Be Unburdened

Scripture Introduction:

Just like that everything was different.

COVID

Israel being taken away to exile. You are just dying for familiarity. Can we just get back to normal?

Maybe you’re not thinking that of COVID maybe you’re thinking that there was some golden age in our history—if we could just get back to this time period…we need revival. And in our minds revival means going back to a time of familiarity.

But what if that isn’t what God is doing? What if these words of Tozer are true…words which he said over 60 years ago.

"A revival of the kind of Christianity which we have had in America the last 50 years would be the greatest tragedy of this century, a tragedy which would take the church a hundred years to get over."

God isn’t taking us back to some golden age of Christianity. God is doing something entirely different. They wanted to just get back to normal. Can we go back to how things were before the exile? What about the Exodus…can you do that again, God? Maybe hit a reset. Let us get a second chance…But that isn’t what God is doing. Listen...

Isaiah 43:16–21 ESV

Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

Sermon Introduction:

I read a story a few years ago about a woman who lived under a bridge. This woman was homeless, addicted to drugs, her life in absolute disaster. But what was so heart-breaking about this story is that she had been clean for quite a few years. She had been taken back into her family, gotten a job, was beginning to build relationships she never had, her daughter was finally talking to her again. Things were going on a really good trajectory. Then she left it all.

There wasn’t some tragedy or big event that led to her going back. She just left and started living under the bridge again. Why? That’s what the journalist asked this woman. Why did you go back to this lifestyle. Was it the pull of addiction? Did you just have that urge to get high again? Nope. Did something happen? Nope. Well, why did you go back.

Familiarity. That’s what she said. I knew who I was under that bridge. I knew how to live in that lifestyle. It was awful but it was familiar. I didn’t know how to be the clean woman. I didn’t know how to live in a house. I didn’t know how to do normal. And so I left. I went to what was familiar. And I’ll likely die here under this bridge.

That’s heart-breaking. It’s heart-breaking not because of the drugs, not because of the homelessness, it’s heart-breaking because her story is so often our story. According to the Bible this is our story...

It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Our first parents decided they would rather try to find satisfaction in the thing that God say, “You can’t have that”. It was the first idol. And we’ve been seeing this as the sorry state of humanity since then.

We were created for worship. That doesn’t go away. You are a worshipper from birth to death. You will worship something. That’s inevitable. But we’re birthed in the soil of idolatry. And we live our days with an idolatrous way of thinking. It’s like this.

The soda machine says $1. If you put a dollar bill in there what happens? You get to pick what kind of soda you want. It’s a tremendous transaction. But what happens if you only put in .75 and then you push that button that says, “give me this mt. dew.” The machine yells at you and starts blinking and says put in more money. So you do…until you get your soda. And then the soda high wears off and you’ve got to go back to the machine and do it all over again.

Of course the transaction isn’t always this smooth. Sometimes you push Mt. Dew and you get Dr. Pepper. Sometimes you push Dr. Pepper and you meant to push Mt. Dew. On occasion you push the button and nothing comes out. Even more rare you’ll push the button and two sodas will come out…yours and the sorry sap who didn’t get his soda before you. In those moments you’re thinking this is the best soda machine in the world. It gives two sodas. Even more than what you bargained for. But what happens when it lets you down. You kick it. You shaked it. You try to reach your hand up there to get what is rightfully yours. You leave the transaction feeling ripped off and cheated. But you know what you usually do....you go and try to find another soda machine. You grab another dollar. You labor to get that soda.

This, in a nutshell, is how man-made religion—how idolatry works. And this is the way of thinking that we are at home with. We will always drift into this way of thinking. We’ll always default to this. Especially when things get difficult for us…or something new happens that we’ve never experienced before. Or times get especially trying we will go back to this familiarity. If I put in quarters then my god is going to dispense what I need.

Now, there are a couple of things i want you to pull out from this illustration. First, idols always leave us empty. They never ever ultimately satisfy. You always have to keep coming back for more. Secondly, we are addicted to this exchange. When our idols let us down, rather than decide that this is a foolish game we double down on our efforts. Lastly, idols are demanding. I like how Ray Ortlund says this:

Every idol, if you don’t toe the line, demands its pound of flesh. If you’re serving the idol of career, for example, and you don’t sacrifice to that idol as it demands, your career is over. If your idol is political utopianism, and you don’t sacrifice to that idol as it demands, your hoped-for world is shattered. If your idol is a perfect body, and you don’t sacrifice to that idol as it demands, your self-image is devastated.

