Strengthened and Renewed (2)

Greeting

Overall Theme: Our sovereign God is the only source that can provide the Christian an everlasting outpouring of strength and renewal.

Text: Isaiah 40: 22-31

Before Reading of the passage:

All of Isaiah Chapter 40 up until our passage, focuses on the greatness and grandness of the glory of God.

I encourage you to read the whole chapter sometime. We are going to read a small portion but I really do encourage you to go back and read all of chapter 40. If I were to summarize the chapter up in the quickest and most shallow way possible, I would say it like this: there is no one, no thing, no spiritual being that can compare to the God who we serve and the God who loves us. Jesus Christ stands alone on the spectrum of glory and greatness. Why would we ever question if He can care for us? We are going to read about this in a couple minutes. But, remember this. Remember that nothing can compare to our God, not only as we move forward in our message but as we live our lives for Him every single day we have breath.

READ PASSAGE

Introduction: How has you last couple years been? Exhausting? Maybe some good times and some bad times? Maybe you’re learning how to life after losing a loved one? Maybe you have battling a sickness or a difficult disease like cancer? Frankly, maybe you are struggling to find the money to pay your next electric bill? You might be anxious about what is going on in our world and the chaos that is presented every day on the news. At the end of the day, maybe you just feel like being done, calling it quits and taking a seat on the bench?

Some days I feel that way. But more often then not, I hear a lot of Bible-believing and church-going, Christians saying the same things. I totally understand that. Life is full of crazy twists and turns that most of the time we don’t know are coming. Your church is going through a time of waiting at this exact moment. It’s hard when a long time Pastor, especially a very gifted Preacher and Shepherd, like Pastor Jeff accepts a calling to move away to begin a new journey with a new church. This time can be frustrating and can even leave some wondering if God really cares about things like this. This is what is going on at Bethel CRC as a whole but I know for a fact that each of you are struggling with your own difficulties as well. I know it’s hard to admit, because that is the kind of community we live in. We have to look strong and confident all of the time. But, I want to step into a space this morning that maybe you don’t like to recognize a lot and that is we have all questioned if God cares about us. We have all felt weak and tired of the things life throws at us. And, we have all wondered if God can hear our prayers for the small and big things facing our lives. That’s just life.

Friend’s, I am not here preaching something new to most of you. I am not hear to preach a message that is absolutely revolutionary to you. Frankly, Isaiah was writing to the Israelites with the same kind of mindset. This isn’t knew. It is simply a reminder that we need to focus on every day of our lives. That is this, if you can take one thing away from this message this morning it’s this: God is the only source that can provide the Christian an everlasting supply of strength and renewal. Isaiah 40 is going to show us exactly that this morning. Isaiah is going to show us that if our God can form the universe surely he can provide us with strength. Surely if God cares for the sparrow, that He cares about the small or big challenges that are in our lives.

No Greater God (Isaiah 40: 22-26)

Isaiah is writing to the Kingdom of Judah all throughout the book of Isaiah. At this point, the people of Judah were not shy to the idea of suffering and oppression. The Assyrians had a long history of taking both Israel and Judah captive and brutally oppressing them in the past, and part of the book of Isaiah is ,himself, prophesying that more is to come. BUT, he makes sure to tell them that God is still a God of comfort. He encourages them that God is still working and that He has a plan that they might not understand. And, that is where we pick up our passage.

(22) Verse 22 speaks of God’s powerful deity as He sits enthroned in the Heavens. It is a reminder to God’s people of the kingship of God who rules over the whole earth. Isaiah describes the way God created the Heavens and the Earth as we today pitch a tent when we go camping. This is simply to make us sit in awe of the power of God. Friends, if you don’t read that and just need to take a second to silently be in awe to the Lord, I don’t know if anything will.

(23,24) Verses 23 and 24 build off of verse 22, by recognizing that if God is kind over the universe, surely he is over the most powerful leaders in our world too. Isaiah makes the assertion that the God we serve can make world leaders into nothing in an instant. In verse 24, God relates strong rulers to young plants that He could simply blow on and they would wither away and turn into chaff.

(25) Now that the have heard all of this. Now that we have seen all of the evidence of how great and powerful our God is, God writes through Isaiah, “To whom will you compare me, who is my equal?” The question can be asked to us this morning, “Is there anyone or any possible thing that compare to the Lord?” You already know the answer and it is a million times over no. Nothing can compare to our God whether in Heaven or on Earth. No fake gods, no idols of wealth, position, or power. No American dream or perfect family can compare to the power and working of the God we serve even if we attempt to put them on the same level.

C.S. Lewis said it brilliantly, “Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”

― C.S. Lewis

Verse 26 is going tor reinforce the fact that absolutely noting can stand close to the power and majesty of our God.

(26) Isaiah asserts, “Look up” We can either choose to worship the stars and the skies or we can recognize the God that ordered them in place like a Military Officer calls out his men by number and name. The implication in verse 26 is that God is responsible for what we see everyday as we live our daily lives. It serves as a constant reminder that the God of Israel stands alone on the spectrum of glory, power, and honor. If He perfectly numbered the stars, surely he won’t forget about the people of Israel or us today in 2022. We are going to dig deeper into this idea in a couple minutes.

