Good Morning, I am so glad that we can be gathered together and to worship this morning. Let’s dig into the Word this morning.

Isaiah 65:1–7 NIV

1 “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’ 2 All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations— 3 a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick; 4 who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of impure meat; 5 who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me, for I am too sacred for you!’ Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day. 6 “See, it stands written before me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps— 7 both your sins and the sins of your ancestors,” says the Lord. “Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds.”

Here am I, Here am I

What a powerful passage. This is a loaded passage full of challenges for us. Let’s look at some of the key things from this passage. This is the response of God to the Prophet complaining to God about the state of his presence to the people of Israel. If we go back and look at Isaiah 64:12

Isaiah 64:12 NIV

12 After all this, Lord, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?

We see that He is wanting to see God’s presence and is crying out for his deliverance. This passage is God’s Response.

God starts with a reminder that he revealed himself to people who did not ask for him. That he was there the whole time. He is both present and seeking the people to recognize who he is. Yet, they choose not to follow after him.

This thought had me thinking about how we so often are presented with a problem yet, we either just don’t do anything, or we don’t think it is as important as it really is.

True the Wheel

In my time working for Dicks sporting good after college, and while I was in seminary I worked a variety of departments. By the time I ended my career with them I worked in Golf, Head Cashier, Team sports & Fitness, and Receiving. During my final year I became a Bicycle tech. In short I assembled all the bikes and would do repairs for people.

Often people would bring in their bikes for maintenance and couldn’t figure out why their break pads were wearing out. Most of the time you get the bike up on the rack and you find out really quick what it is.

Their Wheel is wobbly. The Wheel is no longer running true.

See most people don’t realize those spokes on your tire do more than just look neat or make a cool sound when you stick a baseball card in it for those of you who know what I am talking about.

The Spokes are the part that help support and keep the rim straight. To tight in some areas or too loose the wheel doesn’t turn in a straight line.

This happens when you go off a curb to hard or hit something going down the road or just as tension comes off the spokes.

Now Truing a wheel does not require a whole lot of equipment. In fact it just takes a small tool called a spoke wrench. It might run you a grand total of $10. The bigger challenge is the time.

It takes a lot of time to put the tire up and adjust it slowly to get the wheel to run straight.

The problem with it though is most people just ignore it. They just think oh its not a big deal that my tire is rubbing against those breaks on the front tire, I don’t use them anyway.

Or they just don’t realize its happening and think that there bike is running normally and they are oblivious.

It always amazes me because you can often fix a bike for almost nothing but many people will just go buy a new bike.

Ignore the Problem

How often do we see this kind of attitude that the Israelites had toward God. Even the prophet asking where God is. God responds and reminds them what is really happening.

Isaiah 65:2–3 NIV

2 All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations— 3 a people who continually provoke me to my very face,

We want to pursue our own imaginations.

Ignore the Problem

That word is an interesting one in the original language because it invites us to just think of a child using their imagination to play. Yes, it invites us to use our imaginations to full fill our own purposes and intentions.

I want to live how I want, I want to go through life exactly how I want and I am not worried about what God thinks about it.

Oh, God is telling me how I need to live a life to bring him honor. It isn’t a big deal though because I am free to do what I want. I know his love is there for me and I can just ask for forgiveness later.

Have you ever thought about what happens when we ignore things that we see and know are wrong.

If you ignore a wobbly wheel on a Bike you might end up breaking a rim, or worse your bike may catch wrong and you are going over the front of the handle bars. Both can be very dangerous and expensive fixes or repairs. They are costly things to ignore.

The price will be paid.

Provoking God

Let’s be honest. We know the price will be paid and Jesus did pay that price for us but how many of us still recognize that and we still provoke God. We still Look at what he has done for us and we just smack away his hand that is reaching out for us.

Part of our faith is turning from ways that we know are wrong and pursuing a life that is devoted to following God.

The israelites know this but it is not how they wanted to live.

In fact it was to the point that they were refusing to follow even the most simple of instructions.

This gradual rejection and push away from God is a reminder that there are two important things we need to understand as believers when it comes to our relationship with God.

Provoking God is both and individual and corporate problem.

Individual & Corporate

The people of Israel were living a life that is both viewed as individuals and as a corporate or nation problem.

God revealed himself to both people as individuals and as a whole to the nation of Israel.

This brings us to the challenge of where does the responsibility lie when we get to the point that people are not honoring Godin our lives.

It often begins with the individual person.

One commentator put it this way when it comes to the expectation of obedience to God’s word.

Disobedience often begins, at the point where obedience would be easy but is considered unimportant.

This is a loaded idea. Think about this for a moment. When obedience is seen as unimportant.

Oh, its not that big of a deal right.

No one was hurt lets just look the other way.

When individuals start down this path they start to see the affects in their lives. They slowly slip out of the good habits and lifestyles that they know are right in their relationship with God.

It creates challenges because it allows for us to slip up and to not see it as that big of a deal.

This doesn’t mean that we need to be destructive on ourselves when we fail but it is important for us to recognize that we have to take it seriously when we do make mistakes and seek forgiveness and correct our behavior. It needs to be understood that it can’t become habit because that is where the wheel starts going off the rails.

The same is true for the corporate structure and idea of the body of believers. If the church starts to slip on things and slowly shift the requirements of obedience and we don’t follow as closely to what God has commanded then will the corporate body be guilty as well.

Like for individuals this does not mean change should never happen or that we don’t grow as a human race and that there are areas that God is speaking and moving and new thinking or understanding comes out, but we need to be careful in how this is done and it must be done under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

This is a tough passage becuase it reminds us that we serve a God who is there and is wanting us to be faithful but many will not live up to that and the struggles and sins are real problems.

Does that mean there is no hope. NO, we have the benefit of the next verse.

Isaiah 65:8 NIV

8 This is what the Lord says: “As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and people say, ‘Don’t destroy it, there is still a blessing in it,’ so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all.

There is Hope

There are still some grapes that have juice in them. There is still fruit to be found and to be given to the world. The whole of the grapes may look dry or struggling but there are some still full of juice.

We need to realize that God loves us and cares for us and we need to be a people that are full of juice that we don’t slip into letting the wheel slowly go off track and just waiting for the worse to happen.

We need to recognize that we can still be a people of hope and that faithful living for God is what we want and that begins with us each as an individual person and as a cluster of Grapes.

Let’s Pray