Transformed into God's Ways

Introduction:

Transition to the text: Turn with me in your Bible to Isaiah 55:6-11. Isaiah was a man transformed in a very powerful way. You can read about his story in Isaiah 6. But when God called Isaiah to serve Him, Isaiah immediately recognized that he wasn’t worthy to serve God. In the presence of God’s glory, Isaiah’s sin became incredibly apparent to him.

But in God’s mercy, an angel brought a burning coal from the altar and touched Isaiah’s mouth and cleansed him of his sin. Because of this transformation, Isaiah was incredibly useful.

And this encounter shows Isaiah that God doesn’t use the people the world would think would be the right person. God uses the people that He chooses. Then God transforms that person and equips him or her to bring glory to His name.

And perhaps Isaiah had this in mind, when under the direction of the Holy Spirit, he wrote down our passage today.

Introduce: While we read, let’s keep this in mind:

Transformational Principle: If we really want to know what to do, we have to abandon the world’s ways for God’s ways.

Read:

Isaiah 55:6–11 ESV

6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Again:

Transformational Principle: If we really want to know what to do, we have to abandon the world’s ways for God’s ways.

Transition to Points: In the midst of Isaiah’s description of God’s judgment against His people, we find this great encouragement of God’s love and compassion on sinners. We see that God desires transformation.

Main Point #1 - Be Transformed by God while you still can. (Isaiah 55:6-7)

Explanation: This passage begins with a call to urgency. A warning. Seek the Lord while He may be found. As hard as it is to understand, there will come a time when it’s too late to turn to God. It will be too late to be transformed.

When is it too late? When you are dead.

By this time in Isaiah, the people had already been exiled to Babylon. They had seen so much death as they watched fellow Israelites killed. Isaiah was clear that this was God’s judgment for hundreds of years of unfaithfulness on the part of the Jewish people. In this we see that their are 2 aspects to transformation in Isaiah. There is transformation of the nation and transformation of the individual? And want to take a guess which comes first?

But even with all that judgement, there was still lingering wickedness in the hearts of people. And Isaiah wants them to respond. After all they have seen, have they had enough yet? Will they now turn to God?

God is always willing to forgive and to show compassion and love on people. But repentance is required.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

There has to come a point in your life where you are fed up with your sin and the damage that it does in your life and those around you. And you surrender and say, “there has to be a better way.”

And the best part of it all is in spite of all that those people had done, God actually wants to forgive and pardon them.

Illustration: That’s the crazy thing about people and forgiveness. So often it’s not the offended that get’s in the way of forgiveness...it’s us.

Most people are ready and willing to forgive…many already have. But we get so afraid of how they will respond if we confront the things we do. So we run. We hide. We pretend we are having nothing to repent of.

Application: And that’s the truth about God. He’s already made a way to deal with that sin. Isaiah was writing before Jesus, but he wrote more than most about the coming Messiah.

But now we look back to Jesus having already dealt with that sin on the cross. Our sin has already been dealt with. There is no reason to wait. Surrender now. And back to our sense of urgency. Many of us think that we have all the time in the world to get right with Jesus. But at any time it can all come to an end.

And if there is anything that a worldwide pandemic, racial injustice and unrelenting fires can teach us its that it can end at any moment. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Surrender while you still have a chance.

Main Point #2 - Surrender your assumptions and expectations about God’s ways.(Isaiah 55:8-9)

Explanation: If you haven’t spent time around church (or maybe you’ve spent too much time around church) this level of God’s grace probably makes little sense to you.

I’ll be honest, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Because I know myself. I know what I have done. I know I don’t deserve grace or pardon. I deserve condemnation.

But that God would forgive a sinner like me? That Jesus would pay the penalty of my sin? I don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense.

But God’s thoughts are not my thoughts and God’s ways are not my ways.

God is not like us.

God doesn’t hold grudges.

God doesn’t show partiality.

Even while being the all powerful creator God, Lord of Heaven and Earth, He still cares for the least of us.

God doesn’t value greatness or achievment but looks for humility and selflessness.

God doesn’t look at the most qualified, but looks for the broken and destitute who know that they need Him.

God doesn’t demand that we make up for every little thing we have done wrong, but beckons us to look to Jesus for pardon and forgiveness.

Yet for many Christians, we are still so naturally conditioned by the world to earn God’s love by working harder. But it’s not about working harder…it never was.

It’s about repentance. And what is repentance if not surrendering to the mercies of God.

Illustration: The world has a hard time with forgiveness and pardon. Not so with God.

Have you ever had to apologize for something big? And you feel that dread as you pick up the phone or knock on the door. Maybe you meet at a coffee shop. And you lay yourself out at their mercy.

I remember after I became a Christian, I felt convicted to apologize to someone I had hurt years before. I went back and forth because I didn’t want to bring back up bad memories just for the sake of clearing my conscience. But still I felt like I needed to do it.

I met up with this person, with no excuses, just to say I’m sorry. Not to restore the friendship. Not to hear anything. Just to say I’m sorry. There is nothing that I could do to make up for it. But that’s not what sorry is all about. Sorry is acknowledging that you have hurt someone. And by saying sorry, you can help them to heal.

Application: One thing that is abundantly clear in the Bible is that all sin is against God.

