Shocked by God

Shocked by God TEXT: Isaiah 6:1-8; Exodus 3:4-8 BIG IDEA: To have a costly form of Christ-followership, you have to first be shocked by God. See the need. Hear the need. Feel the need. Do something about it. Exodus 3:4-8 When the LORD saw that Moses had turned aside to see, God called to Him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’ Then God said, ‘Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the LORD said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I have felt their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ The Israelites are God’s chosen people; it isn’t His plan for them to be in slavery. And now the heart of God begins to move on behalf of His people, and God says in this passage: - I HAVE SEEN — I’ve seen your oppression. - I HAVE HEARD — I’ve heard the cries of My people. - I FEEL — I feel the pain of the nation. - I HAVE COME TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

One of the saddest things about the Jewish people being in slavery is that at some point they started to become Egyptianized; they began to become comfortable with their slavery. It took someone to say, ‘Let’s stop being so OK with where we are.’ I don’t want us to be comfortable where we are. I want us agitated and discontented like we’ve not been agitated or discontented before. I want Journey Church to SEE what is around us. YOUR CHALLENGE IS TO TAKE A PRAYER WALK AROUND YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD THIS WEEK Matthew 9:36 (ESV) When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

God said: ‘I have SEEN the misery of My people in Egypt.’ Is there misery in our city? Then God said: ‘I have HEARD them crying.’

I want us to hear what people are saying in our communities. I want us to hear the cries of our cities, to HEAR and LISTEN when they say: Where are all the Christians when we need them?

God also said: ‘Not only do I SEE the need and HEAR the need; I FEEL their pain.’ We can’t really make a difference until we begin to feel what our cities feel.

Keep FEELING, church; it’s a frightening thing when the people of God stop feeling. When God SAW and HEARD and FELT the pain of His people in slavery it caused Him to DO SOMETHING; He visited them in their distress. Jesus told us His mission. It is our WHY. He said: Luke 19:10 (AMP) “for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” If you read the history of people who really encountered God, there are often three major threads. First, they are SHOCKED BY GOD. They are amazed. Speechless. Shocked by God. We need this in our church.

Isaiah 6:1-5 (ESV) In the year King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on 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. 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 I said: ‘Woe is me! 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!’

Second they are SEARED BY GOD. Isaiah 6:6 (ESV) One of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. When Isaiah has this experience with God, he not only understands who HE is, he is broken about the condition of the people around him. When you start weeping over your own sin, you are getting closer to God. But when you start weeping over the sin and condition of your neighbors, city and total strangers; you know you have seen God. Without a vision of God, we aren’t compelled to get the Gospel out, we aren’t driven to have a burning passion for people all around us; not without being shocked and seared by God. The Gospel will be ‘pretty good’ news to you and me until we’ve really seen God. But when you see Him, He becomes THE news - He becomes life and breath. The seraph isn’t coming to finish Isaiah; he is coming to bring him life. The flame Isaiah thinks is going to destroy him is the flame that is going to refine all the wrong out of him and bring him into deep relationship with God.

As Jesus gets closer and closer to us, mercy, grace and peace are coming to us. Isaiah 6:7 (ESV) He touched my mouth and said: ‘This has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’ The #1 plan of the enemy is to convince us that we are overtaken by guilt about our wrongdoings, and somehow that strategy works time and time again. The enemy manages to hang shame on us.

Sometimes you have to talk back to the enemy, but not with your own weak argument, you have to agree with God. Jesus says to us: ‘It is finished’ Your guilt is taken away and your sins have been paid for - because God says so. And when that truth sears you, you are changed forever. The third piece is that we are SENT BY GOD We are sent by God because we have SEEN - we have HEARD - we FEEL.

Perfectly normal for the American follower of Christ: Come in to worship, go out from worship, love the Gospel - thank You, Jesus - but SENT? We need an encounter with God. At the center of our story isn’t just a cross - it is a resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (ESV) I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. Jesus is the only one who stands in victory over death, hell and the grave. That is also our story, a story of resurrection, not crucifixion.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NIV) For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. That is what Isaiah experienced. He is shocked and seared by God and immediately: Isaiah 6:8 (ESV) 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.’

Why is Isaiah so eager? Because he has been SHOCKED by God. He has been SEARED by God’s grace and mercy. And now he knows he has a message that others need to HEAR.

There is no shocking and searing that doesn’t result in sending.

Some of you have already been SHOCKED by God. You have been SEARED by His grace and mercy You have been humbled by His greatness You are primed to be SENT.