Transition Glory & Stress 2

Local Community Leaders Have the Capacity to Change the World

This is what brings me here today. I believe that God uses people like you and me to change the world one square block at a time. I am here to share the word of God with you because I want to change the world and I believe that means to help you guys see and know God’s word better SO THAT you can be transformed into the image of God and then as you image God to your family, friends and neighbors and co-workers they will be impacted and influenced and thus through you, the ripple affect of gospel transformation will change your circles and the larger circles of people as the ripples of love and Godliness wash out from God to us and then to those around us. This is why I am here today.

Transition

Miriam Webster has dubbed 2020’s word of the year to be “Pandemic” but honestly I think a more appropriate word would have been Transition....

tran·si·tion

the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.

Pandemic (global shift)

Includes the relationship between and among nations and people all over the world

US Election & Subsequent Shifting Procedures (National succession)

Includes the Congress, Senate, Foreign policy, (most recently decisions regarding our presence in Afghanistan) Economic protocols and more.

Educational System (responsive overhaul)

Back to the new normal school year but still different than it was in the past. Full day, hybrid, full remote, online classes and assignments.the loss of extracurricular activities - sports, music, debate, and the attempt to make those things happen in different ways.

SocioEconomic (reforms and restraints)

- Online world impacting your career and relationships (Vocational and Local Community )

Unemployment %’s & paydays

Twitter, Facebook, IG, Podcasts, Youtube, are all finding more airtime in the average American home and adjusting the way we interact

Movies being released first run on HBO Max

Includes your neighborhood and interactions with people at work and at social functions.

Faith Community

Pastoral search here at Christian Assembly … the local Faith community and its movement from one reality to another.

How we worship, watching others from home online or in person

Where we gather, large groups, watch parties,

When we worship, We now have one church in many many different locations engaging in worship at all different times. Some of you are watching and listening to me on Sunday night, and some of you are listening to the sound of my sweet voice on Monday morning.

Personal/Individual (the you and your immediate family stuff)

includes the loss of loved ones, the birth of grandchildren or children

Working out at home rather than the gym

jobs going mobile

the resurgence of a NOMADIC lifestyle

Startup businesses

We’ve all been through significant levels of transition and I want to say it again…NONE of it is catching God by surprise.

History may repeat at times, other times it rhymes… And God is still on the THRONE, Unshaken and not subject to change.

Let me just remind you of what the Bible says about God in the book James wrote where he says that God does not change like a shifting shadow but rather He is the same in all times.. the big word for this is God’s IMMUTABILITY meaning that he is unchanging in his character, will, and covenant promises. YOU CAN COUNT ON HIM TO BE WHO HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND TO DO WHAT HE HAS ALWAYS DONE.

• All throughout History we can see times of global, political, economical, tribal, and personal transitions. More specifically we see in scripture all of these different seasons of change and I want to tell you today, there is Hope and strength and wisdom to be found in the history of humanity as we have navigated those seasons.

Today I want to remind you or maybe introduce you to one episode of transition in the life of a nation that predates the USA by thousands of years and is still going strong.

as we walk through this passage today out of the book of Isaiah We will see our need to Look UP to Jesus, Look IN with Gratitude, and Look OUT with Compassion.

>> Please pray with me as we open Gods word.

Isaiah 6:1–8 ESV

1 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. 2 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. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 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!” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” 8 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.”

Look UP to Christ

• 742-701 BC - Isaiah’s ministry spanned the reign of 4 different kings

• assassinations, people being swallowed by giant fish and spit back out again, His country is fractured and certain tribes and states are working together with foreign nations to destroy the other tribes of their own people…by force (734bc Ephraim allies with Assyria against Israel)

• destruction of Bethel by Assyria (traditional place of honor)

• His life and work span included transitions and shifts and reforms that would make 2020 look like a walk in the park with an ice cream cone.

• all this, in the life of Isaiah and as he begins his ministry he states that he LOOKED UP and SAW the LORD. “In the year King Uzziah Died...” but he could have also said

• “In the year ...

