Title: Parched People Dig Deep
Text: Isaiah 12
Thesis: When you are in a spiritual desert you dig deep by deciding to discover the grace of God.
Background Comments:
Isaiah is not easy book… Isaiah in the Old Testament is the Apostle Paul of the New Testament.
It is heavily prophetic and points forward to the coming of the Messiah and the Kingdom of Christs.
Isaiah 9 foretells the coming of the Christ.
Isaiah 53 foretells the atoning work of Christ.
Isaiah 12 foretells the joy and thanksgiving in Christ’s kingdom. So our understanding of the text is something of what will be but is not yet. However, we who are devoted followers of Christ are presently living into what will be.
Introduction
In Jules Vern’s Journey to the Center of the Earth an insane German scientist climbed down into the mouth of a volcano and to the earth’s core where he found a world of prehistoric dinosaurs, mastodons, giant humans and other creatures… scientists say that the core of the earth in reality is as hot as the surface of the sun. Had Otto Lidenbrock actually journeyed to the center of the earth he would have gone down to a depth of some 3,959 miles.
The closest anyone has ever come to the center of the earth was in 1970 when the Russians began boring what was called, the “Kola Superdeep Borehole.” They managed to drill down 7.5 miles.
The deepest hand dug well in the world was dug by Pakistani villagers who dug down 400 feet before they hit an aquifer. They say it takes a camel and a really long rope to draw the water up from the bottom of that well.
Literally, when people are thirsty they dig deep to reach water. Figuratively, when we find ourselves in a spiritual desert we find that we sometimes have to dig deep to experience the grace of God in the midst of our circumstances. The key verse lifted from Isaiah 12 is “With joy you will drink deeply from the well of salvation!” Isaiah 12:3
In our text today, when we dig deep in times of spiritual drought we discover the goodness of God expressed and experienced in several ways.
I. We find grace greater than our guilt.
In that day I will sing: “I will praise you, O Lord! You were angry with me, but not anymore. Now you comfort me. Isaiah 12:1
The Tension in this verse is between human guilt and God’s grace… our sinfulness and God’s forgiving grace.
In Confirmation Class our students learn that sin is all in thought, word, and deed that is contrary to the will of God. And that, “Anyone, then who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.” (James 4:17) We learn that the results of sin are broken relationships, a weakening of the ability to obey God, and finally, eternal separation from him. That well worn passage form Romans reminds us, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Guilt is what results from sin. When we have a guilty conscience we know we have done something wrong and quite likely hurt someone in some way.
God’s grace, on the other hand, extends undeserved mercy and forgiveness.
Max Lucado tells about a Chinese man named Li Fuyan had tried every treatment imaginable to ease his throbbing headaches. Nothing helped. An X-ray finally revealed the culprit. A rusty four-inch knife blade had been lodged in his skull for four years. In an attack by a robber, Fuyan had suffered lacerations on the right side of his jaw. He didn't know the blade had broken off inside his head.
If we were to x-ray our souls, so to speak, what kinds of things might show up that we have broken off and buried in our lives? Regrets over broken relationships? Remorse over a really bad choice? Embarrassment about a marriage that didn’t last? Succumbing to seemingly irresistible temptations? Ill-spoken and hurtful words? That kind of stuff festers beneath the surface of the person who is living in a spiritual desert of guilt. (Max Lucado, Grace, Thomas Nelson, 2012, p. 94)
There is a great story about a little boy who killed his grandmother's pet duck. He accidentally hit the duck with a rock from his sling-shot. The boy didn't think anybody saw the foul (sorry!) deed, so he buried the duck in the backyard and didn't tell a soul.
Later, the boy found out that his sister had seen it all. And she now had the leverage of his secret and used it. Whenever it was the sister's turn to wash the dishes, take out the garbage, or wash the car, she would whisper in his ear, "Remember the duck." And then the little boy would do whatever his sister should have done.
There is always a limit to that sort of thing. Finally he'd had it. The boy went to his grandmother and, with great fear, confessed what he had done. To his surprise, she hugged him and thanked him. She said, "I was standing at the kitchen sink and saw the whole thing. I forgave you then. I was just wondering when you were going to get tired of your sister's blackmail and come to me."
(Steve Brown, Three Free Sins (Howard Books, 2012), p. 110)
Beautiful picture of God who sees all and forgives us and waits for us to come and receive it.,
Yesterday in my devotional reading I read beyond what I had intended and this is what I discovered about human guilt and God’s grace and forgiveness.
The Lord says, “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
It is the LORD who provides the sun to light the day and the moon and stars to light the night and who stirs the sea into roaring waves. His name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, and this is what he says:
“I am as likely to reject my people Israel as I am to abolish the laws of nature! Just as the heavens cannot be measured and the foundations of the earth cannot be explored, so I will not consider casting them away for the evil they have done. I, the LORD, have spoken!” Jeremiah 31:34-37
This is what you need to know about human guilt and God’s grace. If you are living in a spiritual desert of guilt God’s Word says that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9) You may have a sister that holds the dead duck over your head but you need to remember that God does not and learn to live into grace instead of guilt.
