Awed and Sent

Introduction

Good Morning FBCO.....

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Share personal testimony-

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When we are in Christ, we have all been called… and once we are called, by and large, it is up to us to respond. We will see in what manner the Lord expects us to respond this morning as we look at Isaiah’s calling.

If you would and are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word.

Read Isaiah 6:1-13

Leading up to this moment, Isaiah has spent time denouncing the sins of others. The people had traded the things of God for inappropriate rituals and earthly pleasures, placing their trust in man and not God.

One thing that emerges from this is through satisfying their earthly pleasures, the people had allowed a diminished view of God to take root. When that happens sin is not as big a deal and the people felt secure in it.

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But then we come to this moment in chapter 6, where Isaiah has this encounter with the Lord as He is seated on His throne. And two major things we will take away today- God’s Holiness and our willingness to submit to that holiness through serving Him.

Immediately we are met with this vivid picture of a magnificent scene.

Psalm 33:1–9 ESV

1 Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. 2 Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! 3 Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. 4 For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. 5 He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. 6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! 9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

This is the God they are worshipping. This is the God is worthy of that praise.

And it leads us to this truth-

We serve a God that is supremely just and perfect in every way which show’s His Holiness.

WOW- What a sight. What Worship, Holy, Holy, Holy!

The word Holy is central to Isaiah’s description here. Hebrew is repetitious in nature. In our translations often times we supplement words for the benefit of our understanding. But often times certain words were doubled up for emphasis. We see that 2 Kings 25…it talks about pure gold in our translation, but in Hebrew it’s actually gold gold. This would show an importance of totality of something.

In this instance though, something rarely ever done happens. Holy is expressed 3 times.....

We see that God is so big, His divine holiness is so much more than we could ever fathom...that a new form of description has to be made. And even that truly doesn’t capture the amazing glory of our Lord.

Isaiah 5:16 ESV

16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.

God is sovereign Lord, He is the Mighty God, Elohim, Abba Father, but above all He is the HOLY ONE!

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Then we transition from being in awe of the holiness of God to…RESPONSE... brought on by the atoning sacrifice because of that holiness.

God’s holiness will always bring us to our knees and reveal our need for Him.

We see this very response from Isaiah.

WOE IS ME! I am ruined...

Who else has had that feeling?

In this moment of facing the Holy God, it’s almost like everything Isaiah has done flashes through him.

Just prior to these events in chapter 6, he was condemning the peoples behavior and now, he is adding himself to the list.

Why?

Man of unclean lips-

And we are face to face with the Lord of Lords, Almighty God, you see yourself for who you truly are....a sinner.

Matthew 12:36–37 ESV

36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

We too are often people of unclean lips even after we have come to know the Lord.

We must be awed by God, daily. We must recognize His holiness, daily. And we must be willing to say, God- you ruin me, woe is me.

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When we find ourselves humbly ruined by God, He raises us up in Christ, through His righteousness.

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And then we see this transition from response to action.

Something we must takeaway from this moment was that Isaiah didn’t realize he was this horrible sinner and then wallow in it. There was no pity party. Because called immediately redirected focus.

God literally called Isaiah to action.

The question-

Whom shall I send and who will go for us- God is merely asking, not making.

The response-

Here am I- Filled with awe and gratitude Isaiah steps up.

We see a similar encounter as Jesus called the first disciples in Luke 5. Jesus performs this miraculous site and Peter’s only response is to fall to his knees and say how unworthy he was.

Luke 5:8–11 ESV

8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

But....Peter and the others didn’t allow their sinfulness, their failures to keep them from doing what they knew that they should do after their encounters. They drop everything and immediately followed Him.

That’s exactly what we see from Isaiah.

God goes on to give instructions to Isaiah of what to say and do, calling the peoples attention back to the Lord.

All while giving this underlying spotlight to the One who would come and be the Savior of the world.

This moment where the Seraph grabs the hot coal from the altar and places it on the lips of Isaiah isn’t some weird ritual and it’s certainly not something we should be literally doing ourselves. No, this is God pointing ahead to the sacrificial lamb, Jesus, that was the substitutionary sacrifice upon God’s holy altar. And when that hot, burning, “all- consuming” coal is placed on the lips of Isaiah… it reveals the atoning work of Christ.