• …the economy fell apart

• …the country was overhauled

• …of the assassination

• ...my world was turned upside down...”

• AND THIS IS FOR US,

“In the year...

• … of the pandemic

• … of the unemployment

• … of the divorce

• … of the loss and the change and the frustration

• In this year we, as Isaiah did, we look up and see the LORD, on the throne, and his presence fills the temple. gloriously and with wonder and strength and power eternal!

• ACTION: spend time daily, in Wonder and Awe dwelling on the character of God

this practice of praise will result in a greater calm and assurance. It will give you a deeper sense of stability and trust as you steady yourself on the word and character of God…WHO DOES NOT CHANGE.

LOOK UP TO CHRIST and LOOK IN WITH GRATEFULNESS

Look IN

AS we continue reading through this passage we see that what Isaiah looks up to continue to shape who he is becoming.

What we look to shapes our identity

As we dwell on the the nature of God our true being is revealed

As we dwell on the counterfeit Gods of this world our true being is deceived.

Look at Isaiah’s response to his vision

Isaiah 6:5 LEB

5 And I said, “Woe to me! For I am destroyed! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I am living among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, Yahweh of hosts!”

look to your job for your peace and calm - you’ll be a wreck

look to your grades in school - the pressure will eventually crush you with shame or blow you up with pride

look to the government - you will be disappointed in 4-8 years either way

look to the games you play or the people you know to make you feel more secure and safe in the midst of transitions and you will be at their mercy… when they’re up your up, when they’re down your down. like waves in the see

Look to God and you will be wrecked and undone because you will see how far you are from being able to steady your own hand or find your own footing. You will be undone as you look at True majesty and Holiness

But the good news is this...

In the midst of Isaiah’s undoing and destruction God came to Him....

and He didn’t give Isaiah 7 Herculian tasks to prove himself able. NO

God came to him with the coal from the altar.

And here is were we draw our hope as well. I offer you Jesus, the one who became the coal for us, the one whom the fire of Gods wrath was poured out on so that in the midst of our fear, our sin, our shame, our guilt can look to Him, King Jesus and be set free. set free to keep calm and carry on not because of what we have done but because of what he has already done on our behalf.

Thats the good news of the gospel - That Jesus atoned (paid for) the sins of all humanity so that by simple faith we can all be transformed into a new creation…not a transition but a transformation, so that as we walk through the ever shifting and changing world around us we can have a sure hope that steadies us and brings our heart back from the fluttering pace we see all around.

Look up my friends - to Him who is able to steady your hands for the work of the day - to Him who is able to lead your feet in the dark - to Him who is able to transform you into exactly what you were created to be - His Child.

We look up to Christ

We look in and see our sin, and then move foreward with gratefulness to the one who paid for it on the cross.

once you’ve been transformed and made new by this grace of God, you, have a mission that is very much in step with the prophet Isaiah...

Look OUT

Isaiah 6:8 LEB

8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “I am here! Send me!”

You have a calling to invite others to look UP to the one who has steadied you.

It’s not about you.

As you live in the light of Gods glory, others will see and know that you are not tossed like a wave in the sea.

When the waves around you become so large and they cause you to slip and fall, and you again return to that place of redemption in the presence of God, others will see and know that it wasn’t in your strength that you were made whole but rather in the strength of your king

Look OUT to those who are being tossed around emotionally, vocationally, personally and invite them to look up with you to the one who is on the throne.

You can look out with compassion, at the friends, neighbors and family members that are caught in their confusion and anxiety because you know that you were once caught in the same terrible spin cycle.

here are some suggestions for how to apply these three points:

>> Take time each day to meditate specifically on God’s unchanging nature and thank Him personally for his steadiness.

>> Confess your sin to God and receive His forgiveness with gratefulness

>> Look out into the lives of the people in your circle and see the need you can meet

"He should first show them in deeds rather than words all that is good and holy." ~ Benedict of Nursia