Visions of Isaiah (6)
Notes
Transcript
Isaiah’s Commissioning
Isaiah’s Commissioning
Last week we discussed Isaiah’s conversion. We understand that we cannot have a commissioning without a conversion. As soon as Isaiah received the grace God was ready to send him out
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 didn’t wait for Isaiah to get his life straight. God didn’t give him time to get his affairs in order. He saved him and now God is calling to Him.
How many of us recieved this call? I believe everyone of us recieved this call in one way or another. The heart wrenching thought is that some of us weren’t paying attention when we were called. OR worse yet a church put too many hurdles in your way keeping you for the Lord’s service.
You see Satan wants to lie to you. He wants you to believe that your life has to be perfect in order to be used. God says your life has to be saved in order to be used. There has to be a surrender to the Will of God. You have to receive him. That is the only criteria. Now while you’re being used the plan is that you will go fro glory to glory, meaning you will grow in your relaitonship with God, grow closer to Him, and become more and more like Him. Which means you may have entered with sin and bagged, but you in order to advance you have to let that baggage go.
Isaiah saw a need and fulfilled it. We will never understand the extent of what God can do with one willing worker. Someone who states that they will go where God sends them no matter if it’s to clean toilets, carry boxes, or minister behind a pulpit, but if you can’t clean toilets and carry boxes you also shouldn’t be in a place to preach.
Isaiah is being commissioned, Isaiah is being excited about his commission then Isaiah receives his commission.
And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “ ‘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 with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste,
and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.” The holy seed is its stump.
I can almost see Isaiah’s face drop. He was excited for his commissioning. Wondering what great thing will God use me for-Make people blind and Deaf Isaiah. Make their hearts more calloused.
But understand verses 9 and 10 are quoted 6 times in the NT. 3 times by Jesus alone.
When Jesus mentions these verses he is again taking about the parable of the sower and the wide spread failure to heed God’s word where again we see a remnant— the good soil, which produces good fruit.
Here’s the issue: God doesn’t want to make people deaf, blind, or calloused, but people who continually resist the Word of God, But those who harden their own hearts are less likely to receive the word of God and the truth that it states.
Even though God knew the people’s response He sent Isaiah anyway.
God loves his people even and tries despite knowing that His efforts will be fruitless.
It is the believers job to proclaim God’s truth despite how it is recieved. We aren’t judged on the receptiveness of God’s word we are judged on our ability to be obedient despite how it looks on the outside.
Joseph Never preached, but used his business to save his family.
There are many Christians who get caught up in what ministry is and isn’t. They think that they need to be behind a pulpit, handing out tracs, or bringing people to salvation every day, but that isn’t everyone’s calling.
Joseph didn’t fill stadiums, he wasn’t a Maryter. He wasn’t a pastor or a preacher, but he was faithful in what he did. He managed the Kings affairs and even when rejected by the very people he served he stayed faithful to God and found favor in jail.
Isaiah asks for how long and God tells him it’s going to be a while, but there will be a remnant of people who I will use to build my church.
Isaiah required a long range perspective on his ministry.
Many of us may be feeling like we failed or that we haven’t accomplished anything with the call God has given them. The reality is we are just short sited in a long term calling.
Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again.
Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.
This verse should drip with encouragement for your Christian life. What Paul is telling the Philippian church is that when they provide finances or help for Paul every Salvation that Paul brings in is credit to their heavenly account.
Remember lay up your treasures in Heaven. The whole idea is that what we receive as a heavenly prize is credited to us through what we do IN OBEDIENCE here on Earth
I go back to Billy Graham. He held massive revivals in stadiums across the world. His Heavenly account has to be overfull, but the same account is credit to a man who Pastored a church of three people in the middle of a city in a building no one would have Even looked in at. Why? Because of that pastor’s faithfulness Billy Graham came to know Christ in that 3 person church.
So how do we remain faithful in the seed season of ministry.
The biggest idea is to remember we aren’t fighting what for what we see.
This isn’t a Pastor Sean calling. It isn’t a Victoria Calling, It isn’t a _____ calling. This vision God has goes all the way back to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. This calling is bigger than our 70+ years here on Earth. What you see as insignificant God sees as a part of a bigger picture.
Let me explain.
Many people see this church as a small church. I admit at times I get discouraged with our size, but God has given me a vision of growth beyond what these walls can hold. We have to be able to view things as God sees them, not as we see them.
When my wife and I bought our first flip house It was a difficult step of faith for Beth. I am a visionary. Meaning I can put everything together in my mind’s eye and I can see what it will look like at it’s completion. There are many times I have to stop and draw things out for my wife because she cannot invision it the way I do.
When walking into the house I wanted to buy I saw its potential. Beth saw what it was. A falling down neglected house with a tree stump holding up the kitchen support beams. With reluctancy and a dream from God beth finally agreed to buy it. A few years later and people are still commenting on the beauty of this house.
In order to survive in a long term calling you have see things for what God is going to do, not what things currently are.
Fast forward a year and half and we are driving by this house held up with tooth picks and I hear Beth say: I want to buy that house. I give her a look and she says it looks ugly now, but imagine what we could do with it.
When you have the vision God put in your mind and you hold onto that vision you cannot help but see things differently.
Isaiah held onto the remnant. He knew judgement was coming. but after the judgement, they would clean up from the storm and God’s people would emerge closer to God that they were before. God’s people would emerge with a new and fresh vision for what God was going to do. God’s people would emerge. And grow. And mature. And create disciples.
Despite predicting doom. Isaiah urged faith. He wanted people to repent Just as God wants people to repent. Anyone with a heart will tell you how much it hurts to watch people turn their backs on God, but there are still those who remain to to God’s promises.
So what vision will you have?
Over the next few months the leadership of the Bridge Community church will be defining who we are and planning for future ministries. What we know here will change, but do we have the long term vision of God in mind?
Are you a planter or will you just walk away
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.
We aren’t judged by the harvest, but rather we are judge by our obedience.
With anything when you look at the call of God in your life do see its potential or are you discouraged in its reality. Satan wants to discourage you in its reality. Satan wants to bury you in the task at hand. Satan wants to keep your eyes on what is instead of what will be. But we aren’t called to what is.
Will we hold fast through the time of judgement to reap in the time of reward? Will we be like those virgins who were prepared for what was to come or are we going to grow weary of waiting and be overcome with with fear and doubt?