Sermon- Searching outline
- I noticed an article the other day that was asking if binge watching tv shows taking
the place of Christ now.
- I hadn’t really thought of it.
Q- How much time do we spend with the Lord each day?
Q- Is it less now, now that many are at home, or is it less?
- From the moment the pandemic was compared to like being in a war. That should
have been the signal to get closer to the Lord. For many that’s true, but the thing I
wonder is,
Q- What has been the impact on people that can’t attend church?
- There is so much missing, & it’s very much like war.
- In a war being able to meet with friends, or family could be difficult, or even deadly.
Q- So, in war, do we lose our faith?
- A poll showed 1 in 3 Christians have stopped attending church, whether it be in
person or on-line.
- We are still at War, the battle is raging. Let’s turn to where we should always be.
- Open your Bibles with me to Isaiah 25:1-9.
- Listen to the battle, the war, the victory.
Q- Where does our help come from?
Isaiah 25:1-9
1 O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
6 And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.
9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
- Isaiah begins with exalting the Lord!
- Let’s begin with exalting the Lord!
Prayer
- The enemy, the powers, the weapons used against us. They all will be brought to
ruin. They will be destroyed.
- Isaiah was the prophet to Judah, southern Israel.
- In Isaiah’s time Northern Israel was prospering until Jeroboam died, six months later
his son Zechariah is killed, & 1 month later the murderer Shallum is killed, &
Menahem is King. In all this commotion Israel becomes a Vassal state to Assyria.
- The contagion was in Israel, but not many knew it was there.
- The second Israel forfeited their payments to Assyria, Assyria came in to take
control.
- Isaiah watched as this contagion ravaged Northern Israel, & finally ending with
Assyria taking full control with Hoshea, a loyalist to Assyria on the throne.
- The same thing was happening in Judah, even as Isaiah Prophesied against it. Rezin,
the king of Damascus, & Pekah, the king of Israel had plotted a coup against Judah.
They were going to attack Judah while they had many of their troops already
defending them against other invaders.
- King Ahaz, the king of Judah, thought he couldn’t win against them. So against
Isaiah’s advice, Ahaz calls on the Assyrians for help.
- Although Judah doesn’t fall to the Assyrian. This is the beginning of their fall. We
know the Israelites end up being overcome, & enslaved by the Babylonians for 70
years.
- All of this only happened because the leaders, & the people took their eyes off
the Lord.
- Isaiah said in verse 4.
Isaiah 25:4
4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
- Isaiah was 30 years old when God called him to prophesy.
- Just five years before his calling Menahem came to power in Israel. He saw
the conflict of his neighboring kingdom, & he received the warnings from the Lord.
- Listen, this is how you lose God’s blessing.
- Isaiah’s message is straight forward. The enemy may creep in, he may be
great, but our Lord is greater.
- Even when the enemy sneaks in, the Lord is greater!
- Assyria was ready to attack Judah, but Babylon came in & overthrew them.
- Parts of Judah could hear the battle cry of the Assyrians in Israel, but they
did not overtake them.
- It’s in these times that we must lean on God more, not our tv, or anything else for
comfort or rescue.
- That’s What Ahaz did. He didn’t seek out God first. Instead, he cried out to Assyria, &
if God hadn’t have intervened, Assyria would have overtaken them.
- Here is why we lean on God, & trust in God. Paul says,
Romans 11:33-36
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
- Ahaz didn’t know how he would overcome these two kings, but God did.
Q- Do you know how we will stop, & overcome this virus?
- Listen, God knows the answer!
- The answer is not some miracle cure, or vaccine. Believe me that would be
wonderful!
- Isaiah’s message was for people to stop relying on things they can see & understand,
& start trusting in the One they can’t see!
- Listen to him again,
Isaiah 25:6-7
6 And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
- I hope you remember one of my previous messages where I talked about the
Mountain can often symbolize the Church, or the faith of the church. It’s very much
like Jesus saying, upon this Rock I shall build my Church.
Q- What’s the Rock?
Q- What’s the Mountain?
- It’s faith in a Righteous God.
- The Church is standing in the middle of this virus. When changes are called for,
we will still worship.
Q- Is it different?
- Yes, It is. Here’s the thing though. Even though we are not assembling together
bodily. We are still united, & our outreach. I hope you are experiencing the
outreach like I am. My neighbors & I have been helping each other out more now
than ever before.
- The enemy may be at our doorstep. He may have even put his foot through the
door, but there has never been a power greater than our God, & there never will
be!
Listen to my last verse
Psalm 73:28
28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.
- We tell the world, Jesus is my Redeemer. This world may seem to overcome me, but
with Jesus the world has been turned to mere stubble. I will tread upon the stubble,
& shout Jesus is Lord, & won the battle for me.
- Let’s not lose faith, & let’s not forget who we are.
- Rejoice, we are the Children of the King!
Prayer
