[This sermon is contributed by Hal Seed of New Song Church in Oceanside, California and of www.PastorMentor.com. Hal is the author of numerous books including The God Questions and The Bible Questions. If you are interested in The Bible Questions Church-wide Campaign, please visit and watch Hal’s video at www.PastorMentor.com.]
Good morning friends.
I think we’re all intuitively aware that the events that happened on Sept. 11 marked us for a lifetime. Every American alive that day will forever remember the sadness and suspense and fear that reigned. Every one of us will remember the sense of unity and solidarity we felt as a nation. And none of us will ever forget the lessons we saw so vividly played out on our television screens that day and in the days to follow.
The lessons? [The lessons of 911]
That major moments can bring out the best in people.
That heroes are born out of hardship.
And that heroism is a choice. A choice usually made by ordinary people who find themselves in unexpected situations.
Maybe the most famous of all the unexpected heroes of 911 was a 32 year old Oracle salesmen named Todd Beamer, the determined Christian on flight 93 who called up the GTE operator to find out what was happening, prayed the Lord’s Prayer with her over the phone, added, “Jesus, help me,” then said, “Let’s roll!” and led a half dozen other men to their deaths while stopping terrorists from harming our nation’s capital by downing their plane in a Pennsylvania cornfield.
Todd Beamer left behind two children, a pregnant wife, and a nation full of grateful admirers.
Miles away in another arena, scores of fire and policemen were becoming voluntary heroes in an effort to save people inside the World Trade Center buildings. Twelve firemen were lost from the Park Slope fire station in Brooklyn. One of them was named David Fontana, a 10 year veteran of the department. His 8th wedding anniversary fell on Sept. 11.
Dave had worked all night at the station and just phoned his wife to let her know he’d be home in a few minutes when the five alarm fire call came in. A colleague of his, Sean Cummins, dug at the Ground Zero site for three straight weeks, “hoping to find Dave’s body, or helmet or scrap of his uniform. Anything so Marian Fontana will have something to visit on Sunday afternoons.”
I think most of us would agree that Dave Fontana is a hero, and that Sean Cummins is a hero in his own right as well.
Since 911 I have found myself wondering from time to time, “What makes a hero? What makes someone become a hero?” And, “If I was put a similar situation, how would I respond?”
Have some of you asked those same questions?
As I thought about this for the last 8 months, it occurred to me that I am sitting on top of a treasure trove of hero stories every time I open the Bible. Recently, I’ve been reading the lives of men and women who have been universally declared heroes over the last 20 centuries and more. And I’ve come to some conclusions that I want to share with you over the next several weeks.
Maybe the starkest discovery I made early on was that not one of the people I read about in the Bible ever really expected to be a hero. None of them woke up one day and said, “I think I’ll do something amazing today.” As you’ll see in upcoming weeks, most heroes lacked faith in themselves and courage. They were just ordinary people facing the circumstances dealt to them.
From all of this study, I have concluded that God qualifies every person to be a hero at some time, and maybe several times in their lives. And not only does he qualify us, He calls us. And that the major difference between a hero and a nobody is the choice they make with the circumstances in front of them.
So friends, for the next 6 weeks, we are going on an adventure. For the next 6 weeks we are going to poke into the lives of 11 heroes in the Bible and we’re going to do a lot of learning from them. So that when our moment of call comes, we’ll be able to stand up and say, “Here I am, send me!”
Think this will be of some help to you?
Then I hope you will show up every weekend that you can, and buy the tapes when you can’t. Because if this all comes out right, one day we just could be a church full of heroes. Wouldn’t that be cool, to know that every time you sat in one of these seats, you were sitting next to a modern-day hero?
Of course, as part of the series, we want to bring in and honor some local heroes, and I hope you’ll all participate in that on May 25 and 26. How many of you know a local fireman, policeman, or sheriff? Would you help us all to honor them by personally inviting them to one of our services that weekend?
And how many of you know a servicemen, Marine, Sailor, Soldier, or Airman, active duty or retired? Same deal. Help us all honor them by inviting everyone you can think of, okay?
Now let’s begin. Open your Bibles and turn to our first unexpected hero of the series. His name is Isaiah. Turn to Isaiah 6.
