Dangerous Prayer: Send Me
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Introduction
Introduction
What if we moved beyond our safe and selfish prayers?
What if we began to pray prayers that would scare us if God answered them?
*Do your prayers reflect a desire for God to use you, or do they reflect a desire for you to use God?*
Isaiah will pray, “Here I am, Send me.”
What would it take for us to get to that place that we would pray that prayer?
Is there a way in which that prayer becomes desirable?
How can I make my life count?
(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.
Uzziah - good king -
became king 16 yo - reigned 52 yrs
very prosperous
became proud and disregarded the holiness of God
became leprous - lived in a separate house until he died.
Beyond being a date marker, there is a contrast here between King Uzziah and God.
Uzziah - dead / God - alive
There is no world leader who will still be in authority in 60 years
Earthly powers will fade - God does not:
(ESV)
34 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,
for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?”
Uzziah - had a limit to his glory and lost his ‘glory’ due to trying to build his own. / God’s glory fills everything and IS
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.
Strange creatures
Seraph means ‘fiery one’
These aren’t chubby little babies in diapers
We don’t see them again in Scripture
God is worshipped by them
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.
Only time in Scripture that God is called something three times.
Learn It.
1. God’s glory surrounds His sending.
1. God’s glory surrounds His sending.
God’s glory is the vision before and the motivation behind all that we do.
God has always been a sending God.
Missio Dei = ‘mission of God’ or ‘sending of God’
The goal and mission of all that God does is for his glory.
“Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more.”
— John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad
Given the correlation between God’s glory and the motivation to be used by God, I need to wonder if the reason why more Christians are not jumping at the opportunity to be used and sent by God is because they have lost a vision and picture of God.
2. God’s call often reveals our inadequacies.
2. God’s call often reveals our inadequacies.
Isaiah - ‘Woe is me!’
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!”
There are times when God wants to use us but we allow our inadequacies to make excuses for why we cant be sent / used by God.
.
Jonah - Nope
(ESV)
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. .
Job’s inadequacy is that
Moses - ‘Send him’
(ESV)
1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. . .
(ESV)
10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
**Excuses**
(ESV)
12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” 13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”
12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” 13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” v
Moses - ‘Send him’
Jacob was a cheater.
Peter had a temper.
David had an affair.
Noah got drunk.
Jonah ran from God.
Paul was a murder.
Gideon was insecure.
Miriam was a gossip.
Martha was a worrier.
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!”
Thomas was a doubter.
Sara was impatient.
Elijah was moody.
Moses stuttered.
Zaccheus was short.
Abraham was old.
Lazarus was dead.
Because it reveals our inadequacies, We think God must have made some mistake - that it wasn’t well planned to choose you for this particular task. Perhaps, though the opposite is true.
What ‘handicap’ do you have?
God will often work through our greatest weaknesses rather than our greatest strengths.
(ESV)
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
3. God doesn’t just send the prepared, he prepares those he sends.
3. God doesn’t just send the prepared, he prepares those he sends.
You would have thought that the prophet of God would have been prepared.
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.”
God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called. Don’t let Satan convince you otherwise. Satan will tell you that God has an IQ requirement or an entry fee… that he employs only specialists and experts, governments and high-powered personalities.
When Satan whispers such lies, dismiss him with this truth: God stampeded the first-century society with swaybacks, not thoroughbreds! Their collars were blue, their hands were calloused, and there is no evidence that Jesus chose them because they were smarter or nicer than the guy next door. The one thing they had going for them was a willingness to take a step when Jesus said, “Follow me.”
— max lucado
When in scripture have you seen that God has sent someone only to say that didn’t work?
* When God wants to use you for his glory he will do whatever is necessary to make you usable
* Sin, health, etc
— God has what we need to make us useful for his glory
— the greatest need is salvation
For Isaiah God sent a seraph to cleanse Isaiah’s lips - just a picture
— For us and for the world, God sent Jesus to fully and finally deal with our sin.
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.”
4. God doesn’t need to use us, but he chooses to.
4. God doesn’t need to use us, but he chooses to.
ILLUST - Remember it was an honor in elementary to be chosen to run an errand for the teacher.
it meant you were trustworthy, able
held your head up because you had authority
God doesn’t NEED you or me to accomplish his mission.
God didn’t need Moses to free the Israelites.
God didn’t need Jonah to warn the Ninevites.
When God uses us for his mission we are filled not drained.
Because we are inadequate on our own, we experience God’s power in us as he works through us.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
(ESV)
1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. . . . my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
This means that means when God chooses to use us it is neither a necessity nor a duty; instead, it is a joy.
It’s not a HAVE TO but a GET TO
Moses and Jonah both grew through their experiences an got to see God do amazing things.
Don’t miss the thrill of being used by God!
(ESV)
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
Link It.
Three things you need to be sent:
Three things you need to be sent:
1. An (greater?) awareness of God’s ? glory.
1. An (greater?) awareness of God’s ? glory.
**See God’s glory
ILLUST - SPCA commercials - my kids see the sad dogs and want to give away my retirement.
It wasn’t a sad story of lost people that moved Isaiah to action, but an awareness of God’s glory.
Praying for the holy during holy holy holy.
* We need a clear vision of God
* Comes through spending time with him - word and prayer
2. A recognition of your personal inability.
2. A recognition of your personal inability.
**Sense our inability
God will not call you to something you could accomplish on your own.
Recognize what is keeping us from being used by God?
* Sin?
* Pride?
Humility
* Excuses?
* Just as dangerous - pride says I can do without, excuses says I can’t do even with. One makes God too big, the other makes God too small
>What is keeping you from being fully used by God?
3. An experience of God’s enabling grace.
3. An experience of God’s enabling grace.
**Strengthen with God’s grace
Grace is an interesting thing - As you receive it, it enables you to give it.
There is a power in the grace of God
1. An awareness of God’s ? glory.
1. An awareness of God’s ? glory.
(ESV)
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2. A recognition of your personal inability.
2. A recognition of your personal inability.
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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
3. An experience of God’s enabling grace.
3. An experience of God’s enabling grace.
We bring NOTHING to this equation — Jesus brings everything.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Live It.
I believe in your mission God – send me
I love you God – Send me.
I honor your ways Lord – Send me
I love the broken, hurting – Send me
I once was lost but now I am found – Send me
If I don’t go who will – Send me
Where might God be sending you? What do you need to do to take your next step of obedience?
Which do you most need today: an awareness of God’s glory, recognition of your inability, or an experience of God’s grace?
Lord, prepare me and send me for your glory.