Holy Trinity: Saved to be Sent

Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-8

Isaiah 6:1–8 NLT

It was in the year King Uzziah died* that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke. Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.”

Hook: Getting real with God

Have you ever wondered what our world looks like from heaven?

I bet some of your most memorable sermon illustrations have to do with that. So many of them attempt to show us what God sees in our situations or what people who are passing through heaven’s gates look back and see in their lives and in our world.

God’s viewpoint is one of our most unifying concepts in the Church. The mystery draws us together because it is so difficult to understand God’s perspective. Even more so, we are drawn to it because it is so important to our faith.

Our understanding may be limited, but so is our perspective. If we are going to have the truth, it has to come from God.

Vision of God = Woe to me! I am ruined!

Isaiah received a vision from God so powerful that it was almost as if he was swept up to heaven in the flesh, right into God’s throne room. Our stories usually start at the entryway to heaven or some kind of transitional place. Can you imagine being uprooted and dropped right in the middle of God’s throne room, the real holy of holies? Surprise! Shock! Horror! God, let me explain… 2020 was a tough year and it became normal to have pajama days, that’s why I’m dressed like this.

This is not a story about going to heaven. This is a story about heaven coming to get us.

Isaiah is mortified, but not because of his clothes. That is a minor detail compared to the kind of life he has lived. He wants to beg forgiveness and ask why God picked him up instead of the high priest, or someone a bit more worthy than plain old Isaiah. It sounds funny saying that because we know that he will go on to speak, write, and inspire prophecies through his disciples for centuries. We will write songs about them in dozens if not hundreds of languages. Isaiah is like the Shakespeare of prophets… but he doesn’t realize that yet. This day, he thought he was just like everyone else: normal.

Now he thinks he is ruined. He is a sinful man getting real with God, about to have his life transformed.

Thesis: Like Isaiah, we are called into a saving relationship with God and sent out to be the Church.

To understand this, we have to know our people and our problem.

Who are Your People?

Isaiah made an important remark about his sin to God. He said he had filthy lips and he lived among a people with filthy lips.

He identified himself as a sinner first, but then immediately saw that his people were just like him, and he like them. Trying to deal with the problem of sin without understanding the relationship you have with your people is like patching a water-damaged wall without fixing the leak.

So...

How do you know who your people are?

Who do you make effort to be with?

Lunch table in school

Not always where we sat, but where we desired to sit, or more precisely, who we wanted to be with.

We change our behavior based on who we want to be around, whether we are around them or not.

We try to change our behavior because we want to be accepted.

Guilty by association

1st Grade pumpkin carving party - throwing seeds

I didn’t throw the pumpkin seeds, but it would not have mattered if I did or not. I wanted to be accepted by them. When you want to be accepted by a people long enough your values begin to change. You begin to see things the way they do. And then, your behavior changes after the real change has already happened inside.

You are influenced by the people you want to be around.

And you are responsible for the people who want to be around you.

How are you influencing others?

Confession of sin was one thing Jesus could not teach by example:

The Pharisee and the Tax collector at prayer

Which of the two would you go to learn about dealing with your sin?

Isaiah knew his people and took responsibility for their collective sin, not just his own personal sin.

That made him a prophet worth listening to.

He could turn his guilt by association into a channel of grace for God.

Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution?

But we are getting ahead of ourselves now. Isaiah cannot be that channel of grace for his people while he still has his own filthy mouth to deal with.

Most scholars do not think Isaiah had a swearing problem. Rather, in contrast to this vision of heaven’s throne room, with all the angels singing God’s praises, anything Isaiah says is going to to come across like a bullfrog in the baptistry. He’s out of place and he knows it. How can the holiness of heaven be cleansed without kicking him out?

Messenger with a coal - sin atoned

God responds by sending an angel, or messenger, for that is what angels are, with a live coal from the throne. He touches it to Isaiah’s lips, and it cleanses him. That’s a sterilization by fire, which would have left a mark and quite a sting as well, I imagine.

Offering forgiveness, even sending the messenger to bring that offer, is God’s part of this equation, which is why we say that forgiveness is free to us. But receiving that forgiveness changes us. Sin you are truly free from doesn’t have a hold on you anymore.

So, like Isaiah, we can recognize that we are sinful people, born and raised by sinful people, and living in a world of sinful people - but knowing that much is just the first step. So, you’ve got a sin problem? Welcome to the human race. Here’s your license and ID number… you’re officially one of us.

Is that where your faith ends? Before it begins?

When you recognize the problem and admit to your part in it, you then have the ability to continue being part of what is wrong with the world, or to choose to be part of God’s solution.

Whom Shall I send?

So God asks the question: Who will go on His behalf and bring God’s message to the world?

And Isaiah does the unthinkable, something very few people, and even less prophets do. He volunteers.

“Here I am, send me.”

That is an act born out of transformed heart - grateful for salvation and redemption, loving God, and loving others enough to want to share God with them.

God creates people on purpose

God chooses people on purpose

Some of us have experience being chosen last

God chooses differently - last to first

Or more precisely, He chooses those that seek Him.

It shows His strength and power. It proves His strength and power.

1 Corinthians 1:25 NLT

This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

Original Story by: Loren Eisley

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf.

Then, smiling at the man, he said…..“I made a difference for that one.”

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