When you find it, put your thumb there and let me give you the situation:
Isaiah is a young man growing up in downtown Jerusalem. From the time of his birth there has only ever been one ruler in his country, one king, and he’s a good ruler. He’s been wise and fair, he’s kept the nation healthy and secure. It’s a time in Israel’s life kind of like the 1950s in America. People are safe, happy, and prosperous.
One of the problems with a monarchy is, if the king is a bad leader, you’re stuck with him. You can’t vote him out in 4 year or wait him out for 8 years. He’s king for life.
The flipside of that is, if the king is a great leader, you can keep him around for decades. And that’s what was happening in Israel. This king that Isaiah grew up under was named, “Uzziah,” and history records that he reigned in Israel for 51 years. – He started co-reigning with his father when he was only 16 years old, which is pretty scary. But he learned well and made quite a name for himself.
By the time Isaiah is a teenager, Uzziah is getting old. Rumors start circulating around the country that this good ole guy might not be around too much longer. In fact, the book of 2 Chronicles tells us that Uzziah contracted leprosy in his later days. So rumors spread about his failing health, and that made people nervous.
Even worse, when the rumors started circulating outside the country, neighboring nations started posturing and threatening. And just like in modern Israel, the Israelis back then had lots of borders and lots of unfriendly neighbors. What were they going to do when the king died and a younger, less experienced model was placed on the throne?
That was on the minds of all the people the day the news came. As the cry went up from the towers, “The king is dead! Long live the king!” people not only went sad, their confidence and security went south.
In ancient times, whenever a king died, everyone inside and outside the kingdom thought about war.
That’s the situation Isaiah finds himself in in Isaiah chapter 6. It’s not too unlike the day after 911. “What’s going to happen?” everyone wanted to know. Including Isaiah.
So interestingly, Isaiah did at that time what millions of Americans did the week of 911. Remember what happened all over our country? The churches filled up. All kinds of people came who weren’t used to admitting they needed God’s help and guidance.
Well, Isaiah wasn’t above admitting his need, so he headed over to the church all by himself one night. And we don’t know this for sure, but tradition has it that Isaiah was a relative of the king. Probably a 2nd or 3rd or 4th cousin. But whatever his status, he had enough clout to get them to open up the temple for him to go in by himself at night. – Maybe he had a key, we don’t know.
But here’s the scene that’s described in Isaiah 6.
Isaiah slinks into the temple very sad and very worried about the state of his nation, and maybe his personal safety as well.
He kneels down and starts to say something like, “God, we need your comfort, we need your direction, we need you.” We don’t have the exact words of his prayer, but I believe it went something like this: “God, I personally need you. You know all about me. I’m just an ordinary guy with an ordinary job and I want to be able to continue to get up and go to work in the morning, to earn enough to take care of my family, and maybe have some fun and relaxation on the weekends. So I came in here God to talk to you about this loss we’ve suffered.”
The text we’re about to read says that, while Isaiah was in the middle of his talk with God, much to his amazement, God actually shows up - in person. Not in a still small voice like he usually does. Not through an angel or the mouth of a prophet like He often did back then. But in a mystical and powerful way, Isaiah finds God’s presence filling this gigantic temple he’s inside of.
God is accompanied by very powerful angels. We know from this passage and elsewhere that at the top of the hierarchy of heaven are archangels like Michael and Gabriel, and at the lower end are cherubim, but probably just below the archangels is a species of angels called, “Seraphs,” which literally means, “burning ones.” And these seraphs are circling around the scene.
It’s such a powerful image to Isaiah that he just starts yelling, “Oh no! Oh no!” Not because he isn’t glad to see God, but because when God actually shows up, He is so much more majestic and so much more wonderful than Isaiah has ever imagined, that he just realizes by comparison that he himself is just a speck of dust, and an unworthy one at that.
See, apparently, Isaiah was the type of guy who had a very colorful tongue while he was on the job. When he got upset, he could swear a blue streak. It wasn’t right, and he knew it, but after all, there were worse things. He didn’t cheat on his wife and he didn’t beat his children. So what were a few choice words in the larger scheme of things?
