Altering Our Course (2012)

ALTERING OUR COURSE

Text: Isaiah 6:1-8

Rev. Dan R. Dick has a sermon on this text. In his sermon he said that unclean lips he mentioned that “unclean lips” is an evocative phrase that covers a wide range of behaviors”. (David N. Mosser. ed. The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2012. Dan R. Dick. “Lip Service.” Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2011, p. 179). He also mentions that Jesus once addressed the Pharisees saying that it is not what goes into a person that makes him unclean but what comes out that can defile. Of course Jesus was talking about the heart and its contents. If there are unclean thoughts that proceed from the heart, then there can also be impure results in the form of “insults, rumors, gossip, lies, unkind comments, thoughtless [insensitive] remarks, and prejudiced statements.” (Dan R. Dick , p. 179). Our natural inclination is to think of unclean lips as foul language.

Rev Dick points out that “… in big and small ways, we are people of unclean lips, as well as unclean thoughts and not always sparkling behaviors”. (Dan R. Dick, p. 179). So why is this passage of scripture so important during this time of year, on the Sunday following Pentecost? It is important because it reminds of God’s grace which justifies us through Jesus and sanctifies us through the Holy Spirit. In this experience Isaiah encounters a vision of God, sees his own unrighteousness and responds to God’s call and alters his course.

ISAIAH SAW A VISION OF GOD.

Isaiah probably did not anticipate that he would see this vision.

1) Spiritual geography: God met Isaiah where he was. It can be a scary thing when God meets us where we are.

2) Un-surrendered territory: The experience of God meeting us where we are can remind us of both our need for God as well as our unresolved unholiness. It can remind us of areas in our lives where we have lost God.

Have you ever felt like you lost God?

There two boys who were brothers. One day they got into some mischief. The parents sent the boys to talk to their preacher. The preacher called the oldest boy into his office and asked him, “Where is God?” The boy was puzzled and did not know how to answer such a profound question. He was speechless. The minister asked the same a question a second time and got the same kind of result. He asked the question a third time and again the result was the same. However, by this time, the older brother got anxious and ran out to his younger brother and told hi to come on. His younger looked puzzled so his older brother began to explain. The preacher is in there asking me where God is. They’ve lost God and they are going to try to pin it on us. We laugh when we hear a story like this one. We need to remember that any time we feel as though God is not close to us it is not because God has moved. It is because somehow we have moved.

ISAIAH SAW HIS OWN LACK OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

When Isaiah saw this vision of God, he also saw his lack of righteousness. 1) Too dirty for washing detergent: Tide won’t do the job. Surf won’t do the job. Not even Bold, Al Temperature Cheer, or Bold will do the Job. Isaiah 64:6 tells us that our righteousness is a filthy rags. That one sentence describes how Isaiah felt when he stood before God’s presence. 2) Shame: Just as deer freeze and are stunned by headlights, Isaiah has his equivalent of “ a deer in the headlight look” at the moment he encounters God’s presence. If ever Isaiah must have been tempted to run and hide, now was the time. Isaiah was well aware of the fact that we cannot hide our sins from God because God sees us as we really are.

I read about a fellow, chef who used to have his own TV show. He was successful enough to have his own TV show, but he still felt empty until God filled him with His spirit. He got saved. After his conversion, he went on the air apologizing for all the inappropriate things that he said in earlier shows. God made this chef righteous through grace. God did the same for Isaiah and He does the same for you and me. God cleansed Isaiah not because he deserved it but because he could not continue to serve God in the filthy rags of his own righteousness. So God cleaned him up.

God took away Isaiah’s guilt.

1) Baggage: God did more than just cleaning Isaiah up, he healed him when he took his guilt away. God healed him of his guilt, his baggage. The baggage of guilt can make us ineffective.