WEBVTT 00:00:06.060 --> 00:00:10.300 Isaiah chapter 6 this morning. It's such a good 00:00:10.300 --> 00:00:12.279 passage. I hadn't preached from this passage 00:00:12.279 --> 00:00:14.519 in a while and I was reminded of it this week 00:00:14.519 --> 00:00:16.480 in a text message. Some of you may have got the 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:18.399 same message I got. And I said, you know, that's 00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:21.399 a good couple of verses. I think we're going 00:00:21.399 --> 00:00:24.879 to talk about that this week. Isaiah. That's 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:30.879 in the Old Testament. Isaiah chapter 6. We're 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:32.700 just going to look at the first eight verses. 00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:48.780 Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1. Isaiah chapter 6, 00:00:48.979 --> 00:00:53.820 verse 1. Let's pray, and then we'll get started. 00:00:55.859 --> 00:00:58.020 God, we come to you, and I thank you for being 00:00:58.020 --> 00:01:01.079 good to us. I thank you for the freedom and the 00:01:01.079 --> 00:01:03.240 privilege that we have today to come into your 00:01:03.240 --> 00:01:08.829 house. Your love, I thank you for everybody in 00:01:08.829 --> 00:01:11.430 this church that we're able to experience your 00:01:11.430 --> 00:01:14.689 love and express love to one another, and I just 00:01:14.689 --> 00:01:16.569 thank you for all that, dear Lord. It's a blessing, 00:01:16.670 --> 00:01:19.909 and I pray that you'd be with us today, that 00:01:19.909 --> 00:01:22.189 you'd free us from the distractions, the good 00:01:22.189 --> 00:01:25.329 and the bad, all the things of this world, the 00:01:25.329 --> 00:01:27.950 worries that we may have, dear Lord, the stresses, 00:01:28.069 --> 00:01:30.870 the struggles that are heavy on us this morning, 00:01:30.909 --> 00:01:33.950 whatever may be competing for our attention. 00:01:34.810 --> 00:01:37.290 and tempting to distract us today, I pray that 00:01:37.290 --> 00:01:39.530 for just a few minutes, God, that you just would 00:01:39.530 --> 00:01:43.010 protect our minds and help us to see your word. 00:01:43.049 --> 00:01:45.250 Dear Lord, you know where we are, and I pray 00:01:45.250 --> 00:01:47.670 that there'd be something in your word that your 00:01:47.670 --> 00:01:50.269 spirit would just kind of prick something within 00:01:50.269 --> 00:01:53.909 our hearts today that you'd work in us in some 00:01:53.909 --> 00:01:55.870 way. And I pray, dear Lord, that you just bless 00:01:55.870 --> 00:01:58.030 our time together, and I ask these things in 00:01:58.030 --> 00:02:04.219 Jesus' name. Amen. The book of Isaiah is the 00:02:04.219 --> 00:02:08.039 prophet Isaiah writing to God's people, Judah 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:13.539 and Israel. They were not very good. We see throughout 00:02:13.539 --> 00:02:17.039 the Old Testament that God's people, they continually 00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:19.879 lived in disobedience and sin, and there were 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:22.620 always some that were faithful, and there were 00:02:22.620 --> 00:02:24.680 ups and downs, and they would do good for a while, 00:02:24.759 --> 00:02:27.460 and they'd follow the Lord for a while, and then 00:02:27.460 --> 00:02:30.539 they would just be... totally disobedient and 00:02:30.539 --> 00:02:34.280 seek false gods and living in all kind of sinfulness. 00:02:34.460 --> 00:02:36.400 And we see throughout the Old Testament that 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:39.960 God sent lots of prophets to them to say, hey, 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:42.800 you better wake up and pay attention. Here's 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:45.219 what's going to happen. You're not doing right. 00:02:45.379 --> 00:02:47.159 You better listen to me. You better seek me. