Break-Away Night 5

Breaking In

Isaiah 6:8-13

Well here we are.

Night 5!

Can you believe that we have been together for 5 nights?!

It is actually a little unreal to me still.

I mean trust me I am going to sleep so hard tonight but it has felt like the week has just flew by.

And I hope that you have enjoyed this week.

I hope that this has been a week of spiritual refreshment and maybe physically refreshed, I mean I don’t feel that one as a trip down the lazy river would have been relaxing but instead we went to a trampoline park and there was nothing relaxing about that!

That maybe you learned something, like some challenges are not worth doing, such as a hog-fest, and you got to know some more believers and leaders, that you had a great time but most importantly that you grew closer to Jesus.

I hope this week you have been challenged in a good way.

I hope that your provision can be Christ and that you begin to develop good routines that make less of you and more of Him

I hope that you begin to quite the voices around so that you can hear clearly from God.

I hope that your conformity is to Jesus not for this world.

And lastly I hope that you begin to take sin seriously because by doing so we have a great application of the sacrifice that Jesus made.

I have seen walls come down.

I have seen the one who have always been silent begin to find their voices.

I have seen the shy find confidence with arms raised in worship.

I have heard us rattle this room a bit this week.

I have seen us prayer with loud- booming voices.

I have seen groups have impactful conversations.

I have seen God begin to move among us

God is breaking some of you down while also building many of you up!

So tonight we issue the final challenge and that is we have to Break-In.

Not like literally breaking into a building but we are breaking back into a world that many of us left behind this week.

And don’t get me wrong it is easy to say yes to the challenges this week.

This challenge to break in is going to place us back in the world.

And this challenge is us putting everything that we have learned this week to the test.

And I hope that this week showed you that you do not have to glued to your phone 24/7 or whatever else your distraction may be..

That there is a life outside of this little box and it is awesome and full of wonderful people!

As I was sitting down to write this message, I felt complete, like there is nothing left to say besides good luck and we will see you next week.

But I came across one of my favorite stories that, I hope will be encouraging but yet still give us one more challenge as we look at BREAKING-IN.

If you have your Bibles please open up to Isaiah 6.

We are going to read there in a moment but has anyone ever had to volunteer for something?

Actually let me rephrase have you ever been in a group with people and someone ask for help and nobody raises their hands— yet you have the personality of a servant so after no one says anything for a couple of seconds you speak up and volunteer?

Do I have anybody that never raises their hands?

It’s okay you can raise them up— perfect— YEAH YOU ARE THE WORST!

I’m kidding kinda.

But like we all get a little nervous about stuff like this.

You know— I have found myself in this places often.

I was pretty new to Bethel and someone called me up and said hey would like you to help me with something.

Can I just say that when someone begins a conversation with that you should just say no, because it is going to be terrible.

You want to know why I said that?

because one on a day like today, I get a phone call from someone from Andrew Wingo- who is like, hey!

Could you help me with something.

And I was like sure!

I asked him, What you got, and then red flag number 2— he says oh, just come over— recall that Andrew lives right across the road so I head over.

Again not really thinking about I say sure, I’ll be there right there.

I get into the house and say hey what’s up and I notice a couple of other guys in the house, Wingo comes downstairs and says who would like to help me lift a piano into my house?

I did not want to raise my hand but I did.

It was a crazy out of body experience because I was not going to volunteer— I had the whole my back hurts thing and all would be well.

Like my arm is shooting up and my head is telling me no!

The people get there and we move it in and it basically destroyed my back— this was prior to my crossfit days.

We get it in to their house all is well in the world until 3 years later when you get a very similar phone call to then take the thing out of the house— but sure enough— I still helped.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!

Anyways— I sign up for things that I am not a fan of— I tend to lend a hand even if no one else will.

And As you set out to leave here today— the challenge I have for you is to Go.

And want us to Break-In.

We have to break back into this world now.