Well, when God shows up, Isaiah suddenly realizes the larger scheme of things. God’s holiness and purity just makes Isaiah start saying, “Oh no! I can’t live up to this. I have a foul mouth. And my friends can’t live up to this, they’ve all got foul mouths too! Oh no! I was asking for God’s help, and now that God is here, I need help, because I am not worthy of this God I’m talking to. What am I going to do?”
Well, he didn’t need to do anything. Because in God-like fashion, God takes care of it. Towards the entrance to the temple was an altar, which was used to make the daily sacrifices, and since they didn’t have matches or pilot lights in those days, the priests would try to keep the fire going 24/7 on the altar so they wouldn’t have to go through all the work each day of restarting the fire from scratch.
One of the seraphs flies over to the altar, takes a coal from it, symbolizing God’s purifying work that goes on on the altar, and the seraph touches the coal to Isaiah’s lips. – Now, we don’t know whether this was figurative, or literal, or symbolic. But when Isaiah wrote the whole thing down a few weeks later, he doesn’t mention getting burned by the coal, only cleansed by it.
When that angel put the coal to his lips, he felt like God was burning away all the impurities his lips had committed, all the sins he’d done.
With a gasp of relief, Isaiah says, “Oh, I feel clean, I feel whole. I feel forgiven.” And it’s such a great feeling that, a minute later, when God says, “I have some plans, and I’m looking for a faithful person to fulfill them,” Isaiah raises his hand and says, “Look my way, God, I’m right over here, and I’m willing for you to send me on whatever assignment you have.”
Now, that’s the long version. I’ve reconstructed it from what we know of Isaiah’s life and the political situation around him from other parts of the Bible and secular history, and, admittedly, I’ve conjectured a few things from my own imagination. So for accuracy’s sake, let’s look at Isaiah’s actual autobiographical account here in the text.
(read Is. 6:1-8)
That’s it. How close do you think I came in my reconstruction?
Here is it in a nutshell. The story of Isaiah.
The Situation: The king had died.
And he was a good and powerful king. And the Assyrians were rising in power nearby, so everyone was fearful as a new, experienced king came to the throne. [Response: People were fearful.]
As a result, [Results:] Isaiah went to meet with God, and
God met with him, like He always does when people earnestly seek Him.
Here’s God’s promise:
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart,” – Jeremiah 29:13
Here it is again, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28
Another place it says, I call on you, O God, for you will answer me… - Psalm 17:6
Still another says, …seek, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. – Matthew 7:7-8
If you need one more, it says, But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. – Deuteronomy 4:29
Isaiah proved that promise true. God met with him in a powerful way. And as God met with him, Isaiah saw God’s greatness, and that made him see his own finiteness.
Isaiah realized his flaws and frailty. And he admitted it. He said, “Woe is me! I am unclean compared to God. And
God cleansed him.
There’s this calm in the room, and then Isaiah heard God say what God is continually saying, “Who will go for me?” God called for a volunteer. And Isaiah volunteered. He said, “Here am I, send me!”
Then the rest of the book of Isaiah is a record of how Isaiah served God, and how God used him.
And friends, this is really the story of how heroes develop. Isaiah didn’t wake up one morning and say, “Guess I’ll become a hero today.” He just got up and did what he felt was the right thing to do – in his case, go talk to God about his country’s situation. And in the midst of doing that, it became evident that he, personally, needed to do something, so he became God’s spokesmen for that generation.
How many of you know someone you hope will become a hero some day? Maybe your son or daughter, or spouse or close friend. Think for a minute: is there anyone you know who, if they did something really special, you would just stand up and applaud?
Here’s what you’ll want to tell them. To follow the path that Isaiah did, there are really
Five Steps to a Biblical Hero
1. Meet with God. Go to church, or go to a private place and talk with Him.
2. Get cleansed. Usually, for most of us, there’s something within us that would keep us from becoming a hero-type. Maybe it’s our foul-mouth, maybe it’s our temper. Maybe it’s our judgmental attitude. Maybe it’s our workaholism, or self-centeredness, or feeling that the world owes us something, rather than the other way around. – You know what’s interesting, in my reading this week about 911 heroes, I came across this. One volunteer firefighter wrote: I have heard the Bishop of Washington D.C. relating a story from a priest at the WTC on Sept 11. He said that firefighters were kneeling before him, asking for absolution, before entering.
