verse 28. "It will come about after this that I will pour out my spirit on all mankind. And your sons and daughters, male

38:27 and female, will prophesy. Your old men".. So the young and the old will dream dreams. "Your young men will see visions, even on the male and female servants." It doesn't matter what social economic status you are. "I will pour out My Spirit in those days." God promised to give us His Spirit. In the book of Acts, chapter two, remember when the apostles were all together? Not the apostles, the believers. The Holy Spirit of God came upon them, and they started what? Speaking in tongues. And people thought, these guys are crazy.

39:13 These guys are drunk. Let me read to you what Peter said in acts chapter two, verse 15. He says, "for these men are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken to.." This is, this is "this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel" in verse 17 of chapter two. "And it shall be in the last days, God says, I will pour forth My Spirit on all mankind. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. Even on my bond slaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit,

40:00 and they shall prophesy." Is that amazing? So what Joel spoke about happened in the day of Pentecost. And because we have Jesus who is alive, and He promised to give you His Spirit, you know, you have the Holy Spirit today. Amen. In the book of Ephesians, before it tells us, before it tells wives to submit to their husbands, before it tells us husbands to love their wives, before it tells children to obey their parents. These are all relationships, right? He says, so then, Be, Let me quote.. I'm going to.. I don't want to mess it up. I'll read it for you. Ephesians chapter five.

40:45 I actually memorized this, but I have, stage fright. So I will, I will read it for you. Ephesians chapter five. It says this. Verse 17. "So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." He says, don't be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Verse 18 says this. Do not be drunk. "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation but be filled with the Spirit." If God commands us to be filled with the Spirit, that means that is something that you and I have access to. And He tells us, be filled with the Holy Spirit so we can actually live out

41:31 all these different relational responsibilities that we have. Be filled with the Spirit because God has called you to do what? Major things in this world, right? Minor league, Major impact. We have the Holy Spirit. That is what it means to be restored. Let's keep reading. "I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth. Blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness. And the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes." So he's talking about these amazing things. They're going to happen. And look at verse 32 "and it will come about that whoever in you, can you read this with me, whoever calls in the name of the Lord,

42:17 will be delivered. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls." Why can why should you and I return to the Lord with all our heart? Because ultimately, remember, God is what? The ultimate victor. Ultimately, God will reign supreme. Before we end our time, let's call our testimony sharer. Ken.. Let's welcome Kenneth. Come here, Kenneth. I grew up in a household where scolding, swearing and abuse was normal. At a young age, my father would often beat me whenever he was drunk. I became his punching bag--

43:02 someone he would hurt, even for the smallest inconvenience. Because of this, I grew up with deep hatred towards my father. At the same time, it pushed me to persevere. I didn't want to be like him. I wanted to be better. That's why I studied hard and tried to become someone my mother would be proud of. Every New Year, my uncle, who is part of the CCF Beyond ministry, would lead activities in a short Bible study during our family reunions. Having knowledge of who was Jesus and what He did on the cross made me think that I can be a good, kind, religious, and smart person- or so I thought. I regularly attended church every Sunday. I became part of the praise and worship team, and even served as a youth leader in the local church in Pangasinan.

43:49 But while I was active in church on weekends, I lived differently during the week. I would drink with friends, flirt with girls, and struggle with lust and pornography. I was living a double life. In 2017, our family faced a serious financial crisis, and I almost had to stop college. I desperately wanted to become a teacher, so I cried out to God: "Lord, please help me finish college. Help me pass my board exam and allow me to enter DepEd, and I promise I will use my life to reach students for Your glory." God answered. That same year, the Free Tertiary Education Law was implemented. In 2019, I graduated from college. But because of the pressure to pass

44:34 and hopefully top the board exam, I stopped attending and serving in church. From there, everything started to go downhill. I became sleep- deprived short-tempered and showed signs of depression. Yet despite everything, God remained faithful. I passed the board exam. When I was ready to go back to church, the pandemic happened. Everything shut down. The pressure to provide was doubled, the burden got heavier, and opportunities became scarce. Instead of running to God, I blamed Him and I even questioned His existence. After the pandemic, I landed a contractual job in the government. But because of my performance determined whether I would be renewed, I became strict, impatient, and easily angered.

