A Solemn Assembly for Revival

We just think the economy tanked. Dr. Tony Evans says our difficulties aren't always the result of commonly accepted causes. Unless you and I understand destructive things in our lives are not merely natural phenomenons that take place, then we will only use natural means to fix it and not spiritual means to get it right. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. Have you ever tried to get your point across to someone who simply wasn't paying attention? Today, Dr. Evans talks about how God deals with that kind of frustration with us.

Let's join him. When 9-11 hit and the World Trade Center was destroyed by terrorists and thousands of American lives were lost, the president of the United States and the Congress called America to a solemn assembly. The normal activities of the nation were suspended. When we were affected in a way we did not expect that shook the very core of our foundations, it became very clear that whatever we were dealing with was a lot bigger than we anticipated. On that day, everybody went to church.

That was not a time for laughing or joking or playing because things were too serious. As the president and Congress gathered together in Washington, it was televised on CNN across the nation. It was indeed a solemn assembly because it was a serious situation. It was a call to a sacred gathering because of a crisis we neither understood nor knew how to fix. Similarly, the book of Joel is a book calling God's people to a serious sacred gathering. What he calls more than once in these few chapters a solemn assembly, a serious sacred gathering of God's people.

Why did he call them to this gathering? Well, he tells you in verse 4 of chapter 1 what the gnawing locusts have left, the swarming locusts have eaten, and what the swarming locusts have left, the creeping locusts have eaten. And what the creeping locusts have left, the stripping locusts have eaten. Israel, God's people, were undergoing a locust invasion. Every 17 years, the state of Maryland and the city that I was born and raised in of Baltimore experiences this invasion. Last year was the 17th year, and I happened to have been home or had to go to Baltimore, and I got off the plane and walked down the baggage claim, and I'm seeing people swatting and stomping and running because that was the time of the invasion. These things covered cars, were flying in people's hair.

It was horrific. They live underground for 17 years, and then they come to the surface to mate, then to bury their eggs for the next 17-year cycle. This was a locust invasion, and this locust invasion had wrought havoc. Now, if you are an aguarian people, that is, if you are a farming community and your community survives on the farmland and you have a locust invasion, your economy is in trouble because you live and die by the work of the farm, by the planting and the harvesting. Israel is an aguarian society.

It is an agricultural environment. And as you read in verse 1, the locusts were coming in waves. What one group of locusts didn't get, the next group got, and what that group didn't get, the next group got. And it went on and on and on and on and on, and it was wreaking havoc in the nation. In fact, he says in chapter 1, verse 6, For a nation has invaded my land, mighty without number.

Its teeth are like the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of lioness. It has made my vine a waste and my fig tree splinters. It has stripped them bare and cast them away. It was wreaking havoc on Israel's economic stability.

It was an economic crisis. This crisis is described as the day of the Lord. Verse 15 of chapter 1, Alas, for the day, for the day of the Lord is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

The locust invasion, described in verse 1, is called the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord's destruction. There are two days in the Bible, the day of man and the day of the Lord. The day of man is when man appears to be calling the shots.

Man appears to be running the show. It's when you say, boy, I can't believe people would do that, because it looks like men are having their way. But there's another day. It's called the day of the Lord. It is when God decides to no longer let men call shots anymore, and where He directly intervenes in the human situation in order to bring judgment that He might bring restoration. In other words, the reason that there was a locust invasion is because God was now making a spiritual point. But God's people back then, like God's people today, failed to make the connection between what appears to be a natural phenomenon and the supernatural work of God.

We just think housing mortgages failed. We just think the economy has tanked, because we've not made the connection between economic disaster and the day of the Lord. The Bible notes numbers of ways in which God manifests Himself. He manifests Himself meteorologically through weather patterns, the Bible says. Here He uses the force of nature through locusts, and destruction was ruling.

It was the day of the Lord. They needed to now understand the spiritual components behind their economic disaster. God said, these are not just locusts, these are my locusts, my army that is devouring your crops and causing your chaos. Unless you and I understand that the destructive things in our lives are not merely natural phenomenons that take place, but the visitation of God. Then we will only use natural means to fix it, and not spiritual means to get it right.