Weakness can be another kind of spiritual desert. When we dig deep:
II. We find strength greater than our weakness.
The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. Isaiah 12:2
The tension in verse 2 is between human weakness and God-given strength.
Weakness can literally be weakness as in having no strength. Weakness can be a fault or chink in your armor. Weakness can be an area of susceptibility. Living in a state of weakness can be emotionally and spiritually debilitating.
Strength on the other hand is power that overcomes that weakness.
Sociologist Brene Brown's TED talk "The Power of Vulnerability" has garnered over 10 million hits (as of August 2013). For good reason: we are hungry for the freedom to admit our vulnerability. Brown pushes us to embrace our own brokenness, with the reality that we are not alone in it, that we are or could easily be just one step away from the broken people all around us.
Brown says: We are "those people." The truth is … we are the "others." Most of us are one paycheck, one divorce, one drug- addicted kid, one mental health diagnosis, one serious illness, one sexual assault, one drinking binge, one night of unprotected sex, or one affair away from being "those people"—the ones we don't trust, the ones we pity, the ones we don't let our children play with, the ones bad things happen to, the ones we don't want living next door.(Adapted from Elisa Morgan, The Beauty of Broken (Thomas Nelson, 2013), page 25) In truth, we are all weak in some way and we try as best we can to overcome.
A story in the Christian Reader told of a mother listening to her three-year-old daughter singing in church. It was the chorus to "We Exalt Thee." Her daughter’s version was, "We exhaust thee. We exhaust thee. We exhaust thee, O Lord." (Tammy Lindsey, Utica, New York. Christian Reader, "Kids of the Kingdom.")
Many of us have had to do things we thought we would never be able to do. These days it is not uncommon to here a story like this: On February 27, 2009, Linda Page, the wife of my dear friend and colleague, Bob, died of cancer. She was only 60. Bob called me just after her death. He told me, "Last fall, when we learned the extent of Linda's illness and I realized what was ahead, I knew I'd need to learn how to be a servant to my wife in ways I had never done. I wasn't sure I could do that. Now I look back on all that I have done for her, and I think, Wow! God gave me grace and strength to do all that.
This is what we need to know about human weakness and God’s strength. God says, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” “So,” Paul wrote, “now I am glad to boast in my weakness, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” II Corinthians 12:8-10
If you have ever been in dire need you know what it is to feel the despairing desert of need. And yet when we dig deep into the goodness of God we find a newfound and God given sense of gratitude.
III. We find gratitude greater than our neediness.
In that wonderful day you will sing: Thank the Lord! Praise his name! Isaiah 12:3-5
The tension in verses 3-5 is between human need and God’s abundant provision.
This is a no-brainer. Need is lack and abundance is more than enough.
In the last year or so I have become aware of several friends and family members who suffer from COPD. Those who have COPD know what it feels like to not be able to breathe. We all take approximately 23,000 breaths every day. The process of inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide is a complicated respiratory task that requires physiological precision. It seems those who cannot breathe are especially aware and grateful for every breath. (Mark Batterson, All In (Zondervan, 2013), page 119)
When we know that every good and necessary thing is a gift from God we grow in the grace of gratitude.
The Minnesota storyteller Kevin Kling was born with a birth defect—his left arm was disabled and much shorter than his right. Then, in his early 40s, a motorcycle accident nearly killed him and paralyzed his healthy right arm. While he was in the hospital recovering from the accident, he learned a life-changing lesson about "the three phases of prayer."
In the first phase of prayer, we pray to get things from God. In the second phase, we pray to get out of things. While he was in rehab for his accident, he learned the third phase of prayer—giving thanks to God.
This is part of his story: “I’d been through many surgeries during my six week stay in the hospital. And each day, I would ride the elevator to the ground floor and try and take a walk. That was my job. After my walk one day, my wife Mary and I went into the gift shop and she asked if I wanted an apple. She said they looked really good. I hadn't tasted food in over a month … I lost a lot of weight because food had no appeal. So I said no, but she persisted. Come on. Try it. So finally, I said all right. And I took a bite. And for some reason, that was the day flavor returned, and that powerful sweetness rushed from that apple. Oh, it was incredible. I started to cry, cry for the first time in years. And between the sweetness of that apple and the burning of my tears and the discomfort, it felt so good to be alive. I blurted out, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for this life." And that's when my prayers shifted, again, to giving thanks.” (Kevin Kling, "Prayer, Once a Last Resort, Now a Habit," NPR (1-10-07); On Being, "The Losses and Laughter We Grow Into," American Public Media (3-7-13)
This is what God’s Word has to say about human need and God’s abundance: God will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which he has given us in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19) So we can be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (I Thessalonians 5:18) Let the peace of God rule in your hearts and always be thankful. (Colossians 3:15)
Isaiah 12 concludes with a reminder that out of the sadness of a spiritual desert we may experience joy.