And here is the thing, once you leave here tonight you have a choice on how you are going to remember this week and what you are going to do next.

You can choose to have this moment be just a fun memory or you could have it be event that changed everything for you.

Where you decided to follow Jesus maybe for the first time.

Maybe it is where you lifted your hands for the first time.

Or maybe it is the first time you surrendered sin and began to feel freedom!

Where you stopped listening to the voices from this world, and instead of being in the world you take on the challenge of being sent to the world.

This week could be one of those pillars that you look back and it changed your life.

I am reminded of the story of Isaiah.

Can I share with you this story?

Isaiah 6:1–13 ESV

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” 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.” 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.

What I found so interesting about this story of Isaiah is how similarly our week has played out.

That is not because this message was written last and everything was built from this week.

So let’s break this down a bit.

Isaiah was given a vision from God.

His temple was filled up with His presence.

While we may not have had a vision from God this week- We have defiantly been in His presence.

I think back to our first night when we walked through the tabernacle.

And we entered into the Holy of Holies and just had intentional time of worship.

And I told you that I did not want to leave that place, I did not want to leave His presence.

I mean look at this vision that Isaiah had— God’s presence was felt and when we come into His presence He saw His Holiness.

And because of God’s holiness we recognize our sin.

Isaiah yells out— WOE IS ME!

I AM LOST!

I AM UNCLEAN!

We have done that this week, We have talked about sin and how we need to break-away from it.

We have to acknowledge our sin, we have to call it out and many of you did last night.

And then we see Isaiah be made clean.

But here is the next challenge.

God had a mission, God had a problem.

Look at

Isaiah 6:8 ESV

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 needed someone to go for him, to do what, He doesn’t say yet but without question Isaiah stands up and says HERE I AM!

Such boldness.

He has no idea what he is signing up for.

But He says! SIGN ME UP!

Here I am! Send Me!

And we did this same same thing— we took on the challenge to be the light to this world!

Some of us know what God is calling us to do, but many of us said this!

You stood up and you said I will be the light!

I don’t know where or how but I am willing.

What is interesting is that when we confess sin and we begin to break-away from it— I see a boldness.

Isaiah was crying out woe is me— but once he is made clean— it gave Isaiah a boldness.

As you draw near to Jesus— you will begin to have a boldness— to rise up and say I’ll Go— I don’t know where I am going, but I’ll go.

It’s Frodo from LOTR who says I’ll do it, I’ll destroy the ring but I don’t know the way.

Be faithful and draw near and keep saying yes to Jesus.

Now let’s talk just for a moment about the last couple of verses.

Isaiah 6:9–10 ESV

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.”

Does this sound good?

NO!

It sounds terrible.

Put yourself in Isaiah’s shoes.

You just said yes to go!

and know God is telling you what you are going to do— you are going to go to people who are not going to listen.

They won’t understand, the ears are heavy, the eyes are blind.

You see tomorrow when you wake up— you won’t be coming here.

I mean you can but no one will be here.

Break-Away will fade off into just another camp/event that you will look back on fondly, I hope.

But your missions field doesn’t.

It is awesome to break-away every once in awhile and I believe that we did that well this week.

But you can’t stay here forever.

You have to get up and get back out there.

Jesus prayed that God wouldn’t take the disciples out of the world.

Their work wasn’t done, it wasn’t finished.

That should be our prayer.

That God will leave us in this world because our work is not finished yet.

It time to break-in and be a light to this world.

Will you continue to take this challenge?

Only you can answer that.

And to maybe answer the questions that we all have left— when does the challenge end?

Well Isaiah asked the same questions.

Isaiah 6:11–13 ESV

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.

Until the end.

Until Jesus comes back or until our dying breath whichever comes first— we are to be faithful.

The challenge never ends because it is a challenge to keep our eyes focused on Jesus.

As we leave here— Go! be the light in the world and never take your eyes off of Jesus.