After King David had sinned by committing adultery with Bathsheba, getting her pregnant and then having her husband murdered to cover his sin, when he was caught redhanded by the prophet Nathan, David penned these powerful words in

Psalm 51:3–4 ESV

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

However, part of repentance and dealing with that vertical relationship, is dealing with the horizontal relationships as well.

And it would be good to deal with those relationships while we still can as well.

God is transforming the repentant person as they turn to Jesus for pardon and forgiveness.

But we are transformed for a purpose.

God is at work in the world around us. Every day, He is at work in and through His people and His church.

And in ways that are only His, he uses weak people like you are me. Sinners saved by grace to point others to Him.

And it works because the power is not in us, but in the word of God which we are called to proclaim.

Main Point #3 - Surrender to act because God’s word is what does the work. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

Explanation:

Isaiah 55:11 ESV

11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

These are some of the most encouraging words for God’s people. Because it shows that God’s words do the world. We are only to be obedient to share them.

Again, this really go contrary to the world’s ways. The world says you have to be eloquent. You have be a great debater. You have to subjugate people with facts or just bludgeon them with your Bibles.

But it is God who is at work in the world to call people to Himself.

I love this analogy. Rain and Snow.

In California we don’t get a whole lot of rain. Therefore snow is really important. It snows in the winter time up in the mountains which essentially store of frozen water for summer use. As summer comes, temperature climbs and that snow melts and flows down the mountains to be used in irrigation of crops.

And even the rain that we get has a purpose. It waters the earth so the plants can grow.

But know this, it’s not a one and done thing. You can’t just water once and expect crops.

The same is true of the word of God. Many of us may think we’ll share our faith and that person either accepts or rejects God’s call for repentance.

But that might not be what God has in mind. Every time we share our faith and the word of God, it waters the dry soil of a person’s heart. As God’s word works on that person’s heart, the ground begins to soften. God’s word is doing it’s work and we might miss it.

Now he’s the funny thing, you might be the first person to water a person’s heart with the word of God and it’s a long way from bearing fruit.

You might be the last person who waters the heart before the fruit begins to sprout.

It’s not for you to figure out where they are. You are to simply obey and act.

I wonder if the Apostle Paul had this passage in mind when writing to the corinthians in:

1 Corinthians 3:5–7 ESV

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

Illustration: Lee Strobel

Application: When we think about it. God in His great mercy has called us to follow Him. In spite of the sin in our lives. In spite of how short we fall from His greatness, in our repentance, God has offered forgiveness and pardoned us. This should bring us unspeakable joy.

Why would we not share this? Why would we not shout this from the rooftops that all would come to the knowledge of the truth.

And he’s the beauty. We don’t need to come up with a clever pitch. We don’t have to convince anyone. All we need to do is share the same message that saved us. It always comes back to the beginning.

Isaiah 55:6–7 ESV

6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

As a pastor and preacher of God’s word, I have no message of my own. I simply call you to seek the Lord while you still have the chance because you don’t know what tomorrow brings.

If you don’t yet know Jesus…heed this warning and surrender to Jesus while you still can.

Response: Are you ready to surrender to God’s ways while you still can?

Summation:

Surrender your ways into God’s ways.

Be transformed while you still have the time.

Surrender your assumptions and expectations about God’s ways.

Surrender to act because God’s word is what does the work.

Conclusion:

Lee Strobel’s story is a powerful one of unintended transformation. He was an investigative journalist for the Chicago tribune when his wife, Leslie told him some big news. She had become a Christian.

This wasn’t well received by an atheist who was more concerned about facts and figures than feelings and impressions. So he did what any good investigative journalist would do. He investigated but with a purpose. He wanted to prove to his wife that it was all a farse.

So he investigated.

He looked at the Bible.

He looked at Jesus.

And more than anything he looked at the resurrection.

Surely, something as outlandish as the claims of the Bible must only be by faith and under strict scrutiny by an award winning investigative journalist could be proved wrong right?

What ever journey Strobel thought he was on, it ended with God transforming him and drawing him to Himself. Now instead of trying to disprove Christianity,

Lee travels across the country (and sometimes the world) sharing his testimony, encouraging believers, and challenging skeptics.

But let’s talk about Leslie. How hard it must have been for her to become a Christian and have no support from her husband, but rather derision and disdain. The act of going to church was met with guilt and shame.

How would she respond?

She stayed faithful to her God but never gave up on her husband. She prayed for him, shared as she had opportunity. But it was clear that it would take God to change her husband’s heart.

So today, I have 2 calls.

If you are Christian praying for your loved ones to give their lives to Jesus, don’t give up, don’t stop loving them, praying for them, and sharing as you have opportunity. Rest in the promise that God’s word will not return void but will accomplish the work it set out to accomplish.

If you are not a Christian. You might be hostile to the faith and think this is dumb. Why you are watching this, I don’t know, but maybe God has drawn you to this place. Maybe you are curious or maybe even seeking more. May I suggest that God is calling you to Himself. Maybe you need more time. On top of reading the Bible, may I suggest a book like Lee Strobel’s the Case for Christ. But at some point, you need to take that step and believe.

Not be be overly dramatic but as Isaiah wrote,

Isaiah 55:6 ESV

6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;

The Lord is near right now. Turn and surrender to Him for forgiveness and pardon.

God is gracious and merciful to forgive you, but it’s on the other side of repentance that salvation is found.

Don’t wait.

Let’s pray.