IV. We find joy greater than our sadness.
With joy you will drink deeply from the well of salvation! Let all the people of Jerusalem shout his praise with joy! For great is the Holy One of Israel who lives among you. Isaiah 12:3 and 6
The tension in verse 6 is between human sadness and God-given joy.
Mary Karr is an award-winning writer, best-known for her New York Times best-selling books List and The Liars' Club. In 2009, Karr, who described herself as a "blackbelt sinner and lifelong agnostic," surprised the literary world by embracing Christian faith.
She wrote of the human condition: “I don't think any of us get off this planet without suffering enormously. And one of the chief ways we suffer is by loving people who are incredibly limited by the fact that they're human beings, and they're going to disappoint us and break our hearts …. Your parents—no matter how great their marriage was, at some point it trembled in its foundation, and it was terrifying. [Or] you fell in love with someone who didn't love you back. Or whatever. We are all heartbroken. It's the human condition.” In other words, there are tons of reasons for people to feel bad and sad about life.
But in the midst of all that sadness there are pockets of joy. Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision, reflected on his visit to a church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti nearly a year after the devastating earthquake. The church's building consisted of a tent made from white tarps and duct tape, pitched in the midst of a sprawling camp for thousands of people still homeless from the earthquake.
This is how he describes the church and the lesson he learned in Haiti: In the front row sat six amputees ranging in age from 6 to 60. They were clapping and smiling as they sang song after song and lifted their prayers to God. The worship was full of hope … [and] with thanksgiving to the Lord.
No one was singing louder or praying more fervently than Demosi Louphine, a 32-year-old unemployed single mother of two. During the earthquake, a collapsed building crushed her right arm and left leg. After four days both limbs had to be amputated.
She was leading the choir, leading prayers, standing on her prosthesis and lifting her one hand high in praise to God .… Following the service, I met Demosi's two daughters, ages eight and ten. The three of them now live in a tent five feet tall and perhaps eight feet wide. Despite losing her job, her home, and two limbs, she is deeply grateful because God spared her life on January 12th last year … "He brought me back like Lazarus, giving me the gift of life," says Demosi … [who] believes she survived the devastating quake for two reasons: to raise her girls and to serve her Lord for a few more years.
Isn’t it amazing how such little things mess with our joy? We grump at the smallest inconveniences—a clogged drain or a slow Wi-Fi connection. Yet there in that desperate place, many people who had lost everything … expressed nothing but praise. (Richard Stearns, "Suffering and Rejoicing in a Haitian Tent Camp," Christianitytoday.com (1-12-11)
This is what God’s Word has to say about human sadness and God-given joy. In Galatians 5:22 we learn the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love joy peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The bible often speaks of joy that comes through the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. Passages like I Thessalonians 4:16 challenge us to always be joyful. Never stop praying. [And] Be thankful in all circumstances…
Conclusion
Sometimes it is not so much that the deep digging has to do with back breaking and blister making digging to get at the grace of God. In fact, I think more often than not it has more to do with deciding than digging.
God is not one of those abusive fathers who withhold good things from his children.
A few years ago I stopped in at a tiny tavern/café in a small southern Iowa town where my family has roots. It was there heard a story about a man who frequented the café with his wife and two children. He would typically order a pitcher of beer and a pizza which he would proceed to drink down and devour as his family watched… I often think of how abusive that was and have wondered how his children could ever grasp the concept of a Heavenly Father who would never withhold good things from his children.
God in his mercy and grace has extended salvation to us through Christ and it is in Christ that we find sufficiency for all of our needs… Paul wrote, “For my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory through Christ Jesus our Lord.” So God has given us his grace and strength and abundance and joy… it is there for the receiving. So in the course of everyday living we may live in the desert or we can decide to live in the oasis of God’s goodness and receive all that he provides.
We decide! We act on what God has done and is doing and will do.
We live into:
God’s grace and forgiveness in our guilt.
God’s strength in our weakness.
God’s sufficiency in our need.
God’s joy in our sadness.
20131117 Pastoral Prayer
Lord we are grateful that we have been called out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the light and life of Christ. We know that what is to be is not yet and so we live with hope. We live into what will be… we live into our new life in Christ. We live into the power of God at work in us. We live into the heartfelt gratitude for how you meet all our needs. And we live into the joy of the Lord.
I pray today that you will be especially present and powerful in the lives of those among us today who struggle with guilt; who feel powerless in the face of the pressures of life; who have desperate needs; and those who are blanketed in sadness. May you surround them with your love and powerfully intercede in their circumstances.
This we pray in the name of Jesus who taught us to pray: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed by your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for yours is the