Do not be mistaken Church, this is all about Jesus.

His life, death, resurrection....

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Isaiah’s experience is much like our own. Though we may not see grand visions, when we accept Christ we experience the awe and majesty of God. And we are left with the question- Who will go for us?

Church, what is our response?

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When we accept the things of God, when we accept Christ as our Savior, the expectation is that we will go and do. Because in the same manner Jesus sacrificed Himself, we are to sacrifice ourselves for the good of the Gospel.

Matthew 16:24–25 ESV

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

If all we do is come to church on Sunday, listen to great sermons, sing good music and leave we are missing the point!

Door Sign

Being a Christ follower is about action! We are supposed to be little Christs.

Well if we take Jesus as our example then we better get moving.

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Think about this....if the way we as Christians behave sometimes truly reflected Christ....That would mean Jesus would be at home sitting in his recliner, waiting for Americas Got Talent to come on, eating a bowl of popcorn and completely blowing off weekly Bible study or VBS . Or even Jesus’ alarm goes off on Sunday and He groans cause He has to get up and go to His Fathers house to serve others during Sunday School or as a greeter and worship the Holy one during the service, then maybe ultimately He rolls back over and sleeps in and says I’ll go next week! Or when the opportunity comes to share the Gospel with others, he is too busy or gets cold feet because they may not like him after he shares.

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The point is He is our priority and serving Him is our priority and sharing Him is our priority. Something God called Isaiah to firsthand and something He calls us to even today!

Matthew 28:16–20 ESV

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This was not a suggestion from Jesus, it was a command. He didn’t tell His disciples to do this if they had time or if it was convenient for them or as long as it made them comfortable. He said go and do! This comes first.

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Christians, is our service to God first in our lives! If all you do is come to church on Sundays and that’s it you are missing out on the wonders of our God. He wants us to be active in His church. He wants us to fellowship with one another. He wants us to serve Him, not just feed off him. And He wants us to commune with Him so that we are always in awe.

Do not deprive yourself of such blessings that he gives!

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Christians, is our service to God first in our lives! Because it should be! Service through teaching the word, volunteering to help at different church functions, serving in the different ministries but ULTIMATELY and most IMPORTANTLY sharing Christ with those around us! Then discipling them!

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It is commanded of us!

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So, what can we take away from all of this this morning?

We need the Lord!

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Jesus has freely offered himself as our atonement! All we have to do is genuinely accept Him and all our sins are forgiven! Gone! We just need to accept him! If you have never done that…..

Our awe of God should lead us to follow him!

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We should be so enamored and fixed upon God that we should desire to learn, grow and just be in His presence. It should not be a chore.

We should desire to serve Him!

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Our faith and our closeness with Him should guide us to serve Him.

It should lead us to share Him with others close to us.

And we should be eager and excited to do it!

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Church, Our God is good to us! Amen? We should always strive to reciprocate that! He has truly given us everything! The question is what have we given Him? Are we still in awe of Him? Are you ready to be sent? Are you ready to be used by Him? He is only waiting for your response of Yes, Lord, send me! Use me!

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Let me end on this:

Several years ago, I heard the story of Larry Walters, a 33-year-old man who decided he wanted to see his neighborhood from a new perspective. He went down to the local army surplus store one morning and bought forty-five used weather balloons. That afternoon he strapped himself into a lawn chair, to which several of his friends tied the now helium-filled balloons. He took along a six-pack of beer, a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, and a BB gun, figuring he could shoot the balloons one at a time when he was ready to land.

Walters, who assumed the balloons would lift him about 100 feet in the air, was caught off guard when the chair soared more than 11,000 feet into the sky -- smack into the middle of the air traffic pattern at Los Angeles International Airport. Too frightened to shoot any of the balloons, he stayed airborne for more than two hours, forcing the airport to shut down its runways for much of the afternoon, causing long delays in flights from across the country.

Soon after he was safely grounded and cited by the police, reporters asked him three questions: "Where you scared?" "Yes." "Would you do it again?" "No." "Why did you do it?" "Because," he said, "you can't just sit there."

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Church, we can’t just sit there. Here we are Lord, send us.