The call for a solemn assembly was because there was a crisis that they could not fix. One of the ways you know it's a divine visitation is men can't fix it. You can't fix it. The folk you know can't fix it.

The folk you thought had the power to fix it won't fix it. There is no human solution. That means it's not man's day.

It's the day of the Lord. You and I are driven to the doctor when the over-the-counter stuff won't work. You've tried it over-the-counter, you've tried to fix it yourself, you've tried to do it yourself, you've used all the homemade remedies that you can think of or know about, and nothing is working, and so you are driven to somebody else. God knows how to drive us back to Him by creating negative scenarios that men can't fix.

Over-the-counter solutions won't work. He calls them to a solemn assembly to blow the trumpet in Zion, the official call, because there was a spiritual issue, and if they wanted to fix the locust problem, they had to deal with the locust sender. He said this is a time of weeping, of mourning, of sadness, and of sorrow. We all like comedy shows. We all like to laugh. We all like to party. We all like to have fun.

Nothing wrong with that, but you don't do that on this day. If you're really sick, partying is not on your mind. If you're really sick, comedy shows are not what you're after.

You're after help and healing. If you have lost your job in this crisis, it's not funny because you're facing something now that is detrimental to you and your family's well-being. A solemn assembly is not a fun time. That's not a time where you're laughing and you're shouting and you're celebrating. There are times for that.

On New Year's Eve, we celebrate and we embrace one another with joy as we end one year and begin another year. That's not a solemn assembly. A solemn assembly is a serious gathering. This is deadly serious because God has manifested Himself in a way that allows for and actually brings about destruction. So what did God expect out of that solemn assembly?

Dr. Evans will have the answer when he continues our message in just a moment. First though, I want to tell you about his popular devotional book, Stronger Together, Weaker Apart. This book will teach you how to harness the power of prayer in overcoming anger, disagreements, and misunderstandings.

You'll learn how to heal relationships, find common ground, and impact our world in meaningful ways, even in these days when our in-person contact may be limited. If you get in touch with us and request Stronger Together, Weaker Apart right away, we'll send it to you as our way of saying thanks for your contribution toward Tony's ministry. And along with the book, we'll include all 14 lessons in Tony's current two-volume teaching series, Learning a Nation to God. When you make the arrangements online at tonyevans.org, you can instantly download the digital copies while we send the CDs and book your way. Don't miss out on this limited-time offer. Visit tonyevans.org today or give us a call day or night at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our resource team members help you.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, Dr. Evans will return with more of today's lesson right after this. You can work through any time you want at any pace you want. Along the way, you'll explore key teachings and learn how to apply them in real-world situations. There's lots of exclusive content from Tony to keep you interested and motivated and an online forum where you can ask questions, get answers, and collaborate with other students.

It's almost like having a seminary on your smartphone. Visit tonyevans.org today and connect with the Tony Evans Training Center where you can explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere. What was God after? Chapter 2, verse 12. Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Verse 13, rend your hearts, not your garments.

Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil. What's the purpose for asylum assembly? Returning to God.

That's the purpose. Why was there a locust invasion? Because they had left God.

Why was there deterioration in their economy? Because they had left God. It was because they had left God, which is why he has to tell them to return, that chaos ruled in their world. If chaos is ruling in your world, if the locusts, the circumstances are chewing up everything you're trying to plant and produce, every time you're trying to go forward, if you're being driven back, then you must at least raise the question, have I left God? See, the question then is not, have I met the right people? Am I hanging out in the right places? Am I employing the right strategy?

That's not the question. The question now is, have I left God? He says, return to me. It's like a sergeant calling his troops to an about face. To come, you're pointed in the wrong direction, you're going the wrong way. It's another word for repentance.

A change of mind that reverses a direction. Instead of going away from God, now I'm coming back to God. But he explains what he means by coming back to God, and this is to be your focus and our focus during this solemn assembly that we ourselves have called. He says that this returning to God is a return of the heart, and not merely a tearing of the garment. You see, when religious people back then were in a solemn assembly, they would often put on sackcloth and ashes, sort of a canvas kind of cloth, or they would rend or tear their clothes without returning their hearts. The solemn assembly only works if your heart's in it. It doesn't work just because your body shows up. He says, tear your heart, not your clothes. In other words, the solemn assembly only works if this is internally driven and not merely externally driven. If you're merely going through a formality, you've wasted your time.

