Sermon Brief
Date Written: November 1, 2013
Date Preached: November 3, 2013
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: Building a Foundation for a Thankful Life
Sermon Title: The 1st Piling – God is God
Sermon Text: Isaiah 40:25-31 [HCSB]
Essence of the Text: Isaiah wanted his readers to know the length, breadth, width and depth of who God was and is…
Essence of the Sermon: Isaiah’s words reveal to us today the length, breadth, width and depth of who God was and is…
Objective of the Sermon: KNOWING Who God is… allows us to be thankful that God is God… and He is there for ALL of us who turn to Him!
Introduction:
This week I am going to begin a series on how to build a foundation of thankfulness in our lives… this series will reveal WHY we should be thankful and how we can live out thankful lives!
In Phil 4:6 the Paul wrote, “…Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God…”
Paul says when we are troubled to go to God in prayer… no matter WHAT it is that troubles you, he says in EVERYTHING lift it up in prayer and petition…
Let me ask you something…
Do you have ANYTHING in your life today that you are worried about?
Do you have ANYTHING in your life that you are fretting over?
Do you have ANYTHING in your life that is weighing heavy on your mind?
Paul tells us we are to bring ALL of our troubles to God in prayer and petition…we are to lift it up to Him… but God is NOT a prayer vending machine with us putting in our prayers and Him dispensing our desired requests…
God is a loving God, but He is a God we must approach in prayer with the right attitude… and Paul addresses this in this verse, he says that we are to lift these things us in prayer and petition WITH THANKSGIVING!!!
Preacher, you have GOT to be kidding me! How in the world can I be thankful about my situation? How can I possibly go to God with a thankful heart and thankful attitude when I’m suffering so much?
Well first thing… Paul did not say it would be EASY, but when we approach God in prayer it requires the right spirit! It requires a heart that is focused on God and filled with thankfulness!
Well preacher what do I have to be thankful for? After all I am going to God with all my problems… and this world has NOT done me any favors… my life is not a fairy tale… in fact my life is hard…so
How can I be thankful when I am hurting?
How can I be thankful when my heart aches from the pain?
How can I be thankful when all seems lost to me?
How can I be thankful when it seems my world is crashing down?
My friends, being thankful in times of hardship and trouble is NOT something that comes easy for you? It is NOT something that will just happen. To be thankful in the difficult times is going to take an intentional effort and focus within your heart!
To build a life of thankfulness we must first begin with the foundation. I truly want our fellowship to be a church with a great foundation of thankfulness in our hearts, but I am sure that many of us are struggling in this area and we need help to get where God wants us to be…
So today, I want us, as a fellowship, to begin that journey together, to build a foundation of thankfulness in our lives…
I want us to become a gathering of believers whose focus and direction is based on our thankful hearts and our attitudes of thankfulness!
For us to be able to do this we must lay a foundation… a foundation of thankfulness that undergirds ALL we are in Christ…
Now here in Louisiana we ALL know the extreme importance of a good foundation, but many of us may not know just what it takes to set a good foundation… it starts with the driving of pilings!
Pilings are wide, heavy wooden poles several feet long (usually 20-40 ft long) that are driven into the ground to stabilize the ground underneath the foundation poured on top of them. Without these pilings the foundation would be unstable and unsafe on the shifting, swampy ground we live on here in South LA…
Well our lives are MUCH like that shifting, swampy ground in South LA… there is NOTHING in our lives that is ‘grounded’ and we can find ourselves being thrown about in a storm that life brings… but if our lives have the ‘anchor’ that is God we can weather these storms and we can live a thankful life!
The 1st piling for the foundation we need in God is God himself! This is the 1st piling in this foundation of thankfulness we must build our lives upon… is God… it is WHO GOD IS! Well, preacher what exactly do you mean?
Well let’s go to the book of Isaiah 40:25-31 (read scripture here – HCSB)
25“Who will you compare Me to, or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One. 26Look up and see: who created these? He brings out the starry host by number; He calls all of them by name.