Many of them met with God before they went in and became heroes.
Get cleansed. Admit your flaws and frailty to God. He’ll forgive you. He’ll cleanse you. Then,
3. Look for God’s call. Sometimes we do things in our own strength, in our own way, hoping to make a difference in our world, and God isn’t in it because we didn’t seek Him or listen to Him. Look for God’s call.
4. Volunteer When God calls, you respond. I love Isaiah’s enthusiasm. His hand shoots up and he says, “Pick me, pick me!” “Here I am,” he says, “send me.”
Say these words after me: Here I am. Here I am. Anybody have a problem with the pronunciation? Three simple syllables. Here I am. They’re the syllables of a hero.
Look at this for a minute.
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied. – Genesis 22:1
And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!”
“Here I am,” he replied. - Genesis 46:2
God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.” – Exodus 3:4
Then the Lord called Samuel.
Samuel answered, “Here I am.” – 1 Samuel 3:4
I waited patiently for the Lord;
He turned to me and heard my cry….
Then I said, “Here I am…” – Psalm 40:1,7
Here I am… they’re the syllables of a hero.
You know what people who miss the call say, “Not me!”
“You can’t get me to do that.
I’m too busy.
I’m too important.
I’m too scared.
I’m not going in that building.
There’s too much else I want to do.”
Over the next 6 weeks we are going to look at reluctant heroes and imperfect heroes and unassuming heroes and unlikely heroes. But they all had one thing in common: when the time came, they said, “Okay. Here I am. You can use me.”
And God did. God did. That’s the fifth step of a biblical hero.
5. Be used by God.
Friends, I’ve done a lot of thinking on this topic, and something occurred to me this week as I was looking around for modern examples of what Isaiah did. What occurred to me was, this church is populated with voluntary heroes.
I want to introduce one of them to you. Kelly Hinkston. Last summer Kelly, did something that I think you all ought to know about. (interview)
Next = Anna Mervich (interview)
(Others =
Joseph Kennedy – Gave up ministry/job.
Charlyn Kelley – Miss’y to Spain
Scott Evans – Left lucrative position in defense industry to help found church, now OM
Chris, Free – Leaving comfort of secure jobs to start Church Community Builders
Trish Garton - PL
Lissa Robinette - PL
Bernie Snyder - PL
Shirley MacAlpine – PL, MOPPETTES, Xmas Eve)
Let me close with this. One of the most encouraging verses in the NT is James 5:17. It says
Elijah was a man just like us. – James 5:17
And he is known as one of the greatest prophets of the OT. But he put his pants on the same way we do.
So look at this for a second. Here’s what it takes to be a hero:
Principles:
1. Every hero makes a choice. (Heroism is never forced on anyone. We make a choice to do the right thing and that leads to heroism.)
2. Heroes are born out of hardship. (No hero ever had it easy. Not Elijah, not Isaiah, not the 911ers)
3. Major moments can bring out the best in you. But in order for the best to come out, you usually have to be living right. You have to make good little choices along the way.
So here’s what I want us to do.
In a minute some words are going to appear on the wall, if you are open to them, just say out loud, “Here I am.”
Here are the words.
God, I am listening for your call.
HERE I AM.
God, I don’t expect to become a hero, but if I can serve you
HERE I AM.
God, if there is something you want done that I can do
HERE I AM.
God, if there is a way I can serve your purposes in this world,
HERE I AM.
Bow your head.
And Lord, as we do this, we know that we’re bowing ordinary heads. We’re just people.
We don’t expect to be heroes. And yet I believe that all of us want to be difference-makers. So before you now we are saying we don’t want to be people who just absorb all of our lives, we want to be contributors.
If there is anything you want to say to any of us right now about our usefulness to you, or where you want us to leave our mark, speak now. Speak now, we’re listening.
Here we are Lord. Cleanse us, call us, send us, use us.
And God, thanks that I know you will. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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