The Display of His Splendor.

Isaiah 61:1–4 NIV

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

“They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”

Wow! It’s hard to believe that tonight is going to be our last night together. Some of you have made some big decisions this week and some of you are on the fence and some of you just still holding on to the idea that you are the master of your own life.

I want you to know, that no matter where you are on that scale. You belong. You are loved. You matter. I want you to know Jesus. I want you to experience the joy of being in a personal relationship with him, having a purpose to live for and making a positive impact on others, even for eternity… but, it’s your choice.

I’m not going to look down on you because you’ve made a different choice than me. I’m not gonna try any tricks to get you to cry out to Jesus. I just need you to know, that one day when you wake up and wonder if there’s more to life than what you’ve been living for. There is. His name is Jesus. And he will never stop making beautiful things of the ashes we make with our lives.

But tonight I want to focus on life after accepting Jesus. The moment you choose to believe in Jesus for eternal life is a milestone and it changes everything! But it’s just the beginning.

ILLUSTRATION: A few years ago my family went hiking in the Shenandoah Mountains… We want to get this beautiful waterfall and the park ranger told us we could get to it from where we were. I asked him about how long the hike was and he said, “Oh it’s about 2.0 miles one way from the trail head.” 4 hr hike to a beautiful waterfall while we were on vacation? Sounded great. Kids were pumped. We were excited…so we headed out. We hiked a 2 miles and I thought…hmmm we should be here by now. Kept hiking. Another mile. What in the world?? Then a few hundred yards up I see a post marker and on it was etched… “trailhead 2.0 miles” I thought, oh no!!! The guy told us that we could get to the waterfall from where we were and I just assumed we were at the trail head. Boy was I wrong. But we had finally reached the starting point and now we were making progress!!

Believing in Jesus isn’t the end, it’s only the beginning.