Celebrating Grace
Isaiah • Sermon • Submitted
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Generosity Moment
Generosity Moment
"The Biggest Obstacle"
Do any of you ever watch late-night comedy shows? The host of
The Late Show, Stephen Colbert, recently told Oprah Winfrey what his favorite Bible verse is—and it’s a good one. It comes from a passage is Matthew 6.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:25-27, NIV)
This passage that Colbert talks about reminds me of what I believe is the greatest barrier to generosity. The answer may surprise you. It isn’t lack of funds. It isn’t corrupt preachers. It isn’t even a lack of opportunity. It’s fear.
If we’re all honest with each other, fear is the biggest obstacle to generosity. It’s easy to become so fearful of losing our financial security that we hold onto our possessions with an iron grip.
However, Jesus says here that we must trust him above all else. And, if we trust God to take care of us, then generosity won’t be an issue. It’ll be easy to give!
As the ushers come forward to take up today’s offering, I hope that you’ll be encouraged to trust God and his providence over your life. We can’t add time to our life by worrying, but we can add treasure in heaven by giving.
Let’s pray.
Celebrating Grace
Celebrating Grace
he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
God does all this wonderful work of salvation, that we are the recipients of, for the praise of His Glorious Grace.
But, what is that grace?
What effect could grace have if we live with joyful expectancy?
How might things look different when grace is perfected in our midst and we see Jesus face to face?
Scripture reveals, contrary to how we often hear salvation presented, that God’s first priority is not your comfort. God’s highest priority in our salvation is His own glory.
His second highest priority is our perfect blessedness: filled with joy in eternally perfect souls and bodies.
Isaiah has traced out quite clearly the stench permeating the nation due to the wickedness of human hearts which continues even today to course through the veins of our human nature.
In Chapter 1 God had put up with the empty machinery of cold-hearted religious spirit.
Chapter 2 revealed God’s distain for the arrogance of idolatry that produced shame - and then fear - as Israel wandered further away from God.
Chapter 3 showed Israel - and us the effect of poor, immoral leadership
Isaiah 5 revealed the 6 woes resulting from God’s judgment against greed, excess, mockery of God, redefining truth, false wisdom, and drunken justice.
Isaiah 6 revealed a broken hearted prophet, humbled by his unclean life in the presence of a holy God.
Chapters 7-10 describe God’s righteous judgment against Israel and Judah by invading forces.
In Isaiah 11, the magnificent vision of the messianic kingdom causes us to wonder how many chances does this wicked, “stiff-necked” people have left before God deals justly with them? A question God answers by pointing us towards Jesus.
So when the nation of Israel, through Isaiah, hears of the promise of this savior - Chapter 12 reveals the only appropriate response to such glorious grace.
You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me.
“Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.”
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the Lord,
call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that his name is exalted.
“Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
Our Theme: God is my salvation
Our Theme: God is my salvation
You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me.
“Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.”
What reasons does this chapter give to Judah for praising God?
What reasons does this chapter give to us for praising God?
How do these verses point to our future, worshipping God, with every tongue, tribe and nation?
As we noted, the prophet Isaiah is telling us that:
In the day of the Lord
the redeemed will praise God for his amazing salvation
we will thank God for turning his holy and just anger away
why did he turn that anger away?
What is the significance of that?
so He could comfort them!
On judgment day, and to eternity and beyond, all the redeemed - that includes us - we will give direct praise to the God of our salvation.
Because we live with a JOYFUL EXPECTANCY of the future worship we will enjoy (along with every tongue, tribe, and nation) we should be able to live without fear, without anxiety because God is our enduring strength for the journey ahead.
What is that salvation?
How should meditating on this truth conquer complaining and teach us the discipline of giving thanks in all circumstances?
Meditate on this for a second: “God is my Salvation.”
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
What is your response?
For Paul, the response is found in
so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Thomas O Chisolm wrote my second favorite hymn which contains this line:
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.
Looking for strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow?
God is our ongoing strength as we rest in Him, joyful for the salvation we have been given - focused on giving Him Glory!
It is an expression of:
Our Pleasure: Joyful Satisfaction in God
Our Pleasure: Joyful Satisfaction in God
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
In Wilkes Barre, a favorite and free spot to cool off on a hot summer day is a place called Seven Tubs. It is a place where the stream cascades down from Bear Mountain and pools at the bottom. The water is cool and refreshing when the temps get above 90 degrees.
Isaiah is filled with similar images of cool, satisfying streams in the wasteland from which thirsty or sweaty wanderers drink and are refreshed.
What do you think of when you hear this verse?
Jesus fulfills these images in John 4 where we see Jesus and a woman at the well in the middle of the town.
And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.
Jesus fulfills those images when he says:
Whoever drinks from the water that I will give him or her will never get thirsty again. In fact the water I will give him/her will become a well of water springing up in him/her for eternal life.
Similarly, we are free to drink from Jesus at any moment through the Holy Spirit.
What was the woman’s response to the freedom, hope, to the salvation Jesus offered her?
She did not know it at the time, however, what was the price of that salvation? What is the price of our salvation?
What should be our response?
Our Mission: Magnifying the Greatness of God
Our Mission: Magnifying the Greatness of God
And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the Lord,
call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that his name is exalted.
“Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
How does this chapter call us to sing?
This is what we should be doing for the rest of our lives! giving thanks to the Lord! Proclaiming His name! Celebrating His deeds!
What is the connection between evangelism/missions and joyful worship?
What Isaiah is telling Judah - and by extension us - is that our praise is nothing less than mission work, exalting the accomplishments of God through the perfect work of Jesus the Christ, raised up by the power of the Holy Spirit.
How does joyfully praising God fit well with evangelism?
Evangelism is nothing more than declaring to everyone we meet the Holiness of God and that calling on Jesus will lead them to experience the same salvation that we have experienced - assuming we have.
This isn’t for the pastor, the Leadership Team, the worship leaders - this is for all of us and all of you - as every citizen of Zion is called to do this worship-filled mission and we will all experience the greatness of God in our midst both now and for eternity!
So What?
This chapter is a call to fill our mouths with praise and thanksgiving, to worship Jesus in Spirit and Truth.
This chapter is a call to love, expressed through evangelism, everybody, always.
It is a call to passionate and fruitful service, declaring the greatness of our God and the greatness of Jesus’ achievements on the cross and empty tomb.
It is a call to walk alongside organizations like Water Street and Bible to School and World Church Services and Hope International, and others, who are seeking to advance the kingdom of God while reaching out to their neighbors with the Bread of Life and the Living Water that never runs dry.
Finally, it is a reminder of the promise that we have of future rich blessings when our worship by faith and by the Spirit is honored in heaven when we will see Jesus - face to face.