Because of His great power and strength, not one of them is missing. 27Jacob, why do you say, and Israel, why do you assert: “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my claim is ignored by my God”? 28Do you not know? Have you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never grows faint or weary; there is no limit to His understanding. 29He gives strength to the weary and strengthens the powerless. 30Youths may faint and grow weary, and young men stumble and fall, 31but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint.
Now what was going on in Israel that Isaiah had to give this comfort to the people? This chapter marks the place in Isaiah where it leaps into the future… telling of God’s holiness and justice in the fall of Israel to the Babylonian Empire and their captivity.
These people feel that God has turned away from them… that He has abandoned them because of their sins… they are in exile and being punished for their sins… but here in ch40 we find Isaiah revealing another side of God to the people!
Here Isaiah reveals the creative and redemptive side of God in order to bring them comfort in this time of exile and captivity! He reveals the creative to paint a picture of God’s power and might AND he also reveals God’s redemptive side to show His everlasting love for His people! Chapter 40 is a chapter of comfort to the people of Israel…
In this chapter Isaiah rhetorically asks how the people can possibly compare the great God of creation with some meaningless image made by a craftsman.
Isaiah lets them know that the rulers of the earth are nothing compared to God: they are like dust that can be wiped away very easily by God! Isaiah then asks who can compare with the God who was the One who actually lit up the skies! He points out that God is the One who put the lights of the starry heavens in place and the One who actually created the entire universe.
Isaiah tells the people that EVEN THO’ God is this mighty Creator… even though He is the Everlasting God… He is still the One who ‘neither faints nor grows weary’ AND He comes close to those who recognize their own weaknesses and trust in Him.
While others outside of God fail and continue to fail… those who ‘wait on the Lord shall renew their strength’. Those who wait on the Lord can be confident that God is going to hold them in His grip, that God is going to lift them up, and strengthen them. Isaiah speaks of those who wait on God being able to NOT grow weary and to be able to walk without fainting.
But how can Isaiah’s message give us comfort in God to the point where we are laying a foundation of thankfulness in our lives? First we need to look at where Isaiah is coming from…
I want to back up in this passage just a bit… look at v.18-20
18Who will you compare God with? What likeness will you compare Him to? 19To an idol?—something that a smelter casts, and a metalworker plates with gold and makes silver welds for it? 20 To one who shapes a pedestal, choosing wood that does not rot? He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not fall over.
In v.18 he asks the question ‘who can you compare to God?’ and in v.19-20 he gives us a response to that question…
In v.19-20 Isaiah paints the picture of God being made in man’s image:
…first of all we ALL have the human tendency to try to ‘shape’ God into our own image or into an image we have created in our own minds, just like a craftsman tries to make a particular piece of jewelry…
… just like we ALL try to ‘beat and hammer’ God into our own preconceived plans or desires OR how we try to take God’s desires and cover it with what we want, like a craftsman will beat gold around a frame to make a piece of furniture!
…just like us taking the blessings of God and making an idol out of what God has blessed us with… such our talent to do a particular thing… we try to shape and mold it into our own desired thing instead of allowing God to shape and mold it into His desired result!
But no matter how we try to shape or mold God, we always come up short! What my point is this morning is that our first PILING for that foundation of a thankful life is the piling of God being God…
In v21 Isaiah says, “Hey haven’t you heard about this? Don’t you KNOW about this? Hasn’t this been made evident to you from the beginning?
Paul uses this same argument in Romans 1 when he says that humanity is without excuse because God’s creative and redemptive force is evident in the world around us…
Isaiah speaks here about God being on the throne and being ever-present and reigning! But Isaiah goes further… Not only should we KNOW about God, but he illustrates how awesome God truly is!
With this being said… I believe that believers must live out a life of thankfulness toward God… the very foundation of our lives must be rooted in thankfulness! And that 1st piling we can use to build this foundation of thankfulness is that God is God!
