A Christian God Can Work Through

A Christian God Can Work Through

Griffith Baptist Church – 10/5/08

A.M. Service

Text: Isaiah 6:1-8

Key verse: Isaiah 6:8 - Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

Premise: The greatest privilege for the Christian is not only to know God but be used by God for His service.

The Introduction

Billy Graham tells the story about a little child that was playing with a very valuable vase. He put his hand into it and could not withdraw it. His father too, tried his best to get it out, to no avail. They were thinking of breaking the vase when the father said, “Now my son, make one more try. Open your hand and hold your fingers out straight as you see me doing, and then pull.” To their astonishment the little fellow said, “O no, dad, I couldn’t put my fingers out like that because if I did I would drop my dime.” Smile, if you will but thousands of us are like that little boy, so busy holding on to the world’s worthless dimes that we cannot accept liberation.

Isaiah faced this subject in His life and was shown a very amazing sight (discuss the text)

I wonder, how would you respond if you were placed in this situation?

The church today, needs every member to be an Isaiah

God needs every believer to be an Isaiah

That is what we should want to be; a yielded, surrendered vessel for God to use.

God is calling you to be an Isaiah

Here in this text, we discover how this takes place for Isaiah and how it relates to us

Transition Statement: Whenever God works to call someone to serve Him, He begins with confronting us with His holiness.

Body

1. Confronted By Holiness – 6:1-4

A. He is sovereign (1)

i. He is on His throne and nothing can remove Him from it

ii. God rules over all and everything is subject to Him

iii. Isaiah 66:1 - Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

B. He is reverenced (2)

i. Psalms 89:7 - God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

ii. The angels (Seraphim) that surrounded the throne were in a constant state of reverence (admiration, awe, and respect)

a. Seraphim means “to burn” – denoting the purity and holiness of God as they represent Him.

b. They covered their face because of reverence and awe

c. They covered their feet because of their unworthiness

iii. There is something about the presence of God that affects the way we are

C. He is worshipped (3)

i. Psalms 95:6 - O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

ii. D.L. Moody said that Satan doesn’t care what we worship, as long as we don’t worship God.

iii. The cry of three holy’s is constant and repeated

iv. Worship is:

a. Directed towards God

b. Is only about God

D. He is powerful (4)

i. Psalms 62:11 – God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.

ii. Jeremiah 32:17 - Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:

iii. Nothing is too big for my God to accomplish, and nothing is too little for Him to use in accomplishing it!

iv. The worship was so intense and the presence of God so magnificent that it moved the very temple of heaven

v. Imagine yourself in the presence of such a God

vi. The smoke is the visible symbol of His deity

Transition Statement: God cannot use a proud person, and so your effectiveness must come from being conditioned by brokenness (humble spirit)

2. Conditioned By Brokenness – 6:5

A. Holiness reveals how sinful we are

i. Why is it if we are all so well-educated and brilliant and gifted and artistic and idealistic and distinuguished, that we are so selfish and schecming and dishonest and begrudging and impatient and arrogant and disrespectful of others? Why is it if our civilization is so advanced that we have the world’s biggest prison population? Might the reason be sin? Of course it is!

ii. The more we are exposed to the holiness of God, the more we see our spiritual inadequacies

iii. Concerning all men - Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;