God Gives Strength For the Hopeless (Isaiah 40: 27-31)

(27) In verse 27 we see Isaiah almost have a spirit of frustration. He says, “Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you keep saying, “My life and troubles must be hidden and ignored by God.” It is important to know that at this point in time, God’s people were struggling. They often came to God expecting to receive mercy in how they pictured it. But, that wasn’t always the case. Frankly, that isn’t always the case today either. The prophet Isaiah is really asking, “Do you really think that God does not know what is happening? Are you really going to accuse a Sovereign God for being unjust?”

(28) Friends, have you noticed a pattern? Isaiah asks a couple rhetorical questions and then answers them with God’s truth. He answers the questions in verse 27, in verse 28. We can point out and see four major things in verse 28 that Isaiah wants both the Israelites then and Bethel CRC today in 2022.

God is Eternal (The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth) He was there at the beginning and He will remain on His throne until the end. Friends, there is absolutely nothing that God does not know. Whether in the past or whether it be in the future. Nothing is out of God’s scope, whether big or small.

God is the Creator of Everything(The Creator of the ends of the earth) There is nothing on this earth or in Heaven that is outside of his control. How we need to remember that when we feel we have lost control of our lives or situations

God does not grow weary(He will not grow tired or weary) Whether it be God controlling the expanse we see over our heads at night or how He administers millions of people on earth. God does not grow tired or weary of doing this.

The wisdom of God is incomprehensible and unlimited(His understanding no one can fathom) We see this in Isaiah 55:8-9 as well, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Professor Dr. Gary V. Smith said it this way, “These confessions of faith profess God’s involvement with every time period, every space or territory in the universe, every detail of life, and his total understanding of what has, does, and will happen throughout the heaven and earth.

These truths ought to remind us that GOD IS IN CONTROL

Friends, we reach towards the end of the chapter with one question that needs to be answered for us this morning. So how? How should we respond when we face trials and difficulties of many kinds, that we simply cannot understand?

(29) Verse 29 speaks to this. God gives strength to the weary, the tired, the broken, the ashamed, and the hopeless. The Hebrew word for Strength found in our passage is “kōaḥ”. The direct translation is often interpreted to, “extra power or strength.” How encouraging friends that when we have no idea what God is doing in our lives, when we throw up our hands and submit to God’s all knowing, sovereign plan, He will freely and abundantly give us an “extra” portion of his strength.

2 Corinthians 12:9-11, verse you probably have memorized, encourage us even more, “9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

(30,31) So, how do we receive God’s strength and renewal so that we might endure in our trials? Three things to close people of God.

We must recognize that we need God’s strength. We see that in verse 30. Isaiah says even energetic young people or children grow tired when they work too long or too hard. Yes, friends, even Alec Buwalda gets tired sometimes working on the farm. Isaiah is really trying to say, it doesn’t matter who you are, you will grow tired and weary form the weight of life and the trials that will come your way. We all need to recognize that we need a Savior and that we need the strength that only comes from God.

We must hope in the Lord. What does that even mean? Those who wait, depend, and wholly expect form the Lord will receive strength. God is the only one who can replace, exchange, and renew the strength of a believer. Carlie Jansen a beloved former teacher had a favorite verse as she fought fiercely with cancer that runs parallel to verse 30 and 31 and that is Romans 12:12, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Friends, we must be joyful in our waiting on the Lord, patient as we endure the trial, and faithfully walking and talking with God as we receiver his strength to face the next trouble in our lives.

We must trust in God. We need to have a heart prepared for patience as we trust God will replace our human weakness with his unmatched power in due time. It may not look like what we have in mind, but God promises that He will indeed give a renewed strength to those who wait in him. It comes down to trusting God every single day as we walk the path that God has chosen for us, when it’s joyful or miserable, whether it is what we had in mind or not, we must continue to press forward through the strength that only God gives. Surely, he will keep us from growing weary and quitting even if we want to.

Closing Remarks: Friends, there is no magical key to gaining God’s outpouring of strength and renewal. It will take discipline and a trust in our God that when others see it, they simply won’t understand. We need to seek, hope and trust that God will give us strength to face what He has in store for us. I’m not going to promise you that it is going to be easy or that God will magically make all of your troubles go away. He won’t. But, I promise you that if you faithfully walk with Him and trust in His sovereign plan for your life, He will give you strength to face tomorrow. I’ve been through a few things in my life. There have been days where I have yelled at God and begged Him to change the course of my life and the things happening to me, but I was doing it all wrong. Instead of seeking God’s strength, I wanted God to do what I wanted. I’m sure you have been there too. But, friends there is no greater key than what this passage lays out for us. What a God we serve and worship. Let’s hope in Him, for He is the perfect author of each of our stories.

Let’s Pray

Blessing

Romans 15:13 - “13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”