Sermon Central
-
God Will Comfort His People Series
Contributed by T.j. Conwell on May 11, 2025 (message contributor)
Summary: God is not fooled by our selfish offerings of holiness. Isaiah encourages us to reach out to God for everything that we need, including making the path to our heart clear, and this study demonstrates why knowing Him is so important - because it forces us to see who He is!
Isaiah, Part 16
God will Comfort His People
Isaiah 40:1-11
Dismiss kids for Children’s Church and Nursery – Happy Mother’s Day
Introduction
- Welcome to Seasons! We are so glad you have chosen to worship with us!
- Last week, we discussed an obvious example of how pride affects us
-- Hezekiah showed us what faithful prayers can accomplish, until pride ruins us!
-- APP: Pride hurts us most when we focus on ourselves vs. what God has done
- Today, we will study a passage with four distinct voices testifying for us
-- Each of these has a very specific purpose and prayerfully we’ll lean in
- When Isaiah wrote this, the Jews were about to face 160+ years of suffering
-- Their entire nation would be taken hostage, abused, pillaged, and destroyed
- Enter our text today as encouragement from God … how?
-- God will deliver them from their captivity and their suffering, BUT,
-- CHALL: They would have to remain faithful to God through it
-- This is the same promise we have today … we are called to be faithful!
- God’s people are set free from because of what God has accomplished (Jesus)
-- His salvation is the message that we must proclaim, it is what gives us hope
- Read Isaiah 40:1-11 / PRAY
Point 1 – The voice of God
- Look at what God (Elohim) declares: “Comfort, comfort my people” (v1)
-- God’s desire is that His people would be consoled during their difficulties
-- LEARN THIS TRUTH: Lasting comfort can only come from God above
- The Jews would desperately need to be comforted for what is ahead
-- From brutal enslavement to ruthless defeat; they would need to be comforted
-- So, to prepare them for what is ahead, God commands “comfort” be offered
- SEE: In proclaiming/directing “comfort”, we see the true affection of God
-- He calls on the prophets to “speak tenderly” to the hearts of His people (v2)
- IMP: There are two forms of comfort presented:
1. “Sad days are gone” (700 BC); their days of warfare & destruction over
- God promises that they would be freed from their suffering (how?)
- Because they would see rescue from God; He knows them intimately
2. “Sins are pardoned” (IMP: This is our hope in May 2025)
- What a glorious assurance for them (and us) to hear these words!
- Judah has already been punished because of their sins (rebellion, Genesis 38)
- But still … God heard them and promised to rescue them (His compassion)
- TOUGH: His promise is: To rescue them from their sins! Ask: What sins?
Immorality Drunkenness Pride Abuse
Lawlessness Violence Idolatry Hypocrisy
Empty worship (Ch 1) Ridicule (faith) Mockery
- How do we see this today? 1 John 1:9, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”
-- Before we had only the promise of God, today we have the sacrifice of Christ!
Point 2 – The voice of Isaiah (the prophet)
- This voice brings wonderful news to the people of God! (vv3-5)
-- “Clear the way! Prepare the road! Get yourself ready! Someone’s coming!”
-- Historically, when a king would visit a region there’d be great preparation
-- Roads would be cleared, paths made level, obstacles removed from his way
- In this announcement we see careful preparations were to be made to:
1. Straighten out your lives; remove the crooked and unrighteous behavior
2. Level out the path of their lives; be faithful and consistent; confident
- SEE: The wasteland is the road to our hearts! It is the path for Him to enter!
- APP: The road that leads to your heart shows us who we really are!
-- Wisdom: King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your HEART above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”
- BIG: We need to understand the promise is proclaimed by Isaiah …
-- The glory of God will be revealed IF we’d PREPARE to receive Him!
- REAL: We cannot receive Jesus if we are busy pretending we are God!
-- If we are sitting in the place of “god” in our heart, we will never know salvation
-- John the Baptist proclaimed these very words ~725 yrs later: John 1:23, “John replied in the words of the prophet Isaiah: (see emphasis) “I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Clear the way for the Lord’s coming!’”
- Right now, on May 11, 2025, we only have two invitations:
1. To receive Him (which means we are humble before Him), and,
2. To prepare for His soon return (time is running out to ask for forgiveness)