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:50.039 You better turn to me. If you don't, here's what's 00:02:50.039 --> 00:02:53.280 going to happen. And oftentimes it was some hard 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:57.009 times for them. Kind of what Isaiah is doing 00:02:57.009 --> 00:02:58.949 through the book of Isaiah. It's kind of a long 00:02:58.949 --> 00:03:01.909 book, but God's telling his people, hey, things 00:03:01.909 --> 00:03:04.310 are fixing to get really hard for you. And they 00:03:04.310 --> 00:03:06.990 did. They got really hard for the northern kingdom 00:03:06.990 --> 00:03:09.569 of Israel. They were overtaken, and eventually 00:03:09.569 --> 00:03:12.409 they just kind of dissipated. And then sometime 00:03:12.409 --> 00:03:16.370 after that, the southern part of Israel was also 00:03:16.370 --> 00:03:19.490 overcome. It was called Judah in the Bible. Judah 00:03:19.490 --> 00:03:23.439 was ultimately overtaken. And Isaiah's talking 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:25.639 about some of those things that were to come. 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:31.120 And in Isaiah chapter 5, we see some of the problems 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:33.379 that the people were dealing with. We see some 00:03:33.379 --> 00:03:36.800 of these woe statements. You know, woe unto you 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:39.919 because you're doing some of these things. Some 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:42.460 of the things that are mentioned, woe unto you, 00:03:42.580 --> 00:03:45.419 those of you who have many houses and are accumulating 00:03:45.419 --> 00:03:48.490 a lot of land for yourself. Woe unto you, those 00:03:48.490 --> 00:03:50.710 who are drunkards, essentially is what it says. 00:03:50.849 --> 00:03:53.590 Those who like to drink beer early in the morning. 00:03:54.110 --> 00:03:56.770 It's a lot of these woe statements that we see 00:03:56.770 --> 00:03:59.930 in Isaiah chapter 5. One of them that's pretty 00:03:59.930 --> 00:04:03.189 popular that we'll look at very briefly is Isaiah 00:04:03.189 --> 00:04:07.509 chapter 5, verse 20. Woe to those who call evil 00:04:07.509 --> 00:04:10.550 good and good evil, who substitute darkness for 00:04:10.550 --> 00:04:14.150 light and light for darkness. So this just kind 00:04:14.150 --> 00:04:17.319 of gives you an idea of what was going on. in 00:04:17.319 --> 00:04:21.180 isaiah's day and it really is not so unlike what's 00:04:21.180 --> 00:04:23.980 going on in our day as the book of ecclesiastes 00:04:23.980 --> 00:04:27.480 says there's nothing new under the sun now you 00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:29.920 may not realize this but humanity has always 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:32.660 been pretty rotten there are good seasons in 00:04:32.660 --> 00:04:35.139 humanity and bad seasons and there's always some 00:04:35.139 --> 00:04:37.180 good people and there's always some evil people 00:04:37.180 --> 00:04:41.800 but just in our human nature we just We desire 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:44.680 what is against God, and we really have to try 00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:47.259 hard to read God's word and to seek him and to 00:04:47.259 --> 00:04:50.980 pray to him and to trust him so we don't go after 00:04:50.980 --> 00:04:54.959 our fleshly and worldly desires. And sometimes 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:58.300 we're not so unlike the people of Isaiah's day, 00:04:58.459 --> 00:05:02.259 even in our life. Now, we may be tempted to look 00:05:02.259 --> 00:05:04.000 at the world and say, oh, those people in the 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:07.529 world are so evil. Sometimes we need to look 00:05:07.529 --> 00:05:09.529 at ourself, and that's what we see a little bit 00:05:09.529 --> 00:05:12.189 of in this passage we're about to look at. But 00:05:12.189 --> 00:05:15.370 we certainly see and can relate to what Isaiah 00:05:15.370 --> 00:05:19.110 was experiencing. Woe to those who call evil 00:05:19.110 --> 00:05:22.509 good and good evil. We see that all around today. 00:05:22.649 --> 00:05:24.730 There are so many evil and sinful things in our 00:05:24.730 --> 00:05:27.470 world that people celebrate and cheer as though 00:05:27.470 --> 00:05:30.769 they are good. And there are so many good things 00:05:30.769 --> 00:05:32.930 in the Word of God and the goodness of God and 00:05:32.930 --> 00:05:35.819 the goodness of Jesus Christ that people... Right 00:05:35.819 --> 00:05:38.800 off. It's insignificant. So we can understand 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:42.139 what a godly man like Isaiah would have felt 00:05:42.139 --> 00:05:45.019 like. We can understand that even in our world 00:05:45.019 --> 00:05:47.699 today, trying to live with all the things that 00:05:47.699 --> 00:05:51.139 are around us. And we ourselves are trying to 00:05:51.139 --> 00:05:52.899 stay on the straight and narrow and to avoid 00:05:52.899 --> 00:05:57.079 those temptations. Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1. 00:05:59.100 --> 00:06:02.160 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:05.819 Lord seated on a... high and lofty throne, and 00:06:05.819 --> 00:06:09.500 his robe filled the temple. Seraphim were standing 00:06:09.500 --> 00:06:13.720 above him. Each one had six wings. With two he 00:06:13.720 --> 00:06:16.439 covered his face, with two he covered his feet, 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:20.819 and with two he flew, and one called to another, 00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:25.379 Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. His glory 00:06:25.379 --> 00:06:29.990 fills the whole earth. Okay, so we kind of get 00:06:29.990 --> 00:06:32.269 the scene set for us. I'm not really sure exactly 00:06:32.269 --> 00:06:35.410 if Isaiah is seeing all this in a vision. Perhaps 00:06:35.410 --> 00:06:38.310 he really is in the temple and God's revealing 00:06:38.310 --> 00:06:41.310 these things in the physical temple in some visionary 00:06:41.310 --> 00:06:44.009 way. Maybe Isaiah is just out in the middle of 00:06:44.009 --> 00:06:46.009 the woods and all of this is a vision. Whatever 00:06:46.009 --> 00:06:50.209 the scene is, we're not certain. But regardless, 00:06:50.430 --> 00:06:54.189 we see what's going on here. Isaiah is in the 00:06:54.189 --> 00:06:57.529 presence of the throne of God. And there by this 00:06:57.529 --> 00:07:01.050 throne are these angelic creatures called seraphim. 00:07:01.069 --> 00:07:04.850 We see a very similar angelic being mentioned 00:07:04.850 --> 00:07:07.569 in Revelation. I don't think they're referred 00:07:07.569 --> 00:07:10.689 to as seraphim there, but the six wings, probably 00:07:10.689 --> 00:07:13.829 the same angelic beings. And they're saying the 00:07:13.829 --> 00:07:16.490 same thing in the book of Revelation. Holy, holy, 00:07:16.730 --> 00:07:20.439 holy. It says day and night they stand around 00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:24.399 the throne and they continually praise God over 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:29.040 and over, holy, holy, holy. And so Isaiah is 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:32.259 getting a vision of this. He's getting a vision 00:07:32.259 --> 00:07:35.519 of being in the presence of God with God seated 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:39.740 on the throne, an angelic being praising God 00:07:39.740 --> 00:07:44.300 repeatedly. Let's continue on in verse 4. The 00:07:44.300 --> 00:07:48.019 foundations of the doorways shook at the sound 00:07:48.019 --> 00:07:51.620 of their voices, and the temple was filled with 00:07:51.620 --> 00:07:57.060 smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, 00:07:57.300 --> 00:08:01.920 because I am a man of unclean lips, and live 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:05.800 among a people of unclean lips, and because my 00:08:05.800 --> 00:08:12.399 eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. This 00:08:12.399 --> 00:08:15.660 had to be a pretty overwhelming experience for 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:19.019 Isaiah. Now, Isaiah was a godly man. But here, 00:08:19.139 --> 00:08:22.459 Isaiah is in the presence of the Lord. He sees 00:08:22.459 --> 00:08:26.519 these angelic beings. He sees their praise. And 00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:29.879 what is the first thing that he says? He says, 00:08:29.959 --> 00:08:36.139 woe is me. Woe is me. Now, think about that for 00:08:36.139 --> 00:08:41.240 a second. The God who created the heavens and 00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:45.139 the earth. He is a God that has more power and 00:08:45.139 --> 00:08:48.919 majesty and glory than we could possibly imagine. 