The Holiness of God

Introduction

“In the Year that King Uzziah Died…”

Who was Uzziah?

2 Chronicles 26:16-23

Uzziah was

Sometimes God shows our dreams and takes them away so we can see him for who he really is

Group Question 1:

What idol or god is reigning as king that must die before you can see God for who he really is? What are clear idols and gods in our culture and world more generally that need to die before people can see God for who He truly is? What are idols and gods from your past that God has taken down so you could see Him more clearly?

Sometimes God shows our dreams and takes them away so we can see him for who he really is

God’s glory is when his holiness goes public

“Holy, Holy, Holy”

Isaiah 57:15For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!

Do you know what it means to fear God?

So overcome by joy that you are left speechless

* Joy silenced me. And I thought I had now come to the highest, and to the utmost fullness of being which the human soul can contain. But now, what was this? You have seen the torches grow pale when men open the shutters and broad summer morning shines in on the feasting hall? So now. Suddenly, from a strange look in Psyche’s face (I could see she knew something she had not spoken of), or from a glorious and awful deepening of the blue sky above us, or from a deep breath like a sigh uttered all round us by invisible lips, or from a deep, doubtful, quaking and surmise in my own heart, I knew that all this had been only a preparation. Some far greater matter was upon us. The voices spoke again; but not loud this time. They were awed and trembled. ‘He is coming,’ they said. ‘The god is coming into his house. The god comes to judge Orual.’ If Psyche had not held me by the hand I should have sunk down. She had brought me now to the very edge of the pool. The air was growing brighter and brighter about us; as if something had set it on fire. Each breath I drew let into me new terror, joy, overpowering sweetness. I was pierced through and through with the arrows of it. I was being unmade. I was no one. But that’s little to say; rather, Psyche herself was, in a manner, no one. I loved her as I would once have thought it impossible to love, would have died any death for her. And yet, it was not, not now, she that really counted. Or if she counted (and oh, gloriously she did) it was for another’s sake (for HIS sake). The earth and stars and sun, all that was or will be, existed for his sake. And he was coming. The most dreadful, the most beautiful, the only dread and beauty there is, was coming." * She is describing a beauty that cannot be fathom and yet is completely real a beauty that is all-encompassing and so powerful that all her incredible love for Psyche or anything else was actually for the sake of this beauty. She goes on to say that she could not handle to gaze upon the god in His beauty in that moment. This is precisely the reaction of the prophets in the Old Testament when they even see a hint of God’s glory in a vision. They fall to their knees, weep, and gnash their teeth crying out, “Woe is me! I’m a man of unclean lips!” Iike Isaiah does is Isaiah 6.

Repentance and Redemption

What does it mean to encounter God?

It could be a mountaintop experience like Summerfest or Gospel Coalition

But most of the time it is the little moments like reading our bibles, worship, sermons, or sunsets. Fasting, meditating. Take 2 minutes to just think on one truth of God and how great He is.

If your encounter with God does not cause your view of God to feel bigger and bring about repentance on your part, then it may not actually be the Lord that you encountered. Think about how pivotal experiences with God (Summerfest, worship, key moments, etc.) almost always start with our repentance and our willingness to go.

If your encounter with God doesn’t cause you to desire to be “sent” in some way and do something for the Lord (missions, share the Gospel, read your bible more, take a next step, etc.) then it probably wasn’t the Lord that you encountered.

If when you encounter God your view of yourself gets larger but your view of God doesn’t it probably wasn’t God that you encountered. To be clear, this isn’t to say that you can’t feel better after encountering God. In fact, I think we should almost always feel better after encountering God. I love the song, “Who You Say I Am” and how it reminds us of how God sees us. But the reasons encounters like that should make us feel better is not because we begin to puff ourselves us but because we are reminded that God is bigger and more beautiful than we could ever imagine and it is because of that that His words about us make us feel better. See how in that way God is seen as bigger and we feel better? If all we do is seek a self-esteem boost when we seek God, we’re not really seeking God.

