Isaiah 40:1-11, Mark 1:1-8
“Here Is Our Awesome God!”
by: Rev. Ken Sauer, Pastor of Grace United Methodist Church, Soddy Daisy, TN www.graceumcsd.org
I want all of us to think about something this morning and throughout the coming months.
“Are there any unconverted corners of our hearts?”
Is there anything in your heart which is blocking the way to your being completely sold out for Christ?
If so, what is it?
Could it be pride?
Selfishness?
Prejudice?
Greed?
Anger?
Hate?
A desire for control and power?
What is it?
What have you not given completely over to God?
What are you holding on to?
Only you and God know the answer to that question.
I remember a colleague of mine telling me about a conversation he had with a church member.
She told him, “I have these little sins in my life, and I like my little sins.”
In other words, she had accepted her sins, she had come to like them and cherish them.
And I’m afraid that there are a lot of us who have done the same thing.
But when we make friends with our sins we are making friends with our greatest enemy!!!
Many of us have a contract with sin.
It’s like we’ve made an agreement with ourselves and the devil: “I can have my little sins.”
In our Old Testament Lesson and our New Testament Lesson for this morning we are told to “make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.”
If we are going to make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God, our contract with sin and the devil must be broken!!!
That’s why John the Baptist came preaching repentance!
He was preparing people’s hearts; he was making a highway in the wilderness of person’s lives for God.
And John wasn’t the first.
Isaiah did the same thing.
And God has been doing this for a long time.
In Genesis Chapter 3, immediately following the sin in the garden, God started clearing a path in the wilderness in order that God might break back through and thus restore a lost and broken world!!!
As Isaiah says in verse 2, our “sin has been paid for…”
And now it’s time for us to get rid of what is no longer ours!!!
It’s the only way for any of us to experience the abundant life that Christ has to offer us…
Give to Christ what is His!
Give Christ your sin…all of it.
After-all, Christ paid a hefty price for it.
He died on the Cross for it!!!
What an insult…
…it’s almost like stealing…
…if we do not yield everything to God!
And that includes, especially, our Church!!!
Christ died for the Church.
Christ owns the Church.
Christ, is indeed, the Lord of the Church!!!
So often we let our sins get in the way of the “highway for our God.”
We allow church-bullies to keep us off track, and allow us to become discouraged.
We become territorial about our building, about our groups, our cliques.
We allow ourselves to get into the mindset of, “Well, if I don’t get my way…
…I’m leaving!”
We often have too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
Well, it’s time to change!!!
You know what’s so amazing?
Christ has never given up on Christ’s Church, and so what gives any of us the right to do so?
Jesus dealt with a small band of very flawed individuals.
They were uneducated.
They were sinners.
They kept stumbling all over themselves.
But Jesus picked them and never gave up on them, nonetheless.
He believed in them.
And, through those very flawed few, the Church of Jesus was born.
With God anything is possible!!!
God believes in you and God believes in me.
God believes in a people calling themselves Grace United Methodist Church in Soddy Daisy.
Let’s not put a great big log or boulder over the path or highway for our God here at Grace United Methodist Church!!!
We’ve got a lot going on and a lot going for us!
Could we focus on the negative?
Sure.
But what’s the point?
Certainly it would lead only to hand-wringing and despair!
What you are called to do--what I am called to do is to “make straight in [Soddy Daisy, Hixson, and Chattanooga] a highway for our God.”
And if we do this, “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low…and the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all [of our community] together will see it.”
That’s something I want to be a part of, how about you?
Our Gospel Lesson from Mark begins with a portion of the passage from Isaiah Chapter 40 telling us that John the Baptist was the trailblazer for Jesus, and this is our job as well!!!
It’s up to us to repent and prepare a way for God to come into our hearts .
It’s up to us to repent and prepare a way for God to most fully come into Grace United Methodist Church and thus transform this congregation and community!
John the Baptist’s entire focus—his entire ministry was about Jesus!!!
It wasn’t about John the Baptist at all…not one bit!!!
“I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
“[Christ] must become greater, I must become less.”
If we are going to live lives which fulfill God’s vision and our potential, this must be our attitude as well!
And as a church, we too must be servant-leaders who are more than willing to step aside when the time is appropriate in order for Jesus Christ to truly be Lord!!!
Are we willing to do this?
Can we yield to God, our sins that get in the way?
Can we stop saying things like, “This is my church,” or “This is my church group,” and instead say: “This is Christ’s Church…
…I am a sheep; I am a lamb.”
“Have Thine own Way Lord, have Thine own Way!!!”???
Jesus Christ came into this world as God’s Selfless Servant to give Himself to save others!
And this is Who we are called to immolate, learn from, become disciples of, do the same thing as!!!
Grace United Methodist Church and each of us as individuals have been created to point to Another, greater than we, Who is both the focus of our attention and the object of our devotion!
How are we doing with this?
It is Jesus Christ Who issues the baptism of the Holy Spirit—namely, the power and presence of the saving grace of God.
And the more we come to know God, the more we come to understand ourselves in relation to God’s plan for all of creation!!!
And the more we come to accept this plan, our hunger for power and the acceptance of others decreases because relationship with God reinforces our inner sense of security, and we are no longer preoccupied with being powerful or popular.
Remember, Jesus is Lord—we are not!
What a relief!!!
The story of John the Baptist, the story of the Prophets is our story as well.
We are the ones who are to prepare the way for God’s Anointed One.
And this involves acts of forgiveness, reconciliation, humility and walking in the way of Christ in our daily lives.
In Matthew Chapter 23 Jesus tells us: “The greatest among you will be your servant.”
Is that revolutionary or what?
One day two of Jesus’ main men…
…two of Jesus’ closest allies…
…James and John came bumbling up to the Lord and asked Him: “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
And when the other ten disciples heard about this, they became extremely angry at James and John.
And this anger most likely arose out of jealousy and a lust for power.
So there was a feud going on amongst the Twelve, and things were about to explode when Jesus called them all together and said, “You know those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
Not so with you.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
That’s a really big and essential part of what it means to prepare the way for the Lord!!!
We must become less; Jesus must become more!!!
How exciting is that?
I believe God has great plans for this local congregation.
Many miraculous signs and wonders will be done here, that is, if we are willing to give up all control of this church and hand it over to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!!!
Are there any unconverted corners of our hearts?
Are there any unconverted corners of this church?
If so, it is time to hand them over to the One Who bought them with His own blood!!!
We are to be trailblazers “who bring good tidings to [Soddy Daisy]…”
We are to “bring good tidings to [Hixson and Sale Creek].”
We are to “lift up [our voices] with a shout, lift [them] up, and do not be afraid…” and “say to the towns of Chattanooga, ‘Here is your God! Hear is your most awesome God!!!”
May it be so!
Amen.
