Turning Points
Isaiah 6:1-6:8
There are turning points in life, turning points, which give a meaning and bring purpose, which redefine us.
Several examples:
A man with an unclean spirit, Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: neither could any man tame him. Always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones
Jesus, found the man, cast the demons out, then sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind:
A Samarian woman drawing water at Jacob’s well. Jesus asked for a drink of water. Jesus offered living water. She accepted, became excited, then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
What was the turning point in their lives, Seeing and experiencing God.
God has revealed himself at different times, and different ways.
The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Fear not, Abram: I am thy Shield, and thy exceeding great Reward."
And Abram, by Divine direction, took a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon, killed them, divided them, and while a horror of great darkness fell upon him, "behold! a smoking furnace and a burning lamp" - symbols of Divine holiness - "passed between the pieces, and the Lord made a covenant with Abram."
A vision was granted to Jacob, from which the whole tone of his life was changed, and he began a covenanted, God-fearing career.
As he lay wearily on his stone pillow, under the clear-shining stars of an eastern sky, "behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father... the land whereon thou liest, to thee and thy seed will I give it."
Moses led the flock of Jethro, one memorable day, to the back side of the desert, and "came to the mount of God, even to Horeb.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And God called unto him out of the midst of the bush" - symbol of the holiness that consumes and purifies - "and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I."
In the New Testament records we find similar scenes.
1. Manifestations of angels to shepherds. A wonderful scone of transfiguration for our Lord himself.
2. The descending sheet, and its strange contents, for Peter.
3. The overwhelming light and voice on the road to Damascus, and the elevation into the third heavens, to see the unspeakable, for St. Paul.
4. And the vision for St. John on the Island of patmos.
God reveals overwhelming impressions, he make a difference
1st "We see throughout the Bible that when someone in antiquity encountered God, the experience was almost uniform. To a person they stood quaking in terror, trembling before the Most High God. They were frightened; they were humbled; they were changed.
2nd "Christians have come to a dangerous time. It is a time when we can pat one another on the back, congratulate ourselves and join in the glad refrain, We are rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing!
"It certainly is true that hardly anything is missing from our churches these days¡Xexcept the most important thing. We are missing the presence of God, and genuine and sacred offering of ourselves to God.
Scripture Isa 6:1-8 KJV
When Isaiah encountered God he learned a valuable lesson about his worth, usefulness, and value as man before God
6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
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.
The turning point in our lives is when we stop seeking the God we want and start seeking the God who is.
A personal revelation of God is indispensable not only to ministry but also to Christianity.
You cannot minister to others from a "textbook" knowledge of God; you must have experienced Him for yourself.
God is the very source of our being and our lives must be grounded in him to have meaning.
Ministry must flow out of a relationship with Him to be effective because He is both the answers to people¡¦s problems and the ultimate meaning that they are searching for.
A. A turning point is when we look up to God
Isaiah finds himself in the presence of God, and the scene that he beholds in enough to drive him to his knees.
So overwhelming was his glimpse of the holiness of God in the heavenly temple that Isaiah acknowledged has sin and responded in obedience to the Lord.
He sees the sovereignty of God seated on a throne exalted above all things. He sees the majesty of God the tail of his robe filling the temple. He sees the glory of God the temple filling with smoke.
Looking up to God is all about being with God. It is about experiencing His sovereignty, His majesty, His glory.
B. A turning point is when we look within ourselves
When Isaiah saw the glory of God it shook him to his core. The text tells that he was struck deeply by the fact that he was unworthy to be in God’s presence and he cried out in despair saying, "I am undone, ruined, lost." Isaiah was doing pretty good in his own eyes until he was forced to compare himself with God.
He then confesses to be a "man of unclean lips in the midst of a people of unclean lips." Uncleanness means ungodliness. By being in God’s presence Isaiah realized that he was ungodly and he confessed it.
His enlightened eyes told him that he was no better than the sinful, wicked, rebellious Jews who were seeking their own desires and following after their own lusts.
When we realize who we are in the presence of God, the only thing we can do is confess. We are all sinners living in the midst of a sin-filled world. Our righteousness hangs about us as rags, and we are hopeless in and of ourselves.
In the words of Isaiah we are undone, ruined, lost. Yet, by being moved to confession in His presence we are then granted cleansing.
C. A turning point is when we look out to people
God needed a messenger. Israel had become exceedingly wicked and needed to hear His voice again. When God asked for someone to stand for Him, to be His voice, Isaiah said, "Here am I, Lord. Send me."
Contrast this with Moses for a moment. When God asked Moses a similar question, Moses was unwilling to go. He gave all sorts of excuses: I am slow of speech, I do not know what to tell the people, and besides they won¡¦t listen to me. But he did eventually go.
Notice that Isaiah never hesitated. He spoke right up. Here I am God! I am ready to go. Send me, I will do your work whatever and wherever it might be. He possessed a faith like the father of the faith, Abraham and He as moved by the presence of God to surrender his life into His service.
We need to see God for a turning point in our lives!
When you encounter God, what happens to you? Are you like Isaiah, do you feel your own sinfulness, do you cry from the depth of your being for God to be merciful to you a lost and sinful sinner??
Or are you like the Pharisees in the temple thanking God you aren’t as bad as your neighbor. Thanking him that he made you as good as you are?
I think for many of us, God has become such a loving old Grandfather image, that when we do encounter his presence in the word and the sacrament, we aren’t moved to awe and wonder.
We don’t sense his wrath at our sinfulness we don’t sense his holiness and our lack of it.
We come into God’s presence thinking we aren’t that bad, and if he really wanted to see someone who was bad, we invite him to especially look at the person sitting next to us in the pew or our neighbor down the block, or the guy across the street, but not me.
Until we can cry from the depth of our soul in the presence of God as Isaiah did, until we can be honest really honest with ourselves about our state of lostness, we won’t fully appreciate the gift of salvation that Jesus brought to us.
CONCLUSION:
What is Isaiah’s purpose in telling us the story of his call to ministry? It is not to validate his ministry as a prophet. He had been a genuine prophet long before this and this experience did not change that.
Isaiah told us this story because he realized that his experience with God was what the nation of Israel needed to experience with God.
They needed to encounter God in His holiness and glory, realize their finitude and sinfulness, and be cleansed by God’s redemptive provision.
This is not just an account of a man’s calling; it is a mandate for us to experience God as he did. Just as Isaiah had to experience what God wanted him to minister, so we must allow ministry to flow out of what we have experienced with God.
We must let the power of God flow through our earthen vessels to touch the needs of our culture.
I hope this time you will sense the freedom in the gospel, the freedom in the touch of the forgiving love to dare to respond to God with your unique talents and God given gifts.
I hope God excites you today. I hope God thrills you today that you may become excited about him and be willing to serve mm, I hope you can say as Isaiah did
HERE AM I SEND ME