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:53.059 There is no way for us to imagine the greatness 00:08:53.059 --> 00:08:56.440 of God. No matter how much we may love God or 00:08:56.440 --> 00:08:58.360 how much we may understand about the scripture 00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:02.259 and how much we may long to stand before God, 00:09:02.419 --> 00:09:05.519 I don't believe it is humanly possible for us 00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:09.320 to even imagine what that moment is going to 00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:13.200 be like. And when Isaiah encountered that moment 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:16.980 that he was in the presence of the Lord, he said, 00:09:17.019 --> 00:09:20.840 woe is me. Perhaps you and I will have the same 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:24.929 experience. And one day we will all stand before 00:09:24.929 --> 00:09:28.590 the Lord. There's no doubt about that. Whether 00:09:28.590 --> 00:09:31.970 Jesus comes back today and takes us to be with 00:09:31.970 --> 00:09:34.590 the Lord and stand before him in judgment, whether 00:09:34.590 --> 00:09:37.870 we live another 50 years and die, one day every 00:09:37.870 --> 00:09:41.389 single one of us in this room will stand before 00:09:41.389 --> 00:09:46.409 the presence of the Lord. And I wouldn't be shocked 00:09:46.409 --> 00:09:50.129 at all if our response is the same as Isaiah. 00:09:51.240 --> 00:09:54.259 In the moment when we see the glory of God in 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:57.919 its fullest and we think back in that moment 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:01.960 to our life, it just reveals to us just how sinful 00:10:01.960 --> 00:10:06.179 and rotten we are. That in the presence and the 00:10:06.179 --> 00:10:10.080 power of God, what can we do but just shake in 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:13.460 our boots? What can we say to God knowing that 00:10:13.460 --> 00:10:16.200 God is God and we're seeing Him and now all of 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:19.230 a sudden... In the most starkest contrast possible, 00:10:19.669 --> 00:10:24.049 God is here, and we are way down here, and Isaiah 00:10:24.049 --> 00:10:26.990 sees God, and he's in his presence, and he says, 00:10:27.049 --> 00:10:32.649 Woe is me, because I'm a man of unclean lips, 00:10:32.769 --> 00:10:34.909 and I live among a people of unclean lips. Now, 00:10:34.929 --> 00:10:37.350 he had just spent in chapter 5 talking about 00:10:37.350 --> 00:10:39.529 woe to these other people around him that's doing 00:10:39.529 --> 00:10:45.309 all these evil things, but now even Isaiah. Being 00:10:45.309 --> 00:10:48.409 a godly man. He says, woe is me too. Because 00:10:48.409 --> 00:10:51.110 I'm a sinner. I'm not worthy to stand in the 00:10:51.110 --> 00:10:53.870 presence of God. He says, a man of unclean lips. 00:10:54.029 --> 00:10:56.490 That's probably just another way of saying, I'm 00:10:56.490 --> 00:11:00.289 a sinful man. I'm a sinful man and I don't know 00:11:00.289 --> 00:11:03.149 what I'm going to do standing in the presence 00:11:03.149 --> 00:11:05.929 of God. Well, let's read a little further and 00:11:05.929 --> 00:11:09.909 see what happens. Verse 6. Then one of the seraphim 00:11:09.909 --> 00:11:13.659 flew to me. and his hand was a glowing coal that 00:11:13.659 --> 00:11:18.379 he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched 00:11:18.379 --> 00:11:21.779 my mouth with it and said, Now that this has 00:11:21.779 --> 00:11:24.019 touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, 00:11:24.179 --> 00:11:29.259 and your sin is atoned for. That's kind of a 00:11:29.259 --> 00:11:32.179 weird scene. This angelic being takes this hot 00:11:32.179 --> 00:11:35.200 coal, touches it to his lips. It's symbolic language. 00:11:35.320 --> 00:11:37.279 He said, I'm a man of unclean lips. That is, 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:41.679 I'm a sinner. And the angelic being, Atones for 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:43.879 his sin. He says, look, okay, your sin has to 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:46.159 be atoned for. And that's symbolized in this 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:51.000 language of this hot coal being touched to Isaiah's 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:54.440 lips. That he would be forgiven. That he would 00:11:54.440 --> 00:11:58.600 be atoned for. Now praise the Lord for that. 00:11:59.159 --> 00:12:01.639 Here's a sinner in the presence of God. And how 00:12:01.639 --> 00:12:05.659 can a sinner stand in the presence of God unless 00:12:05.659 --> 00:12:11.360 they are atoned for? Now the same is true for 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:15.340 you and I. The same is true for you and I. We 00:12:15.340 --> 00:12:17.840 can read through the scripture and we can see 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:21.980 enough about the power and the glory of God that 00:12:21.980 --> 00:12:26.100 there should be some fear that's within us. Like 00:12:26.100 --> 00:12:29.139 holy smokes, like I'm going to stand before this 00:12:29.139 --> 00:12:32.929 God one day. And how will I be able to stand 00:12:32.929 --> 00:12:36.110 in his presence? If I stand before God and I 00:12:36.110 --> 00:12:38.950 think back at all the things that I've done and 00:12:38.950 --> 00:12:41.070 said, all the thoughts that have run through 00:12:41.070 --> 00:12:43.950 my mind, and God knows those things, and one 00:12:43.950 --> 00:12:47.049 day I'm going to stand right in front of him, 00:12:47.210 --> 00:12:53.590 where is my hope? Well, our hope is similar to 00:12:53.590 --> 00:12:57.830 that of Isaiah. Our hope is that through God 00:12:57.830 --> 00:13:01.830 we can be atoned for. Now, we're not atoned for 00:13:01.830 --> 00:13:05.330 by a burning coal touching our lips. We're atoned 00:13:05.330 --> 00:13:10.090 for through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the 00:13:10.090 --> 00:13:12.549 way that we can be atoned for so that when one 00:13:12.549 --> 00:13:16.809 day we stand before the Lord, as scary and as 00:13:16.809 --> 00:13:19.769 overwhelming as that may be, there will be a 00:13:19.769 --> 00:13:22.809 certain excitement there and a certain joy there 00:13:22.809 --> 00:13:28.340 to know that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, He 00:13:28.340 --> 00:13:30.559 was nailed to a cross. He became a sacrifice 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:34.620 for us so that all of our sins could be forgiven. 00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:39.799 And praise the Lord for that. Because apart from 00:13:39.799 --> 00:13:43.320 Jesus Christ, apart from Jesus Christ, if we 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:47.440 stand before God and we have not trusted in Jesus 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:51.480 and we have not repented of our sins and we have 00:13:51.480 --> 00:13:56.559 not asked to be forgiven, One day you're going 00:13:56.559 --> 00:14:00.840 to stand in the presence of God and you're going 00:14:00.840 --> 00:14:02.899 to have to answer for everything that you've 00:14:02.899 --> 00:14:08.639 done. And what can you say to God? I wish I would 00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:12.039 have done better. God, please just give me another 00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:16.860 chance. God, let me make it up to you. Let me 00:14:16.860 --> 00:14:20.100 work it out to you, God. Look at all the... The 00:14:20.100 --> 00:14:21.879 good things I did on the earth. Look at how much 00:14:21.879 --> 00:14:24.820 money I had. Look at how famous I was. Look at 00:14:24.820 --> 00:14:30.039 all this. God, was any of this good enough? But 00:14:30.039 --> 00:14:32.120 all you're going to have before you is all of 00:14:32.120 --> 00:14:38.240 your sin. It far outweighs any bit of good that 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:40.159 you can do because there's no amount of good 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:43.860 that we can do to earn forgiveness. It is only 00:14:43.860 --> 00:14:48.940 earned by the goodness of God. And just as... 00:14:49.230 --> 00:14:53.529 God allowed this angelic being to touch Isaiah 00:14:53.529 --> 00:14:58.330 to bring atonement. So God sends one in Jesus 00:14:58.330 --> 00:15:02.429 Christ to be our atonement. Yeah, our sins are 00:15:02.429 --> 00:15:04.110 heavy and they're rotten and they make us feel 00:15:04.110 --> 00:15:06.250 guilty and ashamed, but I want to tell you today 00:15:06.250 --> 00:15:10.190 that when the day comes that you stand before 00:15:10.190 --> 00:15:13.710 God, you can stand before Him with hope if you 00:15:13.710 --> 00:15:15.850 put your trust in Jesus Christ and would ask 00:15:15.850 --> 00:15:18.110 God to forgive you today and just follow Jesus. 00:15:19.069 --> 00:15:22.590 And live for him. You can be atoned for today. 00:15:22.750 --> 00:15:25.549 And that's the only way. That we will be able 00:15:25.549 --> 00:15:28.850 to stand. In the presence of God. With any hope 00:15:28.850 --> 00:15:33.610 at all. For all of eternity. That if we experience 00:15:33.610 --> 00:15:36.730 that atonement today. That perhaps we'll stand 00:15:36.730 --> 00:15:38.870 around the throne. With the seraphim. Repeating 00:15:38.870 --> 00:15:45.490 those same words. Holy, holy, holy. But if we 00:15:45.490 --> 00:15:48.419 reject. Jesus Christ today and stand before God 00:15:48.419 --> 00:15:50.820 that day, perhaps the words we'll be saying are, 00:15:50.919 --> 00:16:01.460 help me, help me, help me. Continue on. Verse 00:16:01.460 --> 00:16:05.000 8. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 00:16:05.340 --> 00:16:08.960 who should I send? Who will go for us? I said, 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:18.049 here I am, send me. Now look at Isaiah's willingness 00:16:18.049 --> 00:16:21.529 to serve the Lord right here. He had just stood 00:16:21.529 --> 00:16:25.990 before the Lord and he said, woe is me in the 00:16:25.990 --> 00:16:29.850 presence of God. But then after he experiences 00:16:29.850 --> 00:16:34.470 his atonement, God said, who can I send? Who's 00:16:34.470 --> 00:16:37.169 going to serve me? Who's going to do the work 00:16:37.169 --> 00:16:39.210 that I need to be done? Who's willing to follow 00:16:39.210 --> 00:16:41.909 me and listen to me and tell the people and do 00:16:41.909 --> 00:16:44.970 what I need them to do? And Isaiah said, here 00:16:44.970 --> 00:16:51.149 I am, send me. He experienced the power of God. 00:16:51.190 --> 00:16:55.049 He experienced the atonement of God. And now 00:16:55.049 --> 00:16:58.679 there's a willingness in him to serve. That he 00:16:58.679 --> 00:17:01.019 says, woe is me, but he says, God, I've been 00:17:01.019 --> 00:17:03.700 atoned for and here I am. I'm ready to serve 00:17:03.700 --> 00:17:06.420 you. Send me wherever you want me to go, God. 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:12.720 Send me. That's a beautiful verse. That's a beautiful 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:16.099 heart. And that should be the heart of every 00:17:16.099 --> 00:17:20.279 person who has been atoned of their sins by Jesus 00:17:20.279 --> 00:17:23.920 Christ. That once we recognize our sinfulness 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:28.099 and we say, whoa, God is... is God and He is 00:17:28.099 --> 00:17:30.380 good and He is powerful and one day I'll stand 00:17:30.380 --> 00:17:33.319 before Him and I'm not deserving of His grace, 00:17:33.400 --> 00:17:35.579 but God, would you please give it to me? I trust 00:17:35.579 --> 00:17:38.759 in Jesus Christ. And once we experience that 00:17:38.759 --> 00:17:40.900 forgiveness, there is peace and there is joy 00:17:40.900 --> 00:17:45.079 and there should be some excitement for us. That 00:17:45.079 --> 00:17:49.019 we should say, God, here I am, send me. I'm ready 00:17:49.019 --> 00:17:54.420 to go and I'm ready to serve you, Lord. So is 00:17:54.420 --> 00:17:58.599 that our response today? Is that your response 00:17:58.599 --> 00:18:02.079 today? How many times do we say that to the Lord? 00:18:02.200 --> 00:18:07.500 Here I am, God, send me. I can say this morning, 00:18:07.579 --> 00:18:12.660 don't do this, if I ask. If God were to say, 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:14.980 who can I send to church on Sunday mornings? 00:18:15.740 --> 00:18:17.920 We'd all raise our hand. Here I am, Lord, send 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:20.000 me. I know that because you're here this morning, 00:18:20.039 --> 00:18:26.269 praise the Lord. What if I were to ask? Who's 00:18:26.269 --> 00:18:27.750 willing to go to Sunday school this morning? 00:18:27.950 --> 00:18:33.190 Well, be a few less hands. What if I was to ask, 00:18:33.250 --> 00:18:36.710 if God were to say, who can I send to the nursing 00:18:36.710 --> 00:18:39.930 home to visit the people out there? Be a few 00:18:39.930 --> 00:18:44.829 less hands. What if God were to ask, who can 00:18:44.829 --> 00:18:48.829 I send into the remote places of Africa to minister 00:18:48.829 --> 00:18:54.349 to those people? Few less hands. Who can I send 00:18:54.349 --> 00:18:57.849 to the... Streets of the big city to help the 00:18:57.849 --> 00:19:02.630 homeless and the poor. A few less hands. How 00:19:02.630 --> 00:19:07.690 many can I send to the prisons to minister? You 00:19:07.690 --> 00:19:10.130 see, there are some things. Here I am. Send me, 00:19:10.210 --> 00:19:13.049 God. Send me to the padded pew with the air conditioning 00:19:13.049 --> 00:19:16.109 and the good people and a good feast to eat sometimes 00:19:16.109 --> 00:19:22.329 after church. Here I am, God. Send me. But the 00:19:22.329 --> 00:19:25.839 things that God really calls us to, sometimes 00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:29.660 are really hard. And maybe we're not so eager 00:19:29.660 --> 00:19:33.319 to say, God, send me. But maybe we should be. 00:19:34.660 --> 00:19:39.339 Maybe you should be. And I suspect that for everybody 