Isaiah tells us that God is God… He quotes God here in asking the question, “Who will you compare me to? Who is my equal?”
To understand the truly wonderful thing that God is God we must understand first that He has NO equal! This world may seek to downgrade God to a concept or to some set of moral requirements… but God is FAR greater and God is far beyond anything or anyone! He has NO equal!
Isaiah illustrates this first when he says in v.26, “…look up and see…” Isaiah says, “Look around you people… look at this wonderful world and creation around you… WHO DO YOU THINK DID THIS?” God did!
Today there are many in science that want us to believe that our world simply happened on its own, that things formed from some sort of big bang and that out of this chaos some sort of order just happened! Isaiah speaks to this and says… “He brings out the starry hosts by number; He calls them all by name because of His great power & strength, not one of them is missing…” This is a clear reference to the creation of the universe… it speaks to the UNEQUALED power and presence of God!
Isaiah then illustrates a second point in v.27… He speaks of the nation of Israel who cry out that what they do is hidden from God and even if he heard them that God would ignore them…
Now many in Israel at this time were crying out just that… they believed that God was turning a deaf ear to them and it did not matter what they said or did… God would not hear them! They were in captivity and it seemed all was lost!
YOU may have a time in your life when you believe God is NOT listening to you… OR that it doesn’t matter what you do or say that God has abandoned you, but Isaiah tells us that this is simply NOT the case!
In v28 Isaiah is saying to the people, “…don’t you understand? Haven’t you been told all your life… Yahweh is everlasting, creator, all powerful, all knowing…” In other words, there is NOTHING that escapes his view!
You may think he has abandoned you, but He is there! You may think he is NOT listening to you, but He is there and He is listening! But not only is he all powerful and ever present… Isaiah goes on to tell the people:
God is a giving and loving God, not only did he create all things… not only does he know all things… not only is he ever present, but God is loving and giving! V.29 he tells us that God gives strength to the weary… that he lifts up the powerless…
v.30 tells us that even when we FEEL are strong, we are going to stumble… you see the young never think they will tire or fall, but God is there even when think we do NOT need Him!
Finally Isaiah lets us know that God is God… and because God is God we do not need to fear failure… that He will be there to lift us up!
Isaiah 40:31 is one of those verses that MOST of us have either memorized or have heard so many times that it is very familiar to us, it reads like this…
31but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint.
I like the NKJV better… it is the one I learned as a youngster and the one that hits home in my heart… it reads like this:
31But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Our lives must have a foundation of thankfulness and the first piling in that foundation is the fact that God is God! He is UNCHANGEABLE! He is ALL POWERFUL! He is ALL KNOWING! He is ALL LOVING! He is a caring and gracious God who wants salvation for all!
Peter put it this way in 2 Pet 3:9
9The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
God is GOD and we must give thanks because of His power, His Love, His mercy and His patience with us! God is God and we can know eternal life because of who He is and because of His great and merciful love!
You may be here this morning and you may have doubts that God even exists!
You may be here this morning thinking that God does NOT listen to us here on earth!
You may be here today and think that God does not care about you or your problems!
You may be here today and think God has abandoned you because He has not answered you like you wanted… He is silent or He has said no…
I am here to tell you that God does exist… look around you and see the glory of His creation. This world did not just happen to come to be out of chaos! There was and is a Creator and that is God!
I am here to tell you that God listens to the prayers of his people… he hears the voices of those who cry out to Him. God does care about you, he is concerned about you… God loves you far beyond anything you can ever imagine…
You see God created you and God has provided for your eternal salvation in the person of Jesus, His only begotten Son. Jesus came and died on the cross for your sin and was raised on the 3rd day for your eternal life… You can know an eternal relationship with God because God cared enough to make a way for you to know Him!
People we need to be thankful in our hearts today… thankful that God is God! When we come to that realization in our lives… what Isaiah said in v31 rings true… “we can walk and not grow weary we can run and not faint…” We can do all things because God is there for us…
Be thankful today people… first and foremost because God is God!
