Awe/Confession/Sending

Isaiah 6

3 Parts

I thank God

Good evening everyone.

My name is Zach Klundt— I am the associate pastor here at Freshwater chruch.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all tonight.

Your age is my favorite group of people to speak too.

For countless reasons, but one of the main reason is, is because your generation is hungry for truth and you all want to have this active faith.

I have seen that in this generation.

So tonight we are going to start out just a little different.

Tonight before we are going to be in Isaiah 6, and this may be a passage you are familiar with and it not that is okay.

But this story of Isaiah who is given this vision from the Lord and I’m going to break this up into three parts.

The first part we are going to talk about tonight is how there is a need for us to be in Awe of God

AWE OF GOD

Then we are going to enter into a time of admission, and then conclude with assignment.

Lets up open with the reading of God’s word— Isaiah 6:1-4

Isaiah 6:1–4 CSB

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphim were standing above him; they each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies; his glory fills the whole earth. The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke.

Pray with me:

The prophet Isaiah is getting this vision from the Lord.

And this vision is of God sitting on his throne in his temple.

And the train of his robe has filled the temple.

The train of his robe— would be similar to the hem in our shirts.

It is just the bottom of his robe.

And if the hem of his robe was that massive, then can you image how Large the throne was?

Can you picture how big the one who is sitting on the Throne?

Even as Isaiah is putting together word to describe God and what he was seeing he was falling short.

To try to describe God in terms of the created world is always going to fail.

God is utterly outside of our categories.

And there is smoke present and if it was just this alone— it would have been majestic and would have brought anyone to their knees.

But then Isaiah is telling about, these 6 winged fiery creatures called Seraphim and they are all above the Lord.

And they are these massive creatures that would have been on fire!

Fire represents holiness.

We saw this as God put a flaming sword to guard the entrance into eden.

And how he come to Moses in a burning bush.

There was fire that consumed Elijah’s sacrifice on Mount Carmel.

and you have God surrounded by his servants who are literally called burning ones!

They have 6 wings.

2 are covering their face.

2 are covering their feet.

and 2 are allowing them to fly above the throne room.

And these angelic and crazy looking creatures are singing to God.

They are shouting— Holy, holy Holy is the Lord of armies, His glory fills the whole earth.

Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of armies, his glory fills the whole earth.

Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of armies, his glory fills the whole earth.

These creatures are proclaiming God’s holiness and his glory.

What a powerful scene to have witnessed.

And its not like God set this scene up for Isaiah.

Like it wasn’t staged— this is what was happening in heaven as God called Isaiah in this vision.

It was displaying the holiness of God.

And as Isaiah opens his eyes to this scene it had to be a powerfully humbling experience.

So much so that Isaiah cries out!

WOE IS ME!

IF it was me— there is no way I would have been able to stay standing.

The only logically, the only reasonable thing to do is to fall down and worship the Lord.

And know heres the thing— That is our God.

He is incredibly glorious, He is incredibly holy, He is Wonderful, He is amazing, He is our creator, He is incredibly powerful, He is Just, He is incredibly merciful, He is above all thing, He is the King of not just the world, or of the universe but literally everything!

The who deserves our praise!

The only one who deserves our worship!

But here is what we have done— We have made God too small.

We have made God be our good buddy—

The man in the sky who is cool with how we live and when we mess up— he dabs us up and says its all good.

Our worship has become about us and the good feeling we get rather then about our King and the Glory He gets.

God does not exist to serve you.

This cheapen God’s grace.

How we need a vision of the blazing holiness of God.

How we need to be crushed under the awareness of a Being who is greater than the entire known universe

(which is what the seraphim were crying out “the whole earth is full of his glory,”).

How we need to come face to face with a white-hot moral perfection in the presence of which sin cannot even exist.

This is the King we worship.

So tonight as the band gets ready to play again.

Let us start over in our worship to Lord.

Let us begin with an awe and reverence for the Lord.

One that comes humbly to the throne.

One that lifts high his name,

The name above all names.

One that cries out because of His holiness, One that cries out because of his perfection, One that shouts with joy and gladness.

Let us sit and be awestruck by the God of the universe this evening.

Let us approach the throne room of the King tonight much Isaiah did full of awe and wonder.

Graves Into Gardens

The second part of this story shows that when we come into the presence of a Holy God our response is one of admission or confession of the sin that is ever present in our lives.