45:20 Since I was the only one providing for my family, I became controlling and authoritarian at home. One day, my father came home drunk, shouting and causing trouble. We got into a heated argument, and the years of bottled up anger exploded. I hurt him. When he lost consciousness, I couldn't even look at him. When he woke up, he thought it was my brother who hurt him and not me. He never imagined I could do such a thing, because in his eyes, I was still his "good, kind, religious, and smart" son. I was so broken, at my lowest point, filled with guilt and shame, I fell on my knees and cried out to God,

46:05 with nothing left to be proud of, I humbled myself before Him and I asked for forgiveness from God and from my family. In 2022, I applied for a teacher one position at Schools Division Office of Quezon City, and by God's grace, I was hired. Months later, while I was in my classroom, I remembered my prayer from 2017. God answered all my prayers. I realized it was the time to honor my commitment and use my life to reach the students for Jesus. I began attending CCF initially enjoying the anonymity of a big church where I could quietly spend time with God. But one Sunday in 2024, I bumped into a former student who told me he was part of Elevate- CCF youth movement.

46:51 He introduced me to leaders from Elevate Anonas, including Marianne, the campus missionary serving in the school where I am teaching. I learned that Elevate was having difficulty entering our campus because of the changes in the administration. They wanted to reach grade nine students, but could only enter through values education classes. Then suddenly something clicked. That same school year, I had been complaining because my head teacher assigned me to teach grade nine and gave me a teaching load in values education. What I saw, what I saw as an inconvenience. God was using as part of His plan. After observing the campus ministry, I joined a discipleship group. There I met people from different backgrounds,

47:36 united by one mission to know Jesus and make Him known. That community brought me back to serving God. During my free time, I would join the Elevate team in visiting campuses and sharing the gospel. Seeing the impact first hand made me realize the importance of discipleship groups. Because of this, I step out of my comfort zone and began leading my own Dgroup as well. In my school, I also endorsed Elevate to the Chairperson of Values Education, and we began working toward adopting one of the Elevate Campus program called #NotAlone, to be one of the school's official projects. Recently, I organized a grade nine event called Parade of Professions. After the program, my DGroup leader Kuya Rob

48:23 shared the "Secret to Success" and by God's grace, more than 200 students heard the Gospel and accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Praise God! Teaching is not easy. My patience is constantly stretched, but knowing that God can use me to reach the next generation makes it deeply fulfilling. Last April to May 2026, I also had the opportunity to join Elevate Go. Through the mission trip, God allowed me to encounter Him through different people, share Jesus with others, and know Him more deeply. He gave me a greater burden for people who do not yet know Him, and deeper compassion for those He has called me to reach. God also allowed me to make peace with my dad. I prayed for his healing and freedom from his struggle

49:09 with alcohol. God answered, but not in the way I expected. On July 17,2026, my dad passed away. It was one of the most painful experiences our family had gone through, yet even in our grief, I saw God at work. His passing opened an opportunity for me to share the gospel with my entire family. On the night my dad died, I shared Jesus with them and by God's grace, they all accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. For so long, I thought that being a good person was enough. But God showed me that I needed more than religious activities. I needed genuine repentance. I needed to acknowledge my sins, surrender my pride,

49:54 and allow Him to transform my heart. Looking back, I realized that my story is not just about how God answered my prayers, restored my passion for ministry, or used me to reach the next generation. It is a story of how God patiently pursued me, even when I was running away from Him. I may never fully understand why things happened the way they did, but I am learning to trust God who sees the bigger picture. The same God who pursued me in my rebellion, restored me in my brokenness and brought me back to His purpose is the God who continues to work in my life. Today, I stand here not as someone who has perfected his life, but as someone who has experienced the grace of a perfect Savior. Please pray for me, for I am still a work in progress. I still have weaknesses,

50:40 and I still need God every single day. My name is John Kenneth Caraan, a sinner redeemed by His grace, a broken heart restored to repentance, and a life transformed to know Jesus and to make Him known. To God be the glory. Praise God. What is our message today? Return to the Lord with all your heart. When you recognize God's wake up call, repent and trust God to do the restoration. His way. His way is better than your way, trust me. We also return to the Lord because we have to remember that God is what? The ultimate victor. I don't want to be on the other team when it comes down to it. You know that player that always wins

