Sermon Tone Analysis

Title: Ever-flowing Stream of Grace

Theme: Results in Trusting in God

“Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

(Isaiah 40:28-31)

Surely I am with you always

The results in trusting in God are far beyond outward observance and far beyond the onlooker’s perspective.

These results grow out of our relationship with God the Father, Christ our Lord and our ability to walk in step with the Holy Ghost.

Regardless of who you are and your place in the Body of Christ, if you are going to continue on and see your ministry through to a healthy completion, it is going to cost you something, and it is going to require that you put your trust in Jesus’ promise, which is “…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

(Matthew 28:20) When things happen that cause you to question your ministry’s worth, to become weary and want to give up, God has a promise that will meet you at whatever condition you find yourself in.

Listen as I read Isaiah 40:28-31, “Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

I would propose to you that when despondency comes upon the Body of Christ and when we have the tendency to bring God down to our level, we need to let the Holy Spirit bring the truths found in today’s text to life within our minds and hearts.

Just what are the results of trusting in God?

The children of God who allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate into their hearts the truths found in what Isaiah wrote, overcome circumstances that can cause them to doubt the Lord’s love for them.

They find themselves walking in the power of Almighty God, thus hearing, understanding and achieving God’s perfect will for them.

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The beginning of Isaiah forty begins with “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God.” (Isaiah 40:1) You must understand before God sent His people in to bondage for continual sin, He always furnished them with promises that would support them and comfort them, if they would only listen and obey.

Isaiah chapter forty holds truths not just for the Jews of Isaiah’s day, but also for the children of God today.

It is in Isaiah 40:3 we read of the work and ministry of John the Baptist who was the forerunner of Christ.

John’s ministry was “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert [to] prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.”

John’s ministry was to lead and point all to Christ.

Therefore, the instructions and promises found in Isaiah 40:28-31 are for the child of God who would but trust in the Lord as John the Baptist did.

The language of the prophet “Do you not know?

Have you not heard?” is one of reproving.

(Matthew Henry; Barnes Notes; The pulpit Commentary) We know that by reading Verse 27 which reveals to us the heart of the Jews who became melancholy, complaining, and whining.

Listen to their words of despair, “…My way is hidden from the Lord: my cause is disregarded by my God.”

The Jews were relying on brain power here and responding to their circumstances.

This is when brain power becomes limited and often is overcome with a critical spirit.

These people nourished depression, needless fears, and mistrust.

(The Pulpit Commentary) Disappointments can breed mistrust in truth, and what is even worse, disappointments can cause people to no longer look for truth.

They stop trusting in God’s truths and set the stage of a skeptical atmosphere.

(The Pulpit Commentary) It literally stops the desire of searching for Biblical understanding.

(Matthew Henry; The Pulpit Commentary) This births forth a questioning spirit.

Once this starts it becomes like an electricity of unbelief in the air and must not be breathed in, but rejected because it affects the spiritual health of the Body of Christ.

(The Pulpit Commentary)

“Do you not know…” (Isaiah 40:28) as it used in today’s text refers to the fact that the Jewish people had an abundant opportunity of learning.

They could have learned from their history, and from their fathers, of the true character of God.

They had opportunity to learn of His willingness and ability to deliver them.

These Jews had a blameworthy forgetfulness and disregard for the nature of God.

It is in times of trials when speculation begins to tear down faith in the Lord.

Christians need to remember that God does not measure time as we do.

It is impossible for Him to be unmindful or uncaring of our situations.

(Barnes Notes; The Pulpit Commentary)

The child of God who believes this is the Christian who recalls God’s faithfulness to him and resolves to stand upon the Lord’s promises now and for the future.

The Christian who has walked in obedience has felt Holy Spirit power in his life, he has seen God work through him, thus he trusts in the Lord.

He knows the promise of Psalm 155:11 “[Those] who fear Him, trust in the LORD- He is their help and shield.”

Empower them for service

Christians who know and hear the voice of the Lord know that, “[He] is the Lord [and] He is the everlasting God, the Creator of… the earth.

He [does] not grow tired or weary…” (Isaiah 40:28)

We serve the God who has existed from eternity, is unchangeable, and has everlasting love for us.

He longs and loves to give whatever is needed to His children.

James the half brother of Jesus writes, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

(James 1:17)

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and for twelve months of every year our God is able to meet the needs of His children and empower them for service.

The Lord is our Creator, our Sustainer, and the Holy Spirit is sent by God.

Jesus is available to work in us twenty-four seven….

The Bible says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him.

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

And He is the head of the body, the church…” (Colossians 1:15-18a)

As long as Jesus is your Savior and Lord of your life, there is no need for worry because He is in charge and in full control at all times.

The child of God who knows this walks in faith, produces the fruit of faithfulness, and does not look at his circumstances.

He looks to the God who “…rewards those who earnestly seeks Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak

Because of God’s attribute of never growing tired or weary, He “…gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”

Even today the young and strong become weary or stumble in their duties before the Lord, especially if they are working in the arm of the flesh.

However, “…those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”

What Israel wanted in captivity the church of Christ now needs.

His supernatural strength is available at all times.

In the breeding of Quarter Horses, breeders have come to understand that there is a gene found in the blood makeup of some Quarter Horses that gives them a special ability to build muscle.

Thus, these horses build more muscle and are stronger than the average Quarter Horse.

It is my understanding that even if you take a blood line that has this gene and breed that blood line to each other, there will still be some offspring with this gene and some without.

You see only God is the one who determines which horses have it.

Man for the most part is unable to manipulate this gene on as he wishes.

Only God can give His strength to the weary, to “…those whose hope is in the Lord.”

“Hope” is better translated as “wait on the Lord” or “wait for the Lord” in the New American Standard Bible, the King James Bible and the Living Bible.

“Wait on the Lord” (qawah) is the foundational truth to enjoying God’s supernatural strengthening, which enables Christians to run the race, raise up like eagles, walk and not faint.

“Wait on the Lord” (qawah) is one word in the original Hebrew writings, which was an active verb.

To wait here is not inactivity or absence of physical exertion.

It merely means hope in God as you do what He calls you to do and be willing to wait on Him for the results and directions to move on.

To fail to employ the means God gives you to work with Him is to tempt the Lord.

When He says to go and make disciples, this means you are put into use what He has given and wait upon Him for additional means.

The farmer who waits for the Lord to plow and sow his seed will not only be disappointed, but will be guilty of provoking God’s anger.

God expects the farmer to plow and plant the seeds in the fields he oversees in proper season.

Then the farmer is to trust in God for the harvest.

And so it is with the church of Jesus Christ.

She is to be actively sowing the seeds of God’s Word in every way possible, then wait upon God for the harvest.

Sowing can be done through Christian music, preaching and teaching, testimonials, and even just living out your Christian faith before an on watching world.