ADMISSION TO GOD

Let us read the next part of Isaiah 6:5-7

Isaiah 6:5–7 ESV

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

We talked about the throne room and now we hear from Isaiah.

And he cries out woe is me.

I am LOST

I am a man of unclean lips.

This doesn’t mean that he had a cussing problem or he was a gossip.

It means his whole body was unclean that compared to God’s holiness he was filthy.

In Mark 7:20-23 Jesus is speaking here and he says:

Mark 7:20–23 ESV

And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

What comes out of a person from their mouth is evil— is sin.

I don’t think it was just his speech that was sinful.

Rather his whole person was sinful.

He continues on.

The people I surround myself are unclean.

For I have seen the King, the Lord of host.

And Isaiah now knows that he is not clean.

He see that he is a huge sinner and his sin before a perfect God is ugly.

And as he cries out woe is me.

—one of these flaming seraphim flies down to him and has this burning coal which was on the altar for God.

And he takes it and touches Isaiah’s lips.

And the Seraphim says— Your lips have been touched, your guilt taken away and your sin has been atoned for.

The power of forgiveness was not in the seraphim but in the one who sent him to Isaiah.

God alone has the power to forgive.

Yet you notice that he did ask for forgiveness.

Isaiah did not say— Lord please forgive me.

I think Isaiah saw The lord and saw his situation and said there is no hope here.

I can’t even ask for cleansing or deliverance.

He underestimates God’s grace here.

God forgives.

In Isaiah’s case he sent down a Seraphim with a burning coal to cleanse him.

But for us— you and I he sent his one and only son Jesus to live and to die for our sins.

So that they could be atoned for.

When we come toe to toe with a perfect God— A sinless God— it should show us our desperate need to be saved.

And how vastly different we are then Him.

Isaiah 1–39 (2) The Prophet’s Purification (6:5–7)

The necessary first step before any true confession of sin is having an understanding of the glory and holiness of the Almighty God who rules the heavens and the earth.

I hope that tonight we have seen the Lord and have some to a place of understanding that is he Holy.

And because he is holy we understand that we are sinful and in need of Jesus.

Maybe you have never come into a relationship with Christ— I pray that you hear these words.

God loved you so much that he created you and that he sent his son to earth to die for you.

So that he could have a relationship with you.

Not because you are so great but he because he is so loving, and graceful and merciful.

He sent Jesus to live a perfect life to die for you and for me.

So may that is where you need to be tonight.

A chance to just come to the Christ— Talk with someone. Grab one of these adults who would love to chat with you.

The next couple of minutes I want to lead us in a time of confession.

And this might make some of us uneasy.

Because we know we haven’t talked to God about some stuff that we need to talk to God about.

Guess what— He already knows.

He already knows and He has already forgiven.

And that could be good enough for some of us.

But coming to the Father in a spirit of confession is an acknowledgement that of our deep need for Christ.

Confession allows us to be honest and real with ourselves.

We don’t have to pretend that we’re good people.

We can admit that we’ve done all sorts of wrong this week, this year, this month, just today alone.

And that means that we only approach the Lord through the forgiveness won by Christ.

So as we go to God in prayer tonight, assume the whatever position of prayer you need.

This means that you can just sit, and bow your head, and close your eyes.

Maybe you need to kneel or get facedown.

Whatever that looks like we welcome that.

And as I pray— feel free to go off script— you don’t have to listen to me— if you have some stuff you need to go to God about— Don’t let me stop you.

Maybe you just want to sit in silence and as sin gets brought up maybe that will spark conviction in your soul.

If that happens I beg for you to give that over to God.

To confess and be forgiven.

And if you need to keep praying after I am done keep going— but the band is going to play some more songs, and then I’ll be back to talk about what we do next.

So will you join me in prayer:

PRAYER:

Father hear our prayers tonight.

Father hear our confession of sin to you.

I am reminded of 1 John 1:9

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Holy Spirit I ask that you begin to work in each of our lives exposing sin that prevents us from living a life of peace, joy, and of hope.

Holy Spirit begin to bring to light sin that has maybe has been hidden for years.

Bring it put into the light, so that it can be exposed and lose its grip on us.

Here is a list of sins God that we commit against you.

Please forgive the sins of pride and arrogance please humble us daily

God we know that we find ourselves judging others and all of their sin while we sit back and indulge on our own.

forgive us for being Selfish

From arguments to bitterness.

For the grudges we hold even when others say sorry.

Forgive us for with-holding forgiveness because the pain is too deep.

