Know God: Live for Others
Isaiah • Sermon • Submitted
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· 6 viewsReligious devotion for one's own personal gain is detestible to God. True devotion to God is manifested in humble care for the poor and needy. The Kigndom of God is not entered by external religious actions. It is the gift of God (God gave the Law--Kingdom guidelines--and God gave Christ--The King and Servant of the Kingdom) and it's way (the way of the Kingdom) is to be lived out by God's people as they wait eagerly for its final consumation.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
One of the things that is great about a church plant is that it is necessary to think about foundational questions: Why are we here? What’s our purpose? What’s our Message??
OUR MESSAGE: ggcwoodstock.org
We want to think about our sentness to our communities in terms of true devotion to God and false devotion.
—False devotion to God—especially in the form legalism—will kill our testimony in our community because it will leave us empty; it will leave us without the presence and power of God.
False Devotion
False Devotion
False Devotion
False Devotion
False Devotion
False Devotion
Religious Devotion Is Worthless If It Is A Means Of Getting God To Do What You Want.
58:1 —Declaration that there has been a great transgression
Coming to God however we want.
Trumpet was the Tornado siren of the ancient world.
A declaration is necessary when the transgression is unknown or trying to be covered up.
You have to come to God on God’s terms.
58:2—Transgression masked in false piety
They come daily and offer gifts on the alter, but the gifts don’t represent the life. ()
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
In the sacrificial system the animal was meant to represent the worshiper. When a sacrifice was burned on the alter it was done so a way for the worshiper—now represented by the animal—to ascend before God.
It symbolized a life lived in the presence of God. It wasn’t about that momentary religious act—it certainly wasn’t a way to get God to do what you wanted—it was about a life give wholly to God.
THEY ARE HOLDING TO A FORM OF GODLINESS BUT DENYING THE POWER OF GODLINESS.
You cannot say that you are seeking God, when you live in contradiction to His revealed will.
58:3a—The ignorant question of the transgressors
58:3b-4—The response of YHWH
58:5—The rhetorical question of YHWH draws attention to the external actions of false piety.
True Devotion
True Devotion
True Devotion: Loves God by Loving What God Loves: Others
58:6—God loves bringing freedom to the enslaved and oppressed.
58:7—God loves to satisfy those who hunger, to make homeless wanderers a part of the family, to clothe those who are without covering, all the while caring for the family.
Here’s a good way to fast … give the food you were going to eat for dinner to a struggling mom who has 6 kids and has been living off a single box of rice for a week. That’s a good reason to not eat.
YOU WANNA SEEK THE FACE OF GOD THROUGH TRUE RELIGIOUS DEVOTION?? START WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS AND THOSE IN YOUR COMMUNITY THAT NEED A HELPING HAND.
Mission
Mission
Mission Happens When We Love What God Loves.
58:8a—The light recieved is not a light concealed. It breaks forth like the dawn (all can see it).
58:8c—The righteousness (doing what God considers right) goes before you.
In a sense the righteousness is the light that breaks forth. This is how deeds of love—deeds that love what God loves—function.
When God’s people are committed to loving what God loves and, therefore, doing righteousness, then their is an ever growing sphere of influence that these actions have. The light bursts forth as the dawn—Your righteousness will go before you.
58:8d—When you love what God loves and are dedicated to acting righteously, then God has got your back.
You can live your life moving forward and accomplish love and good deeds in an ever expanding sphere, knowing that the glory of the Lord is your rear guard.
58:9—When you love what God loves and commit do justice and loving mercy, then God will answer you when you cry out to Him.
58:10—True Fasting = Israel was abstaining from eating as a means of trying to get God to do what they wanted. God says, “How about not eating because you put others first, have fed the poor and needy around you and, therefore, don’t have any dinner for yourself today.”
The First-fruits of God’s New Creation.
The First-fruits of God’s New Creation.
58:11-14—God’s people are supposed to be a picture of God’s restorative power that has begun and will come fully with Jesus’ return and the New Creation.
58:11—The imagery of becoming like a watered garden and a spring of water in a scorched place is right out of Eden.
58:12—The rebuilding of ancient ruins is an illusion to the building of a new Temple after the destruction of Israel’s temple during th exile. New Creation is depicted in as a global Temple (The Square dimensions are a clear illusion to the Temple prophesied by Ezekiel).
58:13-14—Sabbath Rest is a rest of hoping and longing for the New Creation, the Restored Eden.
58:13—The Sabbath was meant to bring about—for one day a week—an Eden like environment of rest where God supplied all of man’s needs.
58:14—A Restored Eden—In the garden mankind delighted in God and rode on the heights of the earth. Eden was a mountain top garden (the 4 great rivers that watered the earth flowed down from Eden).
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus has come and broken the bonds of wickedness: 1 John says, He came to destroy the works of the devil
Jesus broken every yoke and calls us to take His yoke upon us—to find rest and peace as we are bound and united to Him.
Jesus has not only shared His bread with the hungry, He has become the bread of life to all who will trust in Him.
Jesus has not only brought the poor and destitute into His house, He has called us His brethren and made it possible for us to be adopted as the children of God.
Jesus has covered us with His righteousness and has not hid from, but taken on our flesh—He was made like us so that He could die for us, be raised for us, ascend for us, send the Spirit for us and return again in glory for us.
He light has broke forth like the dawn.
He healing came speedily … on the 3rd day He rose victorious over sin, Satan and death.
His righteousness has gone before Him and the glory of the Lord is His rear guard.
When He calls the Father hears and answers.
Jesus is living water for the scorched places of our souls. His spring of living water never fails.