Isaiah 40:28-31
Reverend Kahala Bolton
April 3, 2011
If you will please stand for the reading of god’s word and open your bibles. Turn to Isaiah chapter 40 beginning at the 27th verse and closing at the 31st verse. I will be reading from the NKJV version. You read along silently and I will read aloud.
Now Turn to your neighbor for god, and look them straight in the eye and say I’m running on E, Turn to one more person for Jesus and say, I’m running on e, turn to one more person for the holy ghost and say “ I’m running on e!” - You may take your seats. –
Intro:
Just so you can understand where I am going with this, let me give you a little back ground of where I am coming from. “is that all right?” a few years ago, my mother and I were on our way back home coming from a doctor’s appointment she had in far north Dallas close to central expressway and 635. And for whatever reason, my mother decides that we would be ok to make it back to our side of town on ¼ tank of gas – “someone say ¼ “. I remember her saying that we will be ok and when we get to our side of town, we will fill up. But the only problem with that was, we were driving and found ourselves at a standstill in traffic. (Have you ever found yourself stuck in a situation and you felt like you could not move from that place? so you can relate!) Now ya’ll know how traffic can be in Dallas, sometimes it can take two hours to get to where you need to before you even reach your final destination. So here we are sitting in this parking lot of traffic and the longer we sat there the more the gas hand would drop. I found myself becoming disturbed about that thing because we found ourselves in a situation that we had no control over. We were running on e and could see a way out.
As I was preparing for this sermon, I thought about that situation and reflected on how when we start out in our lives, we are all fueled up and energetic. Even at the beginning of this year, many of us made the declaration that I’m all in”. We declared that we would get new jobs, start new businesses, excel in our ministries, reconnect in our marriages, make good grades in school and lose those last five pounds. But here we are a quarter of the way through the year and a lot of us have run out of steam and energy. We want to go somewhere but we don’t have the means to do it. Yeah we come to church every Sunday and Thursday expecting god to do something but we leave here tired, frustrated and weak!
See there’s a lot of anxiety associated with running out of gas. I know a lot of you may not admit it. But that’s where I found myself that day. As we were sitting there in the car, I was stressed and perplexed and we did not know what to do. We did not know how the situation was going to turn out. We were aggravated because we could not maneuver out of the situation. It seemed there was no way out. And What I realized even more so about that situation is that if you are not careful, “catch this” you will find yourself pushing something that should be caring you. Can I get an amen!?
See some of us are facing great trials right now in our lives. But I discovered that our god is very interesting. See he doesn’t give you an itinerary for your journey. He doesn’t hand us a map plan or spell it out for us. He doesn’t tell us all the hell we are going to have to go through to get to the promise. All he does is show us the promise, because if we are honest with ourselves, if we really had a clear view of everything we had to go through to get to where we are right now, some us would say, “no thank you god, I’ll just stay right here. It’s all right!
The everlasting god!
And that’s where the Israelites found themselves in the beginning of our text. So two rhetorical questions are asked: Have you not known? Have you not heard? Isaiah was reminding the people that god made the world and all that is in it. The nations rise and fall at god’s command. So why we complain about gas prices and the economic situation, we need to remember that god has no equal and everything is held in the palm of his hand. Everything that is happening is being permitted by god. How do I know? I’m glad you asked! The word says: The lord is the everlasting god! The creator of the ends of the earth. Everlasting god means god is enduring. He exists throughout the ages. He does not come and go, he always is.
1. He’ll be here when the presidential term is up.
2. He’ll be here even if boo decides they gone walk out.
3. He’ll be here even when companies close their doors
4. He’ll be here even when the educational system fails and start laying off teachers.
God wants us to be reminded that it is he that created it all and he that can end it all. He wants our trust in the gift giver not in the gifts. Jesus!
Growing tired and weary
When we go a little further in the text, we find that it says god neither faints nor is weary. See god never said we would not have trials. And what I need to encourage and remind us about is that nobody in here is exempt from having a weak moment. You might not admit it but the thing that bothers me about church folks is that we are so concerned about what people might think about us. We come to church like we are the great pretenders. We come into the sanctuary with our masks on and our good clothes on, knowing that we are going through hell at home. But if there is anybody in here that is weak right now and you are not ashamed to admit it, that’s who I’m talking to. Is there anyone in here that’s feeling a little weak and are going through some difficulties right now? There comes a time in our life when we’ve gone through so much we don’t care who knows. We don’t care who knows our business. Matter of fact, we don’t have no business. When it comes to expecting and needing god to move in OUR LIFE, it doesn’t matter. Look at your neighbor and tell them “it doesn’t matter if you know what is going on with me!”.
Don’t you know some saints will try to intimidate you from giving praise? They’ll sit there AND FOLD THEIR ARMS AND LOOK AT YOU CRAZY. BUT I DARE YOU TO LOOK TO YOUR LEFT AND YOUR RIGHT AND SAY, “I NEED GOD TO MOVE!”
I’M WEAK, I’M TIRED AND I’M WORN OUT! I DON’T HAVE ANY ENERGY AND I DON’T HAVE TIME TO BE PLAYING GAMES. I DON’T HAVE TIME TO WORRY ABOUTIF YOU ARE WONDERING IF I AM GOINGTO STEP ON YOUR TOE, MOVE OUT OF MY WAY! I NEED GOD TO MOVE IN THIS PLACE. I NEED GOD TO HEAR ME. I NEED HIM TO KNOW THATI AM CRYING OUT FOR HIM, SO I DON’T CARE IF I HOLLER IN YOUR EAR! I NEED GOD TO MOVE!
