Send Who?
Isaiah 6: 1 – 8
Intro: A mother and father were at their wit’s end in dealing with a rebellious son and daughter. In utter frustration they turned to their pastor asking if she would speak to the children. The 8 year-old daughter was first to be ushered into the pastor’s office. The pastor asked in all seriousness, “Where is God?” There was silence. This happened 2 more times. The third time, the girl dashed out of the office and ran home straight to her brother’s room. She breathlessly shared with him, “This is serious! God is missing and they are blaming us!”
I. Vs. 5 – “WOE IS ME!” Look! I have my own problems. I’ve got more on my plate than I can handle and you expect me to do what?
A. Isaiah literally fears for his life. Overwhelming sense of unworthiness or is he just seeking to make a pitiful excuse that will get him off the hook?
B. “You’ve got to be kidding!” --- “The church has got to be desperate!” --- “Would you like some cheese with that whine?”
C. One test of an authentic call from God is to feel unworthy in one way or another. If the call is authentic, no amount of whining is going to get you out of it!
II. VV 6-7 – the ritual purification. What God leads you to, He will prepare you to do!
A. Seraphs --- STONE – conveys the holiness of the altar which purifies the unclean lips.
B. For sin and guilt to have “departed” or to have been “blotted out” means that the effects of wrongful actions have been ended or removed.
C. Vs. 8 – this is the climax but not the end. – Isaiah overhears God’s questioning and volunteers.
III. “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Isaiah answers God’s call to service before he even know what he’s volunteering to do. He didn’t ask how long it would take or what it would cost.
A. Isaiah was sent out to speak a message to people who weren’t going to listen to what he said. But it didn’t matter. He faithfully spoke God’s Word because God’s love for him would not allow him to do otherwise.
B. But, what are we went out to do? What is God calling you to do this week? Who is it in your life that you need to love a little more? Who is it in this community you need to reach out to a little harder? Who is it that you know of who is not coming to worship who should be invited to come here to listen to God speak?
C. The real question is what will we do when we leave this place of worship? What do we do after we worship? What is God calling you and I to do?
Conclusion: Soren Kierkegaard tells a parable of a community of ducks waddling off to duck church to hear the duck preacher. The duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly. With these wings there was nowhere the ducks could not go, there was no God-given task the ducks could not accomplish. With those wings they could soar into the presence of God himself. Shouts of "Amen" were quacked throughout the duck congregation. At the conclusion of the service, the ducks left, commenting on what a wonderful message they had heard -- and waddled back home.
I’m afraid that we are a lot like the duck church. We come to church...we sing the songs........we hear the message.......but when the service is over........we leave the same way we came in. We leave unchanged! We leave unaffected. We are still ducks waddling when we could fly. --- Send who? If not you, then who?