00:19:39.339 --> 00:19:42.380 in this room, that there are some times that 00:19:42.380 --> 00:19:45.319 maybe not in a booming, audible voice from heaven 00:19:45.319 --> 00:19:48.359 that God says, I want you to go here. But there 00:19:48.359 --> 00:19:50.660 are times in our spirit, in our heart, that we 00:19:50.660 --> 00:19:55.000 feel like, I think I need to do this. I think 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:58.920 I need to do this thing. But instead of saying, 00:19:58.980 --> 00:20:01.440 here I am, send me, we talk ourself out of it. 00:20:02.980 --> 00:20:05.400 I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow. I'll 00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:08.319 do that tomorrow. Because I'm really busy today. 00:20:08.619 --> 00:20:10.819 And I want to do it, God. I'm going to do it. 00:20:10.859 --> 00:20:13.839 I just need to build up the courage. And I'm 00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:16.480 ashamed to say in my life that there are so many 00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:18.920 things that I have put off to tomorrow for years. 00:20:19.059 --> 00:20:23.970 And tomorrow has never come. And maybe we need 00:20:23.970 --> 00:20:25.890 to stop saying, God, I'll do it tomorrow, I'll 00:20:25.890 --> 00:20:29.670 do it next week. And maybe today you just need 00:20:29.670 --> 00:20:32.210 to look at the words of Isaiah and you need to 00:20:32.210 --> 00:20:36.150 say, God, here I am, send me. God, this is really 00:20:36.150 --> 00:20:38.069 scary, this is really hard, this is out of my 00:20:38.069 --> 00:20:41.089 comfort zone. God, this is going to cost me my 00:20:41.089 --> 00:20:43.410 time, this is going to cost me my money, this 00:20:43.410 --> 00:20:47.029 is going to cost me my patience to go and... 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:49.759 see somebody that's an old curmudgeon that just 00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:52.339 is so negative and I don't want to go see them 00:20:52.339 --> 00:20:55.480 and I don't want to love on them, but God, I 00:20:55.480 --> 00:20:57.980 know somebody's got to do it, so here I am, send 00:20:57.980 --> 00:21:02.200 me. You might be surprised that there are so 00:21:02.200 --> 00:21:07.119 many blessings in this world when we do the things 00:21:07.119 --> 00:21:13.039 that we don't want to do. God knows our heart. 00:21:13.349 --> 00:21:14.849 We're not pretending. You don't have to just 00:21:14.849 --> 00:21:16.829 pretend like, okay, God, I'm ready to go and 00:21:16.829 --> 00:21:18.750 do this thing. We can say, God, I'm struggling 00:21:18.750 --> 00:21:20.769 with this thing. God, I really don't want to 00:21:20.769 --> 00:21:22.990 do this. God, this is hard. This is scary. God, 00:21:23.089 --> 00:21:25.650 I know I should want to do it, and I want you 00:21:25.650 --> 00:21:32.150 to change my heart, Lord. But after Isaiah experienced 00:21:32.150 --> 00:21:35.990 the grace of God, the atonement of his sins, 00:21:36.349 --> 00:21:40.160 the first opportunity he had, When God said, 00:21:40.180 --> 00:21:43.880 who can I send to do my work? Isaiah said, here 00:21:43.880 --> 00:21:52.140 I am, send me. What about you today? Have your 00:21:52.140 --> 00:21:56.859 sins been atoned for? You read through the scripture, 00:21:57.079 --> 00:22:00.019 you see God. Not in the same way that Isaiah 00:22:00.019 --> 00:22:03.680 did, but you can see enough of the power of God 00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:05.839 and who God is and the character of God to know 00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:09.269 that. It's going to be pretty intense when we 00:22:09.269 --> 00:22:13.910 stand before Him one day. Woe are us and our 00:22:13.910 --> 00:22:18.329 sinfulness. But praise the Lord for Jesus Christ 00:22:18.329 --> 00:22:21.609 that our sins may be atoned for. Have your sins 00:22:21.609 --> 00:22:25.390 been atoned for today? If they haven't, all you 00:22:25.390 --> 00:22:28.730 have to do is pray. If you just pray to the Lord, 00:22:28.849 --> 00:22:31.490 just ask Jesus Christ to forgive your sins, to 00:22:31.490 --> 00:22:34.910 be your Lord and Savior, to just follow Him and 00:22:34.910 --> 00:22:37.720 live for Him and to seek to... Follow His example. 