Forgive us for justifying our wrong attitudes.

God we are consistently are mean, ungrateful, and hatred courses through our veins.

God, forgive us as we lust, we seek to have what we can’t.

Father we spend hours filling our heads with porn and we chase down other fantasies that are not part of your plan.

God we confess other sexual sins that continue to drive a wedge between us.

Please Father hear our cries tonight.

We know that this sin that is in our lives needs to be dealt with.

Help us to no longer be chained to our sin but grant us freedom over it.

Forgive us for when our feelings get hurt which causes us to lash out at others.

Forgive us for being are annoyed at the success of others.

Forgive us for dishonoring our parents.

Forgive us when we are unloving and rude.

Lord we know at times we enjoy the chaos but forgive us for stirring the pot and causing disunity.

forgive us for desiring what we don’t have.

We talk about how much better we are then everyone else.

We talk about other behind their back and we say we are just concern forgive us of gossip and lying

Lord forgive us for our worry.

For living in fear.

for worshiping idols.

Father forgive us for putting others things before You.

Our heart is spilt in two we live in the world and we calm Christ, but a spilt heart is a worthless heart.

Lord as we come to you laying down our sins.

The sins that leave us weeping and apologetic.

God hear our confessions and forgive like only you can.

God take these burden and cast them as far as the east is from the west.

God we lift these up to you because only you can forgive.

We thank you that we can be forgiven because of what Christ did on the cross.

Thank you Jesus for paying the ultimate sacrifice so that we can live in freedom from the bondage of sin.

We are free because your grace and your mercy is more.

We are free because of your love for us outweighs the sin.

We know that we can never out sin your love.

Holy Spirit we ask for peace as we confess tonight.

God we love you and we thank you for who you are.

Amen

Jireh

Isaiah 6:8 ESV

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

God does not give Isaiah the detail until after he agreed to go.

Have you ever done that before— agreed to something and then ask what are we doing?

I get the impression that was Isaiah, but not in a bad way— he was saying yes to matter what.

God was looking for someone to go to his people and tell them destruction is coming unless they turn and repent.

The issue is however, that the people that God was looking to send someone to— they aren’t going to listen, they wont hear, they wont understand.

And Isaiah is hearing this and he is just floored.

He goes how long is this going to go on?

And God response— until the end— until the end of time.

Isaiah is a perfect illustration of how transformed lives look.

When this encounter happens in the life of Isaiah it radically changes him.

And a transformed life is anything but silent.

It does involve us have a clear vision of who God is.

To be be in Awe of God.

It requires us to confess us sins to God.

To be saved by him.

With our admission to God.

And the last part of a transformed life is the assignment from God.

These are all parts of a transformed life.

And I don’t know about you but transformed lives are not silent.

How do we know this?

Because then something changes our lives we talk about it.

Anyone ever talk to someone who does crossfit?

Or someone who is doing the new diet fad.

Or they are all about their new car?

Or an app on their phone— or some productivity app has made them so much more productive or disciplined.

We talk about things that have transformed out lives.

We talk about a ton of things that don’t really matter in the grand view of things but we stay silent about the most important transformation we have ever encountered,

which is when a person comes into a saving relationship with JESUS

Prior to Jesus this was our state was death and once we gave our life to Him we now are made alive.

And the Lord tells us to go and share this news with a world that is looking for something to put their hope and trust in.

He is calling to us to raise our hands and say Here I am Send me Lord.

Send when where you want me to go.

I know that is very scary to some but it is also incredible to be used by God for his purpose!

This generation what to make an impact.

Make an impact with the Gospel by living a life that is transformed by it and is not silent.

I don’t mean that you have to have a megaphone shouting at people in the street— but you can have conversations that center around the Gospel.

There are so many people that we all know that do not have a saving relationship with Jesus and the reality is, that if they do not know Jesus when their life ends they will not end up in heaven.

So who is God calling you to speak too?

Who is God calling to you go too tonight?

And look not everyone is going to listen with gladness nor will they like what you have to say—

And that is okay— Let God take care of their hearts— He just calls you to lay the seed down.

He calls you to be faithful to him.

Be someone who is will to go into this world and not be silent for the Gospel.

I am going to pray but after I am done I want you to take a few minutes to pray as well.

This next week— who is someone that you can talk too about how Jesus has transformed your life?

Pray over them.

Maybe you want to grab a couple of people and pray together, as the next song kicks on—

Take just a moment and pray for their souls after I pray:

Join me: