Revival: Revealed
The Power of His Promise
Isaiah 25:6-9

May the grace and mercy of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ help you to trust in what has been promised to you, what has been guaranteed!

The Missing Feast

There is a promise in today’s Old Testament reading that means more to me that it did 7 months ago.

“The Lord of Heaven’s Armies will spread a wonderful feast for all the people of the world.”

We’ve missed too many feasts.

Maunday Thursday, Easter Sunday Brunch, the Women’s Brunch, the combined service potluck. Family fun night meals.

And how many haven’t had the most important meal in our present lives, a meal they were used to every week of their life.

No, I don’t mean the doughnuts between church and Bible Study.

There is something about being gathered at the communion rail together, to receive His body and blood together, to know we are being healed and forgiven, together.

All these feasts we’ve missed in the last 7 months!  How many more are we going to miss in the months to come. 

It can be discouraging

demoralizing

heartbreaking.

It sucks the life right out of us… and we need to revived.

And that revival is realized when we hear this incredible promise of God.

“The Lord of Heaven’s Armies will spread a wonderful feast for all the people of the world.”

What Has to Be Removed!

In order for us to have everyone back in church, back at the altar rail together, to feast together, there are a number of things that have to happen. First, COVID as a threat has to be minimized. We have to have everything in place, and the government has to recognize it.

Simple, right?

It is not as simple as what has to happen for the feast that God has planned and promised.

Let’s look what He h promised to do.

Isaiah, inspired by God, writes,
⁷  There he will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. ⁸  He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign LORD will wipe away all tears. He will remove forever all insults and mockery against his land and people. The LORD has spoken!

There is a cool description there, as God obliterates death and the threat of it. No doubt of it, death is crushed.

As it the grief it causes.

How does God do that? OF what has He spoken..

The Apostle Paul tells us,

⁵⁶  Sin is what gives death its sting, and the Law is the power behind sin. ⁵⁷  But thank God for letting our Lord Jesus Christ give us the victory! 1 Corinthians 15:56-57 (CEV)

Without the power given to death because you and I have sinned, death can no longer separate us from God.

Your sin has been made of no effect, Christ died for it.

That is why not only has sin been made irrelevant, so has all the crud it goes with it. The tears, the mockery, the insults, all of the challenges that sin brings into our lives.

That is the picture in the gospel, as God the King sends His servants out into the streets – go get everyone you see God tells us. And God will fill this place with everyone good and bad alike!

Because He will take care of their sin, and it will no longer disqualify them from being there!

This isn’t just a hope, it is what is promised, and the more we realize that, the more we see it revealed, the more we are revived from all the stuff that sucks the life out of us!

On to the feast

But because of that promise, made before we were born, made before creation, we look to the cross, and realize it is true.

The feast will happen, and we aren’t just invited as guests, we are the church, the Bride of Christ!  The one the Apostle Paul wrote about when he penned,

“²⁶  He made the church holy by the power of his word, and he made it pure by washing it with water. ²⁷  Christ did this, so that he would have a glorious and holy church, without faults or spots or wrinkles or any other flaws.    Ephesians 5:26-27 (CEV)

I would quote Paul again,

“What God has planned for people who love him is more than eyes have seen or ears have heard. It has never even entered our minds!”  1 Cor.2:9

I want you to think of how it is going to feel when we can finally gather inside again. When all those who have had to stay away are home, how it will feel to see Wanda back in her seat, and Debbie and Tom back in their seat, When Tony and Myrna are able to walk in again, when everyone is back where they belong….

And if you think that is incredible, think of the days when we gather before God’s throne, and Pastor Meier and his wife are there, as well as the Lingos, and Al Anderson, and Warren, Hugh, Armando, and Ted jr. and Bonnie and Clyde… wait… that didn’t sound quite right.

Imagine that day… a day promised to you, a day of celebration and feasting a day when ever sin has been lifted off of us, and there is no more despair! 

This is what we are holding on for, this day when every promise becomes tue, just as they became true on the day Jesus rose from the dead…

My friends, Alleluia, Jesus is Risen!
(He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!)
and therefore we are risen indeed!  ALELLUIA.

This means we are in revival, a revival we realize because of the power of the promise of God! AMEN!