00:22:38.460 --> 00:22:42.440 Just ask Him to forgive you today. He'll do it. 00:22:42.460 --> 00:22:45.599 He died on the cross to do it. I guarantee you, 00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:49.500 He wants to do it. If you don't know Jesus today, 00:22:49.599 --> 00:22:53.220 that's the only source of atonement for us. If 00:22:53.220 --> 00:22:56.180 you don't know Him, you need to know Him. And 00:22:56.180 --> 00:22:59.660 if you've experienced that grace today, are you 00:22:59.660 --> 00:23:02.440 willing to go? I don't know what God wants you 00:23:02.440 --> 00:23:05.380 to do. I don't know where He wants to send you. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:08.039 It might be something so simple. It might be 00:23:08.039 --> 00:23:11.920 something just crazy. I don't know how God wants 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:14.000 to use you, but I know that sometimes there are 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:16.180 things that God puts on our heart and things 00:23:16.180 --> 00:23:19.299 that God calls us to and opportunities to serve 00:23:19.299 --> 00:23:27.420 that we miss because we say, not I. But Isaiah 00:23:27.420 --> 00:23:32.559 showed us the proper response. When God calls 00:23:32.559 --> 00:23:35.559 you to do something, When you feel the Lord working 00:23:35.559 --> 00:23:39.000 on you, may we be those who are faithful in the 00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:42.640 days to come to say, Here I am, Lord. Send me. 00:23:43.240 --> 00:23:46.240 Let's pray. God, we come to you. We thank you 00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:49.259 for your good word. Dear Lord, there's a lot 00:23:49.259 --> 00:23:52.039 for us to learn. We are not really any better 00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:54.180 off than the people that Isaiah was around, dear 00:23:54.180 --> 00:23:57.460 Lord. We see the same type of evils in our world. 00:23:58.359 --> 00:24:00.359 And if we're honest, dear Lord, we're guilty 00:24:00.359 --> 00:24:03.039 of some of the same evils, God. It's not good. 00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:05.619 It's not okay. We don't just want to turn a blind 00:24:05.619 --> 00:24:08.339 eye to it, dear Lord. But in these few moments, 00:24:08.420 --> 00:24:10.059 God, I pray that you would help us to address 00:24:10.059 --> 00:24:14.359 our sinfulness. That we would not keep living 00:24:14.359 --> 00:24:16.339 in darkness and pretending like we're in light, 00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:19.319 dear Lord. But that we would repent. That we 00:24:19.319 --> 00:24:21.059 would seek you today, God. If there are some 00:24:21.059 --> 00:24:24.859 in this room that do not know Jesus Christ, I 00:24:24.859 --> 00:24:28.160 pray that right now in this moment, that they 00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:30.960 would just ask you to forgive them. That they 00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:33.019 would put their faith in Jesus Christ to know 00:24:33.019 --> 00:24:34.960 that he died on the cross so that their sins 00:24:34.960 --> 00:24:38.279 could be forgiven. I pray that they would just 00:24:38.279 --> 00:24:41.460 pray right now, dear Lord, and ask him to forgive 00:24:41.460 --> 00:24:44.339 them. I pray, dear Lord, that they would just 00:24:44.339 --> 00:24:46.259 experience your peace and mercy and know that 00:24:46.259 --> 00:24:50.019 their sins are atoned for, God. And that when 00:24:50.019 --> 00:24:52.559 we follow Jesus, that we no longer live for ourself. 00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:55.059 We no longer desire to live for the world, but 00:24:55.059 --> 00:24:57.220 we desire to live for him. And I pray, God, that 00:24:57.220 --> 00:24:59.059 if there is any that have done that today, that... 00:24:59.779 --> 00:25:01.839 We can just rejoice with them, dear Lord, in 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:05.259 just a moment. God, maybe there are some in here 00:25:05.259 --> 00:25:08.460 today and they're yours and maybe they've squandered 00:25:08.460 --> 00:25:10.500 some opportunities, some things that you really 00:25:10.500 --> 00:25:13.259 put on their heart, ways that you wanted them 00:25:13.259 --> 00:25:16.900 to serve, things that you call them to. God, 00:25:18.500 --> 00:25:21.759 they didn't respond right. But I pray, dear Lord, 00:25:21.839 --> 00:25:23.740 that you help us to clearly see ways in which 00:25:23.740 --> 00:25:27.559 we can serve. That when we feel you prompting 00:25:27.559 --> 00:25:30.559 and guiding and calling us, dear Lord, that we 00:25:30.559 --> 00:25:34.039 would be faithful to say, here I am, send me. 00:25:34.920 --> 00:25:37.200 And I ask these things in Jesus' name.