Rejoice, Here is Your God

Good morning! Welcome to the Vineyard. If this is your first time, my name is Kevin and I’m the pastor here. Our vision at the Vineyard is simple - we want to embody Jesus to our neighbors. This happens by growing in three ways, through what we call our pillars.

First, is Presence. We want everyone to experience the presence of God. This is what transforms us to love him and others. God’s presence is where we become fully alive. We want you to know the Father.

Then, Formation. God doesn’t just love us; he is forming us to be his people who can carry his life and love to those around us. Formation is where we learn to embody the Jesus way of life. We want you to imitate the Son.

Finally, Mission. Being on mission is how we join God in the work he is doing to bring his reconciliation, justice, and mercy to earth. This is how he is bringing healing and renewal to the world. We want you to partner with the Spirit.

Presence. Formation. Mission. Be thinking about your next step. Where is God calling you to go deeper with him?

Pray...

Intro

Today is the third Sunday of Advent, a Sunday where we are directed toward joy. I’ve called today’s message Rejoice, Here is Your God. Although, we have to acknowledge that rejoicing and having joy can be difficult.

Read Isaiah 35:1-10

Have you ever been in a desolate place? I’m thinking of somewhere like the panhandle of Oklahoma. NO ONE books a week-long vacation in Guymon or Boise City! It’s pancake flat with nothing but scrub brush and jackrabbits as far as you can see. It’s literally a place you can watch tumbleweeds roll across the highway. Ugly!

There are some desolate places that have a certain beauty, but Isaiah isn’t talking about one of them. He’s talking about a desolate wilderness that no one wants to travel through. One that is devoid of the kind of plant and animal life you’d want to see; teeming with all the kinds you don’t - jackals & lions. This is the bleakness that Isaiah sees around him as invasion threatens the land.

But desolate doesn’t just describe a physical landscape. It can also describe our life. Have you ever been in a desolate place spiritually, where God seems distant and problems feel near? Have you ever experienced a kind of emotional or physical desolation? Isaiah is also describing an internal landscape, one his readers would identify with, and one we still often identify with today. Life can feel desolate because:

We face uncertainties about our future which fills us with anxiety and fear.

We face regular disappointments - either by life’s circumstances, or even worse, when those we thought we could rely on let us down. We don’t get the job we want, our kids don’t make the choices we’d hoped they’d make, we get a report from the doctor that we didn’t want to hear, and the list goes on.

We face our own addictions and bad habits that we don’t feel like we will ever be free of.

If we set our eyes just on our circumstances, we’d often be quickly overcome with hopelessness. A friend of mine posted a quote on FB this past week that I think sums up our internal landscape - “Expectations are premeditated resentment.” When I first read it I thought, “Yeah, there is some truth in that statement.” Especially at this time of year when we pin a lot of expectations on being with family and friends for the holidays - expectations that can be crushed due to conflicting schedules, unexpected illness, and breakdowns in our family relationships. It seems the point of the quote is that we shouldn’t have expectations and therefore we won’t be left with disappointment and feelings of resentment. Again, there is a certain kind of truth in that.

But the Lord kept bringing me back to that quote. Is it really true? Is it the truest truth? Is there wisdom there, or does it just disguise a cynical attitude? I think the lesson we should get from the quote boils down to, not if you should have expectations, but what you put your expectations in. If your expectations are centered on what people do or on your circumstances, then yes you will be disappointed and filled with resentment. It’s hard - perhaps impossible - to find joy there.

Isaiah calls us to see beyond people and situations - and even our own desolate landscape. To set our expectations in who God is and what He is up to. To rejoice in spite of our circumstances. In fact, this entire vision centers around the joyful announcement of v. 4: Isaiah 35:4 “Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

Isaiah’s message to his readers - and to us - is to look up. Look up from our circumstances and disappointments, and look to the One who is coming for you! He is coming with vengeance against all that has caused harm and pain. He comes to wage war against those things that are aligned against us - including our own addictions and sin. He comes to save and deliver us - even from our self.

Renewal

When he comes there will be a complete restoration of the land. The desolate places will be filled with life. They will be safe to walk in. There will be abundance in the earth as God intended. There will be a renewed creation. This creation groans under the curse of sin. But when God comes there will be the undoing of the curse and a full restoration.

But God comes, not just to remake the world, but to remake us. To strengthen weak hands and feeble knees - to lift up those weighed down by fear and grief. He comes to open the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf, to cause the lame to leap and the mute to sing. When he comes, will he do this literally or figuratively? Yes!

And so the only response to Isaiah’s glad announcement - the only right application of the passage - is rejoice! In fact, in many churches, today is called Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is Latin for “rejoice”. It’s why we light the candle that represents joy on the Advent wreath. But Gaudete isn’t a suggestion; it is a command. Not to rejoice because everything in our life is perfect - if we waited for that we’d never rejoice. But to rejoice because our God is coming and the suffering and trials of this life won’t endure. Shame, pain, depression, fear, illness, oppression and all the other ills that affect human life don’t get the final say. This is the good news Isaiah brings, and to rejoice is our act of defiance against the brokenness of the world.

Rejoice because things that were desolate are about to blossom. Rejoice because that which was barren will again bear fruit. Rejoice because with God our hopes and dreams don’t die - they get redeemed and renewed and turned into something better than we could have imagined on our own.

God has come

And Isaiah’s joyful vision isn’t only for the future. It’s already begun in Christ. The Gospel reading for the third Sunday of Advent says:

Matthew 11:2–6 (NRSV)

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

John the Baptist is in prison, and it may be dawning on him that he will never get out. He may wonder if he has fulfilled his calling as a forerunner of the Messiah, and he’s looking for some assurance that he didn’t run in vain. So he sends some of his followers to see if Jesus really is the Expected One. And rather than simply saying “yes”, Jesus tells them “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear.” Jesus answers by saying that Isaiah’s vision for a renewed world and a renewed life is now fulfilled in him. Jesus came to restore the rule and reign of God on earth, where sickness and destruction and demons no longer have power. His miracles are a foretaste of the complete healing we and the earth will experience when he returns to consummate his kingdom rule.

But Jesus’ kingdom is also here now. We are kingdom people, understanding that Jesus has launched something new already, and he invites us to walk in it even now. The Holy Spirit has been poured out to begin making God’s kingdom a reality today. We won’t find ultimate healing and restoration until Christ returns, but we can already begin to walk in new creation. Jesus has come, and he can make your life begin to blossom and bear fruit today!

Friends, God has made a highway through the desolate place, and that highway is Jesus. It is for those who have put their trust in him. The Apostle Peter wrote, 1 Peter 1:18-19 “You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.”

Are you on the highway? Have you entrusted your life to the one who comes to renew and remake you? I invite you to do that today… (next steps slide)

Are you a believer? Then the only response of those who have been ransomed is - rejoice! Rejoice in God today, not because your life is perfect or all you want it to be. Rejoice because your God came - and is coming - and he brings renewal with him.

Isaiah 35:10 “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Amen.