51:25 the game? God is the ultimate victor. Where do we see that? Look at the book of Joel. He says, "I will gather the nations," this is chapter three now.. "and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there. On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel whom they have scattered among the nations. And they have divided up My land." God talks about a day of reckoning. The last verse in the book of Joel is this. Verse 21, I jump to verse 21. "I will avenge their blood which I have not avenged. For the Lord dwells in Zion." Who is the great judge? God is. And so even if you see injustice going on in our world today,

52:13 it is not the final chapter. God is giving people an opportunity to return to Him. But the day will come as it says here. "Multitudes multitudes in the valley of decision." On this day of the valley of decision, it's too late. You cannot turn to God anymore. You cannot return to God. Today, you can. Remember in verse 12 He says, even so, even though all these things are going on, He says, return to Me with all your heart. But on this day, this final day, it's too late, "For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon grow dark and the stars lose their brightness. The Lord roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth tremble."

53:00 I have a friend that was in GenSan in that last earthquake. He said it was so bad he couldn't even walk out of his house. He would walk and then fall and stand up and fall. It was trembling. And that's nothing compared to the trembling that will happen on that final day. But look at what he says. "The Lord roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth tremble. But the Lord," read this with me, "is a refuge for His people, and a stronghold to the sons of Israel." So the same God that causes the earth to tremble is the same God who is our refuge if we belong to the Lord. What's our message today?

53:46 Return to the Lord with all your heart. Don't delay it. I'm going to combine the message of my brother last week. Don't wait. Return to the Lord today. And you may ask, how can I return to the Lord? I love the book of Romans. This is our last passage. It says "if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will".. what? "You will be saved." You know, who can stand before the Lord? No one. But because we have a God who became man, Jesus, and He paid for the penalty of your sin says, if you "believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,

54:32 you will" what? "Be saved." "For with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness." What makes you righteous? It is the finished work of Christ on the cross. In Him, you have been redeemed, through His blood. "And with the mouth he" what? "confesses, resulting in salvation." "For the Scripture says, whoever believes in Him will what? Not be disappointed." Verse 12. "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him." And now we quote the book of Joel. "For whoever.." who is the invitation for?

55:19 Whoever. It's for all of us. "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord, will" what? "will be saved." Return to the Lord with what? All your heart. If you want to return to the Lord today, you just call on the Lord. Let's bow our heads and pray. Lord Jesus, we thank You that You are the most awesome, wonderful, powerful, righteous, holy God. And at the same time, You are gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness. And because of who You are, Jesus, we turn to You. We return to You. And if there's any person in this room who has not yet entered into a personal relationship with You; thank You, Lord,

56:05 for reminding us that whoever calls on You today, will be saved. So if you're that person and you want to call on Jesus today. Pray with me right now. Jesus, I call on you to be my Savior and Lord. I repent of my sin. I repent from my heart. I rend my heart, Lord, not my garments, not my external crying and mourning. But at the heart of hearts, Jesus I acknowledge that I have sinned against You. And I turn to You with all my heart. Thank You, Jesus, for forgiving me. And thank You for Your promise of eternal life. And, Lord, for the rest of us, whether we be young people

56:51 or older people, I know the struggles is we can look at our mistakes and we can look at the consequences that we're facing in life. And we can get overwhelmed. But thank You, Lord, for reminding us today of the kind of God that You are. And we hold on to the promise that the years that the locust has eaten, you will restore, Jesus. So I pray for all of us, Lord, that have, are dealing with the consequence of sin. Lord we we repent because of who You are, not because of what we can get out of it, but because You deserve all our worship and we repent Jesus, today. But we also hold on to Your promise that You are the God that restores.

57:38 And ultimately, Lord, we know that You are the victor. So even though we live in a broken world where there is injustice, unrighteousness, we know at the end of the age You will make all things right. And so we hold on to Your promise and we live by faith. In Jesus name we pray, Amen and amen. God bless you guys.