It’s absolutely vital for us this morning to feel the weight of this. Because we cannot pretend that following Christ, forsaking our idols, etc. isn’t going to have a cost—sometimes a very high cost attached to it. Idols don’t go down without a fight.

Let’s say that you are a workaholic. You’ve been this for years. Always on the go. Putting in ridiculously long hours to the neglect of your family. You’ve been faithful in putting those quarters in the machine and that idol has at times delivered quite well for you. You’ve amassed a bit of wealth. You’ve provided well for your family. But there is a tug in your heart. And you realize that the kingdom you’ve been building isn’t the kingdom the Lord is building. But you’re at a job which demands your absolute loyalty, time, energy, etc. How do you jump out of the rat race? You think that isn’t going to be costly? If you don’t toe the line, it will demand its pound of flesh.

What happens if a wife—whose husband demands her absolute devotion and worship…what happens if she doesn’t bring her tithes and offerings and drop them at his exacting feet?

What happens if a church culture has been a certain way for so long—the squeaky wheel gets the oil, right. And what if you say enough, I’m not playing this game. Those squeaky wheels don’t suddenly get greased and stop squeaking. It gets louder and louder and louder. If church is your idol—it too will demand its pound of flesh. You want to see what this looks like see what happened to the Pharisees in the Bible. Their religiosity so clouded their vision that when Jesus came—they crucified him. The rescuer they were waiting for they couldn’t even see.

Or what happens if you’ve belonged to a certain theological tribe for a season …and being biblically correct and doctrinally accurate becomes an idol. Yes, that can happen. And suddenly you start reading something in the Bible just a little differently than your group. You better believe that this idol will demand it’s pound of flesh—and do it all in the name of God.

What happens if you don’t keep towing the party line. What happens if you say, “you know I don’t agree with this particular policy or this particular action from my preferred political party…just watch what happens.”

It doesn’t matter what that idol is. Sports, relationships, people-pleasing, food, power, money, fame, pleasure, video games, comfort, leisure, travel, safety, health, appearance, control, psychology, religion, knowledge, politics, etc.

For the people in the time of Isaiah they were wanting a few different things. As a little tiny nation trapped between a couple of superpowers this led to a few pretty strong desires. Not necessarily bad all by themselves but again—they climbed the throne of the heart and became the thing which governed their hearts. They wanted to be safe. They wanted to be comfortable. They wanted to be somebody. They wanted power. They wanted victory. In some ways what they were wanting what every human wants—a return to the Garden of Eden…rest, rule, and relationship. But because our hearts are so familiar with the soils of idolatry that’s what they went back to.

The situation was that they had a threat coming at them from one direction. It’s interesting how sometimes in the Bible you have situations where the people are saying, “How in the world can we NOT respond. If we don’t do something then these intruders are going to destroy us.” You can read a story like this in the first few chapters of Isaiah. And God responds…eh, don’t worry. They’re just firebrands. They’re going to fizzle out. Just trust me.

Then of course there are other seasons where the people are saying, “There is a big huge giant in that valley. There is no way that we can go down there. We cannot fight this giant. Nope. Not gonna do it.” And God says, “You were called for this, you have to go through this. If you want the promised Land then this giant has to fall.”

Both situations fear is motivating them. In one instance fear causes them to make really silly political alliances which amounts to nothing more than idolatry. It leads to foolish aggression. On another occasion fear causes them to cower in the corner and not trust God. It leads to foolish passivity.

For those in Isaiah’s time it was a situation which called for trust. They chose political rescue over God’s rescue. They sold out to both Egypt and Assyria. They tried to play them both and they were burned. You can read about some of what happened in the first few chapters of Isaiah. They chose comfort—and this comfort led to what is called syncretism. They embraced the gods of other nations. They bowed to idols. They engaged in half-hearted worship. They only gave the Lord lip-service. They pretended to still be following God but their heart was far from them.

King Uzziah dies. Everybody mourns. They feel so defeated. What are we going to do? And God stirs up a prophet named Isaiah…you can see this in Isaiah 6. Who will go for me? And Isaiah says, “I’ll go. I’ll share your message…now what do you want me to say...”

“Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand witht heir hearts, and turn and be healed.”

How long...”until cities lie waste…and the Lord removes people far away.”

In other words the message from God to Isaiah isn’t going to have a livening effect upon them but it is going to cause them to be even more stubborn, even more dull, even more entrenched in their rebellion. And that’s exactly what happened....but then in Isaiah 40 the whole thing shifts and he starts prophesying to the people who will be in exile and who will ultimately return....

Yes, we’re just now reading the text for this morning…but don’t worry we’re already about half way through. I’m going to read Isaiah 42:18-25 then pause for a second ask a question and then read Isaiah 43: 1-7

So God told Isaiah that the people would be deaf and blind…now listen

Isaiah 42:18–25 ESV

Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see! Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord? He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear. The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious. But this is a people plundered and looted; they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say, “Restore!” Who among you will give ear to this, will attend and listen for the time to come? Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey? So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.

Here is what that just said. The exile should have awoken them to their rebellion. It should have caused them to come back to the Lord in repentance. It should have made them homesick. But it didn’t. They, like we, were blind, deaf, dull, and insensitive to the ways of God. They see what is happening but they cannot see the actual hand of God in it. They accuse God of being unfeeling when all the while it is their own hearts which are dull. They move further into rebellion. So what does God do?

Take it back to our soda machine. God says,

Isaiah 1:16–17 ESV

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

But they don’t put that in the machine they take a crow bar and try to bust the whole thing up…they try to get their soda with their own hands. Rather than seeking justice they spiral into more injustice.

When you don’t put the quarters in your idol machine you don’t get anything back. But how does the Lord respond…Listen.

Isaiah 43:1–7 ESV

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

Did you see that? We are deaf and blind and rebellious and unable. Even while we are accusing him of being unfeeling, not caring about our story, while we are rebels, while we are still ungodly, while we don’t deserve one bit of his action…what does he do? He acts.

Look at 43:4

Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you.... Isaiah 43:4

Do you get what’s happening there?

God SEES those who in their rebellion cannot and do not see Him. He loves because He chose to love. He rescues and redeems because that's who He is and what He does.

Did you realize, dear one who is graciously united to Christ....

You are PRECIOUS to him. You are HONORED. You are LOVED.

Not because you see. Not because you hear. Not because you....

But because of HIM.

I know that in sermons we’re really supposed to be emphasizing, “do this. Here is what you need to go home and DO today.” But that’s not what this text does. It blows up the whole soda machine thing. You don’t put a dollar in the machine and it spits out revival.

That’s the thing about 200 years ago with the Second Great Awakening I think there was a horrible misstep with a guy named Charles Finney. He came up with all these ideas for how to get God to revive us. If we do this…then God will do this. Do this thing and you’ll move the hand of God.

That’s most certainly not how we see revival and restoration brought about in Isaiah. It happens because God definitively acts....because God chooses to act…because God wants to act. So if there is anything for you do to this morning it’s this. Be desperate…be helpless…rest....trust…be fully dependent upon the Lord. Cry out. Those types of things.

As we close…so much more in these texts…I simply need to show you two more things.

Look at this in verse 22-24.

Idols will always leave you ragged and weary. Not only will they never satisfy but they'll keep demanding more and more and more of you. They are demanding. Every false god is.

Because we are so accustomed to the ways of idolatry, even after the Lord rescues us, we cannot seem to resist weighing ourselves and others down with burdens. You must...You have to...You need to...etc.

But worship is meant to unburden us.

Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress, Helpless, look to Thee for grace: Foul, I to the fountain fly, Wash me, Savior, or I die.

If your worship is burdening you it's likely because you're treating God as an idol. "If I do X, then my god will give me Y." As Ray Ortlund rightly says, "Lugging sacrifice after sacrifice to the temple to obligate God--there's no release for that."

Friend, God doesn't want to exhaust you. He wants to free you. He delights to GIVE you the kingdom. Unburden yourself today. Let all those efforts go. Let all that striving cease. Forsake those grace imposters that are workaholics in disguise. Rest in Jesus. THAT is the worship which delights the Father. Emptied-handed, Jesus-desperate resting.

So be unburdened this morning....so last thing I’ll say. And I’ve shared this illustration with you before…but I want to share it again because it’s so beautiful. Look at this in Isaiah 43:25

He blots out transgressions.

Luther story...