REJOICE: REVITALIZE

This Sunday, we will shift from Thanksgiving and move into the Advent season.  Advent in the Christian year is the 4 Sundays before Christmas to Christmas Day.  It is intended to prepare our hearts to fully celebrate the gift we have received in Jesus.  This is the most wonderful time of the year, because God became flesh and moved into our neighborhood.  He did this to befriend us, to suffer with us, but most of all to save us!  Our sermon series for preparing our hearts for Christmas is “Rejoice!” We could all use a little more rejoicing in our lives and hearts.  The Evil One wants rejoicing to be difficult and filled with obstacles.  Yet, when we confront the difficulties and overcome the obstacles, then we experience a fuller sense of God’s power and presence.  Rejoice!  It seems so simple, but it is at times wrought with lifting weights and burdens as we lift our voices!  The sermon for this week is Revitalize.  It uses Isaiah 11:1-10.  God is speaking to his people to empower, encourage, and inspire them.  Everything seemed so useless and bleak, but this was not their future!  Out of the dead stump, and the broken hearts, God was going to bring a new future, and it was going to be glorious!  As you start this Christmas season, you may sense all the obstacles to rejoicing, but as you read God’s grand vision, may you sense the turning of darkness into light, of fear into faith, and despair into determination.  Why?  Because the root of David, Jesus, was born in Bethlehem to save his people and all of us!  We pray that you will experience the revitalizing power of rejoicing in your heart as you read Isaiah 11:1-10.

Isaiah 11:1-10: ​

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him– the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD– 3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; 4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. 6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. 7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den, the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. 9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. 10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.