Begin With the End in Mind

Introduction

Stephen Covey wrote a well-known book entitled The 7 Habits of Highly effective People. It’s a great book to reflect on your approach to life, where you are now, and where you want to be or who you want to become.

Habit 1 is ‘Be proactive’. Take the initiative; be responsible for responding to improve situations you encounter. God always initiates. God sent Jesus to improve the world. As Paul told the Romans (Rom 12:8), “if it is possible, so far as it is depends on you, live peacefully with all.”

Habit #2 is Begin with the end in mind.

In a nutshell, Covey says we should envision what we desire in the future so we can work to that end.

To be effective, our actions need to be based on principles, consistent with our values. We need to reflect on the alignments in our lives. Where is our center, our guide? Is it self, is it others, or is it God?

We must do our own interior work to impact the exterior world.

As Christians, we must ask ourselves the piercing question:

Am I who I want to be in Christ?

As Habit 1 advises us to be proactive, Habit 2 advises us to responsibly exercise the free-will God grants us. We are to take thoughtful initiative toward our future seeking constructive outcomes rather than suffering collateral consequences for inaction or simply going with the popular flow.

It’s too bad the people of ancient Israel didn’t have someone telling them how to move toward a better future; no one to speak hope into their present conditions. Well, we know they actually did. God’s ancient prophets like Amos, Hosea, Micah, and, of course, Isaiah (just name a few).

Isaiah had a lot to say. As perhaps the most prolific and long-tenured of the prophets, Isaiah was God’s spokesperson for at least sixty years. The book of Isaiah has 66 chapters and can be separated into two major sections- words of judgment (ch 1-39) and words of comfort (40-66).

Our reading today from chapter 9, is a message of hope nestled among the words of judgment.

Isaiah had a series of visions about God’s judgment of Judah and Jerusalem because the people had gone so far astray in their sin.

In one of Isaiah’s visions, he saw the Lord sitting on His throne with Seraphs attending above him and calling to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole world is full of his glory.” As they called out, the rumble of their voices shook the thresholds and the space filled with smoke. Isaiah realize who he was seeing and confessed, “Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips and I live among people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have see the King, the LORD of hosts!

But Isaiah was not doomed for his sin. Instead the seraph took a live coal from the altar with a pair of tongs and touched it to Isaiah’s lips to purify him for God’s purpose.

God began with the end in mind. God invited Isaiah into His presence.

God knows us all. Even in our imperfection—our unclean lips, hands, minds, lives-- God can choose to use us.

The Seraphs cleansed Isaiah preparing him to serve the Lord; taking initiative and beginning with the end in mind.

Then the LORD said, “Whom shall I send, who will go for us?”

Isaiah answered, “Here I am, send me! And God sent Isaiah to speak to the people.

Isaiah went forth warning the people of Israel to reflect on their lives, repent of their sin, and renew their lives with God.

When Isaiah spoke this prophecy of hope, the Israelites were experiencing increased opposition from the Assyrian nation(Isaiah 8). It was a dark time with little indication the conflict would end favorably or in a timely fashion for the people of Israel.

The warnings were intended to purify and prepare hearts by helping people to understand the true nature and message of God.

Isaiah spoke to a people living in a world

darkened by conflict among nations,

rampant with the arrogance of building high towers and fortified walls for separation and control;

people bowing down to the work of their own hands (Is 2:8);

joining house to house, adding field to field until there was room for no one but themselves in the midst of the land! (Is 5:8)

The prophet repeated God’s messages but the people were so consumed with consuming the world that they ignored the warnings.

Hedonism can keep folks from heeding wisdom!

We can and should learn from the examples in history not to repeat the same. But here we are... in a world

darkened by conflict among nations,

rampant with the arrogance of building high towers and fortified walls;

people bowing down to the work of their own hands (Is 2:8);

joining house to house, adding field to field until there room for no one but themselves in the midst of the land! (Is 5:8)

Isaiah warns that arrogance and unbridled focus on power and possession has consequences in the eyes of the Lord.

For us, capitalism and consumerism without compassion and concern for others has consequences; remember the sheep and the goats.

We have a choice to make.