Because a solemn assembly is serious. It is seriously returning to God. It is seriously saying, I want to get back on the right page with God. It is seriously saying, I want God to have his way in and through me. He says, return with all your heart. God says what we have in us spiritually is like what we have in us physically.

That's why he uses the word. He says, come to me with all of your heart. He is saying, relate to me as your fundamental source. Just like the blood gets everywhere because the heart is pumping, so I am to flow fully throughout your life because I am the center. I am the bumbum, bumbum, bumbum, bumbum, I am the heartbeat, the reference point for you. Simply showing up won't work, he says.

Simply looking the part won't do. There must be as a part of this a sincere inner desire to allow me to reclaim the pumping part of your life, the source for everything else, because the blood is pumped for everything else. I am to be the source for everything else. It is relinquishing the self life for the God life. It is no longer simply going through ritual, doing the thing because I'm supposed to. It is now the relational.

It is I want to return to you. I want a relational priority with God. That's why he calls for fasting. He calls for fasting because of the relational priority. You return to me, and he says, and I will return to you.

How important was this assembly? Consecrate a fast, verse 15. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, get the elders involved, get the children involved, and the nursing infants. Tell the bride and the bridegroom to come out of that chamber.

If there's any time you don't want to be dealing with a solemn assembly, it's on your honeymoon. He was saying this to illustrate how serious the gathering is, how important the assembling is, the suspension of normal activity. Blow the trumpet in Zion, verse 15. Again, he says. Sound the alarm.

Call the people together, because this locust problem is not just locusts. It's the day of the Lord. It's divine interruption. What do we want God to do? Again, verse 13 says, in the middle of the verse, He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness, and relenting of evil.

Here it is. God is willing to change His mind. That's a powerful statement. Relenting of evil. He actually wants to change His mind. He actually wants to tell the locusts to go back home, to go back underground. He wants to reverse the situation. He wants to flip the switch. I mean, He really does.

Because it takes Him a minute to get hot, slow to anger. And He likes to overflow with loving kindness. Verse 14. Who knows whether He will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind? I can't predict what He's going to do with you.

You can't predict what He's going to do with me. Who knows? I don't know. I don't know what He's going to do. I don't know when He's going to do it.

Who knows? God is sovereign. He'll choose what He's going to do, when He's going to do it.

All I know is He's willing to do it. Now, everybody's situation is different. You're going to be going to God about personal things in your life that's different than my life.

All I can say is He says, return. But then there's a bonus. Verse 25. Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locusts have eaten. The bonus here is God can not only reverse.

He can make up. He says, I can restore the years that the locusts have taken. You know what many of us have lost that's more precious than anything else? Time.

I'm showing the sound of my voice. There are many people who, if you could have done it all over again, if you could turn back the hands of time, if you could just go back and do it all over again, you wouldn't have done it like you did it. And you can look at the days, the months, and the years that have been lost because of bad decisions, wrong decisions, and you've lost all this time, years.

That's time. He says, I can give you back the years that the locusts have stolen from you. How He's going to do it, I don't know. You're going to have to taste and see that the Lord is good. Dr. Tony Evans, wrapping up a message he calls A Solemn Assembly for Revival, part of his current series, Turning a Nation to God. Get all 14 lessons in this powerful collection to review on your own or share with your small group or Bible study. Contact us right away and ask for details on the set called Turning a Nation to God. And if we hear from you right away, you can get all these messages on CD and digital download, as well as a copy of Tony's book I mentioned earlier, Stronger Together, Weaker Apart. This entire resource package is our way of saying thanks when you make a contribution to the ministry of the alternative. We're grateful for your support because it's the only way we can continue bringing you this program and maintaining our outreaches to pastors, their families, and churches wanting to reach their communities. So get in touch before this special offer runs out.

Just give us a phone call at 1-800-800-3222, and one of our resource team members will help you make the arrangements. Or visit us online at tonyevans.org. If your spiritual life feels as empty and lifeless as an old skeleton in the desert, Dr. Evans has some good news for you. Tomorrow he'll explain how God can restore you to the point where you just feel like dancing. I hope you'll be with us. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.