Introduction: •   Crimes deserve to be punished. When someone does wrong. Commits evil there needs to be justice. I don’t think anyone would disagree with that. We might disagree on what is wrong and what is right, but we can all agree that crimes deserve an answer. It’s been that way throughout human history. Following WWII the war didn’t really end. Instead a new war began. A hunt for those who had committed heinous crimes during the chaos. Nations came together to hunt out Adolf Eichmann, the man who oversaw the jewish internment camps. Up until 2014 the world was hunting for Alois Brunner the so called “last Nazi”. He died in syria at the age of 97 without ever facing justice.•   We know in our hearts that crimes need to be answer. That justice and punishment are not always a bad thing.•   The book of Joel deals with this exact problem. See, Joel is really weird because it doesn’t point out a specific sin. Ever other prophet follows the same pattern, more or less. They point out a specific sin or crime that the People of God has done, warns them of the consequences and then calls them to repentance. Which they either do or don’t do. The style may change, the format may change but that general formula is pretty much always the same. •   Joel doesn’t point out a specific sin. And there’s an important reason for that. Joel assumes you already know what the issues of Israel are. Constanty through the book Joel quotes other prophets. Isaiah, Zephaniah and Obadiah and a half dozen others. Joel is immersed in the scriptures and he assumes you are too. He assumes you know what he knows That Israel fails again and again and again. They commit crimes against each other, against other nations, and against God.•   It doesn’t matter what the crime of the time is because there always is one. People are always falling away from god. Turning to their own devices. People, without the power of Jesus, are always falling into disaster. Without god the human condition is to be undisciplined, angry, self-serving and self-destructive. •   The purpose of Joel is to make sense of the crimes of his day and find hope for the future. Today were going to see how Joel’s prophetic journey teach’s us about the Spiritual Gifts. •   Section 1•    The book of Joel skips the announcement of sin and moves straight to the warning. God is angry with the sin of his people and he’s coming to bring judgement on them. For all the lies, the hate, the broken promises for all the garbage that is them. He will destroy them. •   Joel prophecies that God’s anger will come like a swarm of locus. Destroying the crops and the livelyhood of Israel. Remember they had no global economy like we do. There was no disaster relief. The destruction of Israel’s crops would be the death of thousands. It would mean destruction on the people of God who had turned away from what is right. •   2  Hear this, you elders;•   give ear, all inhabitants of the land! •          Has such a thing happened in your days, •   or in the days of your fathers? •      3   Tell your children of it, •   and let your children tell their children, •   and their children to another generation. •      4   What the cutting locust left, •   the swarming locust has eaten. •          What the swarming locust left, •   the hopping locust has eaten, •          and what the hopping locust left, •   the destroying locust has eaten. •   A plague of locuts upon the land, and not just a natural plague. It’s a spiritual reality worked out through physical means. The truth is that Israel was already the walking dead. They were as broken as it gets. Even