We can ignore Isaiah’s warning and be among the people walking in darkness OR

We can listen to Isaiah’s prophetic words,

reflect on our own lives,

repent of what of our sin- what we have done or left undone, and

refocus and renew our commitment to Christ, trusting God’s redemption and making space for what and who is to come.

We can choose to be among the people who once walked in the darkness of divisiveness and disobedience, conflict and confusion, but have seen a great light;

We can choose to be among those who once lived in a land of deep darkness— but on whom light has shined.

We can be among those who have accepted and fully opened their lives to a relationship with Christ, who is the light of the world.

Isaiah prophesy has already been fulfilled in the birth and ministry of Christ.

“For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Is 9:6).

Christ has been born for our redemption; a gift of God.

Authority rests on his shoulders as he removes the burdens across the shoulders of those who choose him as their Lord and Savior. He breaks the rod of their oppressors as he proclaims the good news and liberates the souls of those who listen, receive, believe and live by his words.

As Alva McClain interprets Isaiah, “What the world needs, as the prophets saw clearly, is not primarily a better philosophy of government or a more perfect system of legislation, but a Person who has the character, wisdom, and power needed to rule for God among men. This is the central theme of prophecy from first to last” (Alva McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom [Chicago: Moody Press, 1968], 116). The hope for the people of God could be found in and fulfilled by only one person: our Jesus.

He is named Wonderful Counselor, literally ‘a wonder/marvel of a counselor’; Mighty God for his immeasurable person, power and mercy; Everlasting Father for his relationship to his people/family; and the Prince of Peace for the beloved community his rule creates.

But there is more to the promise:

“His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace

for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it

with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.”

The reign of Christ began millennia ago but his authority is unbound by time or space and continually grows. Despite what is happening today in our world, our Wonderful Counselor and Might God is working all things to the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Just as God used Isaiah to share his messages, God will use his people as peacemakers to the world until His kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. The peace that is to come is peace with justice and righteousness aligned with the ways and will of God. God’s people must be the peacemakers; the change agents for the world like Christ.

The questions we must ask ourselves are

What must we do differently in our commitment to God?

How must we be different as God chooses to use us to expand God’s kin’dom?

The Advent Season is a time of waiting, reflection, anticipation and preparation for what is to come.

Advent offers us time to reflect on how and where God is at work in and through our lives and in the world.

Advent invites us to reflect, repent and release our guilt and sin to make space and prepare for the return of the Lord.

We are beginning this Advent Season with the Old Testament prophet who spoke of a child seven hundred of years before his birth; who spoke of a reign to come that would have no end. Isaiah began to speak to the people with the end in mind. Here we are thousands of years later, still learning and holding to the hope of God’s ancient words.

Through Moses, Isaiah, the wisdom of Proverbs, and elsewhere in the Bible, God tells us to teach our children God’s commandments and all that God has done in the lives of present and past generations. This knowledge base is important to understand the justice and righteousness of the kingdom God and our role. Begin teaching with the end in mind.

Chinese Proverb: If you’re planning for 1 year, plant rice. Planning for 10 years, plant trees; planning for 100s of years, teach your children.

Each day, we get to begin with the end in mind.

In this season, the end is not Christmas Day. We must teach our children that Christmas Day starts the Christmas Season as we celebrate God’s gift to us in the birth of Christ. There is more. The Lord will come again.

While we wait, we can work to temper our expectations with the reality of what’s best instead of what is most self-serving. [The Jewish nation expected a king who would reign supreme. While waiting, they created a king in their own image, powerful and in control of the masses. Instead, God gave a king who was more concerned with conquering sin and inviting people into an everlasting kingdom than with wearing a political or national crown of power.]

As we anticipate Jesus’s return, instead of longing for the ways we might benefit, we can actively pursue helping others experience the freedom, joy, and peace that Isaiah prophesied about.

As many adults know, the joy of being a child on Christmas morning is only surpassed by the joy of giving a child the gift you picked out for them.

God has given already given us the gift, so until we see him again, our privilege is to share that gift.

Each day, begin with the kingdom of heaven in mind and make choices to live to that end.

Each day, begin with the end in mind. May God’s will be done, may God’s kin’dom come. May we help the world know the power of hope that is in Christ. Amen