IN THE 29TH VERSE IT SAYS “HE GIVES STRENGTH TO THE WEARY AND INCREASES THE POWER OF THE WEAK”. ALL OF US ARE DESTINED TO GROW WEARY, PHYSICALLY TIRED, EMOTIONALLY AND SPIRITUALLY DRAINED. WE CAN GET TO A PLACE WHERE WE DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO. WHAT I DON’T GET ABOUT PEOPLE SOMETIMES IS WHY THEY GET JUDGEMENTAL AND WANT TO CRITICIZE YOU WHEN YOU’RE GOING THROUGH. WHEN IT COMES DOWN TO IT, I DON’T HAVE TIME TO JUDGE YOU, MATTHEW 26:41 SAYS WATCH AND PRAY SO THAT YOU WILL NOT FALL INTO TEMPTATION. WHEN I SEE YOU GOING THROUGH, I DON’T HAVE TIME TO JUDGE YOU! I’M LOOKING AROUND MAKING SURE I DON’T FALL IN nothing. I’M LOOKING AROUND MAKING SURE I’M ON STABLE GROUND.
THERE’S DANGER IN GROWING WEARY. HOW MANY OF US HAVE GOTTEN CAUGHT UP IN SOMETHING JUST BECAUSE we WERE BORED AND TIRED. 1 Peter 5:8 says: be sober; be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Have you ever seen the animal kingdom? When the lion is going after his pray, he waits for that one straggler in the back. That’s why we have to be careful about the people we hang out with when we are weak.
Facebook has been a very popular site to journal your thoughts, especially when you may be going through. The problem is it has opened up a door that has allowed people to be tagged as your friends and they really don’t have your best intentions at heart. What I have found is that people will cosign on your mess. They will click like on your misery.
Let me tell you a quick story: when I was a little girl, my grandfather used to own an ice cream truck. He had purchased a new one and we went and washed it up and then went to the gas station to fill up but when he went to crank it up, it would not start. Now here we are with a full tank of gas and can’t figure out what was going on. I remember asking him” did you put unleaded or diesel? My grandfather shook his head realizing that he had filled the tank up with unleaded but it actually required diesel? So the point I’m making here is why people like our statuses on facebook, tell us we did the right thing even when we didn’t, and we get fueled up but it’s with the wrong fuel and we can’t go anywhere. We’re stuck and the devil is taking us out because we got weak people cosigning on our weaknesses, on our mess. But god promises that he will strengthen those who are weary and give power to those who are weak. Tap your neighbor and say I have strength and I have power!
Verse 30 says: Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. Youth and young men are the symbol of strength. They are the ones to whom a people looks for its future. However, even young people have limits to their endurance. See when youth grow tired, they stumble and fall. The sad part is they often stumble and fall into sin. Our youth are in a constant battle. Times are not how they used to be and there’s so much more that they can get into via the internet, watching TV and listening to the radio. Our youth have to fight 10,000 more times than we had to and we wonder why our youth are having babies, on drugs, stealing, running away, bringing home failing grades and dropping out of school. They try talking to their people about their struggles but instead of listening all they hear is: I don’t want to hear that and what I expect is…! They may be our kids but they are weary! They are dealing with so much pressure that if we don’t stop and listen we are going to lose our children. They are going to fall by the waist side because they feel like they have no hope in a hopeless situation. Turn to your neighbor and say not our kid’s, we’re taking them back!
Devil you can’t have our kids, get out of our way!
Beginning of verse 31 says but those who wait on the lord …. The word wait means: to stay in one place and anticipate or expect something. PART OF TRUSTING GOD IS WAITING UPON HIS INSTRUCTION IN EACH and every SITAUTION WE FACE. I remember the 1st car I got when I was in high school. When my parents brought it home, I remember my brother being so excited about my car. I remember telling him “what you excited for, this my car not yours”. And out of the mouths of babes he said “well I got next”…see he already knew that in his waiting period there was a blessing and if he just wait his turn something special was in store for him. That’s how we have to be with god, we don’t know when god is going to bless, we don’t know how he’s going to bless us but baby when he does we know he does it right. Turn to your neighbor and say hold on, there’s a blessing in waiting… when we start seeing people get bless we need to start hi fiving each other saying I got next! Because We know if they are getting blessed then Jesus must be in our neighborhood and our blessing is on the way!
Which leads me to the promise – if we wait…what will happen… “shall renew their strength. Renew translated biblically means to change clothes. It means that we will take off our weariness and our weakness and put on the strength of the lord. I don’t know about you but I’ve been through too much hell not to stay in position to get clothed by my daddy...
This leads me to our closing of verse 31:
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
When god renews you there will be a visible change in you because you are trusting god. You will find that you have a source that supplies you with supernatural ability to do what the lord asks. You will find that if you faint not, god is going to allow you to fly over some things. There are going to be some things you don’t even have to endure. There are going to be some things that you are going to be able to run through, and there are going to be some things you will have to walk it out but even though you are walking you will not get faint.
Talk about the track runner – fifth wind
Speak prophetically according to what the spirit gives at that moment.