If your encounter with God doesn’t cause you to take a posture of submission and sacrifice in some way, even for a short time then it probably wasn’t God that you encountered.

You can respond to God poorly and say no to what He is calling you to and that doesn’t mean you didn’t truly encounter Him. Sometimes, the very reason we say no to Him is because we actually feel the weight of what He is asking of us, no matter what kind of sacrifice and submission it is. That was me when I first felt my call to ministry. I have no doubt that I encountered the Lord in that call, but it was when I really felt the weight of the call He was placing on me that I said no initially.

If your encounter with the Lord requires nothing of you, it probably wasn’t God you were encountering.

When God requires something of us it is always for our joy.

Group Question 2:

When you have encountered God in the past, what has been your response?

Isaiah’s Response: Woe is me, Here I am send me.

No matter whatever else God calls us to, He always calls us to holiness.

If you don’t sense God calling you to something it means that you’re not listening and that you’re robbing yourself of joy. When we follow God’s call on our lives it is always for our everlasting joy!

God may be calling you to…

Begin to serve for the first time (we have tons of opportunities for you to do that here at PV!)

Join a community group and engage in real community for the first time

Get out of a toxic relationship that is pulling you away from God

Share the Gospel with a coworker or family member

Begin working with integrity like you’re doing school or work God

Going to church every Sunday

Read your bible consistently for the first time

Pray more. Pray for your church, pray for people to come to know Jesus

Be still and disconnect and think about God and pray

Group Question 3:

As you have encountered the Lord in the last year, or even the past month or two, what calls do you feel Him placing on your life? What sacrifices is He asking of you right now? What next steps do you need to take to be faithful to God’s call for you right now? How can we as a ministry help you in that? OR, maybe if you’re being honest, you haven’t encountered God in a while. You haven’t been trying to fix your gaze upon Him. What might He be calling you to if you would just earnestly seek Him?

Isaiah’s Call

God’s holiness cannot be disconnected from His call on your life. Isaiah saw God’s holiness as intimately connected to God’s call on his life. IT helps us trust that whatever God calls us to it is good.

We could stop right there and it would be easy to. I was even tempted to, but God convicted me. We don’t cherry pick passages of the Bible just to get a pat on the back. No, we must read through every text, every verse to truly see the wonder and splendor of God.

This is not a sexy call. God is essentially call Isaiah to call a nation to come and die. This is not the passage you see knitted on quilts or written in calligraphy in a journal and posted on Instagram.

God may call us to hard things.

Isaiah 11:1-12

Genesis 22:16-18

By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Galatians 3:16

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his seed. It does not say, “And to seeds,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your seed,” who is Christ.

When we encounter God and he calls us to sacrifice something, He is only asking of us what He Himself has already done. God sacrificed His only Son so that you and I could have everlasting joy and satisfaction in relationship with Him. He sent His only Son to take on the just punishment that we deserved so Hen could save us from what we could never save ourselves from. God did it all in love. Jesus willingly gave up his glory in heaven to take on flesh and give up his life for us, He understands sacrifice, The Gospel itself is a story of sacrifice. When you are sacrificing something for God understand that He knows exactly what you are going through. Come to him in anxiety, anguish, and lament when you seek to sacrifice and follow God’s call on your life. No other religion has a God that can relate to that and that truly knows what we are going through.

One of the beauties of the calls God places on our lives is that does it not only for the whole world to hear the Gospel but also to allow you to encounter Him in even greater measure. It’s precisely the hard moments of our calls that God draws us close, when we have no more strength of our own and we have to lean on Him. It’s those moments that lead to the pathway of true and everlasting joy. It’s those moments that show us just how amazing God really is when He shows up and orchestrates a story in our sorrow and hardships that really shows his holiness and power. Think of what God has sacrificed for us, There is nothing too great for Him to ask us to sacrifice that compares to what He gave up for us.

Pray