GOD IS NOT CONFUSED ABOUT THIS WAR. ARE YOU?
Primary Text: Isaiah 1:1–20 (ESV)
Supporting: Psalm 2:1–6 | 2 Chronicles 7:14–15 | Isaiah 40:28–31 (ESV)
Rev. Kelvin L. Parks, M.A.
C3PT Kingdom Culture Ministries | Apopka, Florida
This sermon was born in a dream. Isaiah 1 was given in the night season.
This preacher fell asleep to Isaiah 1 ... and woke up in Isaiah 40.
LITURGICAL OPENING — PSALM 34:1–8 (ESV)
(v1) I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
(v2) My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad.
(v3) Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!
(v4) I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
(v5) Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.
(v6) This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
(v7) The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.
(v8) Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
(Psalm 34:1–8, ESV)
GREETING
Good Morning ... and too, God be the Glory!
I greet you in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.
And there is a Word from the LORD ...
So let us turn our hearts and our Bibles to the prophet Isaiah ... chapter 1, beginning at verse 1. As we move through the sermon today we will also be visiting the Psalms ... chapter 2 ... Second Chronicles ... chapter 7 ... and before we are done ... the Lord is going to carry us to Isaiah 40. But we begin in Isaiah 1.
When you find it ... please say Amen.
PRIMARY TEXT — ISAIAH 1:1–4; 10–20 (ESV)
(v.1) The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
(v.2) Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: "Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.
(v.3) The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand."
(v.4) Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.
(v.10) Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
(v.11) "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?" says the Lord; "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats."
(v.15) When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.
(v.16) Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
(v.17) learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.
(v.18) "Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord: "though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
(v.19) If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
(v.20) but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
Turn to your neighbor and say ... Neighbor — GOD IS NOT CONFUSED ABOUT THIS WAR. ARE YOU?
You may be seated ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED ABOUT THIS WAR. ARE YOU?
PRAYER
Father ... the task of teaching Your Word is once again in my keeping.
I commit myself to do the very best that I can. Clear my mind of distractions. Warm my heart with compassion. Fill my soul with faith in Your goodness and power.
Speak to me ... that I may speak for You. Speak through me ... that I may speak to those who wait to hear Your unadulterated gospel.
Right now, Lord ... remove self. Remove pride. Increase in me and I decrease in You. Hide me behind Your cross.
Lord ... the world is shaking. Wars are being started. Bombs are dropping. Refugees are fleeing. People are hungry. And the men who claim Your name are spending billions on weapons while millions cannot eat. Your people need a Word that is bigger than what the news can give us.
So speak, Lord. Your servant is listening.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight. My Lord ... You are my strength and my Redeemer. This is my prayer. Amen.
INTRODUCTION — THE DREAM, THE DELAY, AND THE CONFIRMATION
So stay with me. Because we are going to feel the weight of Isaiah 1 together. And then God is going to carry us — the same way He carried me in that dream — all the way to the comfort of Isaiah 40. And by the time we are done ... you are going to leave here with the resurrection in your spirit and the Word of God in your bones.
I know that this is Easter Sunday … and you came expecting lilies and hallelujahs and resurrection anthems. And we are going to get there — I promise you, we are going to get there. But before we get to the empty tomb ... we have to stop at Isaiah 1. Because this Easter is not happening in a vacuum. It is happening in the middle of a war. Bombs are falling on this Holy Week. Children are dying on this Palm Sunday. And the God who raised Jesus from the dead ... has something to say about what is happening right now.
This is not going to be your typical Easter Day sermon.
Before I begin ... I need to say something.
I need to tell you something before I preach today.
This sermon did not start in a commentary. It did not start in a theological journal. It did not start with me watching the news.
This sermon started in a dream.
The Lord gave me Isaiah 1 in the night season. Not as a passage I was preparing. Not as a text I had assigned myself. But as a Word ... dropped into my spirit while I was sleeping. One of those moments where you do not just see the text ... you feel the weight of it. You feel the urgency. You feel God pressing something into you that He wants pressed into someone else.
And I want to be honest with you about what I did with it.
I ignored it.
For weeks I went about my life. I knew the dream was not just a dream. But I set it aside. Because Isaiah 1 is not a comfortable word. And the people it speaks to ... are not always happy to hear it.
But the Lord is patient. And He is persistent. And He is not confused about what He wants said ... even when we are confused about whether we want to say it.
So one night ... I made a decision. I put an earbud in my ear. I opened the Bible app. I set it to Isaiah 1. And I went to sleep ... listening to the Word of God play in my ear through the night.
I fell asleep to Isaiah 1.
And when I woke up ... I was in Isaiah 40.
The Bible had been playing all night. And while I slept ... God carried me. From the conviction of chapter 1 ... all the way to the comfort of chapter 40. From "Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me" ... all the way to "they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength."
That was not an accident. That was a sermon outline given to me in my sleep.
God was saying: start where I told you to start. Preach what I gave you in the dream. Let the people feel the weight of Isaiah 1. And trust that I will carry them to Isaiah 40. From the conviction ... to the comfort. From what is broken ... to what I am building.
This morning I want to talk to you about three things:
Point 1 — Isaiah 1: The Vision. God Calls Heaven and Earth as Witnesses.
Point 2 — The Pattern and the Blueprint. History Teaches If We Will Listen.
Point 3 — Isaiah 40: Have You Not Known? Have You Not Heard?
And before we are done ... we are going to answer the question in the title.
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED ABOUT THIS WAR. ARE YOU?
Walk with me ...
POINT 1 — THE VISION: GOD CALLS HEAVEN AND EARTH AS HIS WITNESSES
Walk with me to verse 1.
The first word that matters is VISION. The Hebrew word is CHAZON (khaw-zone). Reserved for the highest category of divine communication in all of scripture. Not a feeling. Not an impression. Not a thought Isaiah had while studying. A direct, authoritative disclosure from the throne room of God. Isaiah did not choose this subject. God assigned it. And when God assigns a CHAZON ... the prophet does not soften it. He speaks what was given.
(Hebrew: chazon / khaw-zone — a divine vision; the highest category of prophetic revelation given directly from God to the prophet)
Verse 2 — The Covenant Lawsuit
Now verse 2. And I need you to feel the weight of what is happening here ...
"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me."
In the ancient world, when a king brought a formal charge against a vassal who had broken their covenant agreement, he called witnesses. He summoned those who could testify to what the covenant said and what the vassal did. And God — the King of all creation — is doing exactly that here. He is calling heaven and earth to stand as witnesses in a covenant lawsuit against His own people. Heaven ... you heard what I promised them. Earth ... you watched what they did instead. Both of you testify.
And the charge: "Children have I reared and brought up ... but they have REBELLED against me."
The Hebrew word for rebelled is PASHA (paw-shah). It does not mean they drifted unintentionally. PASHA means to break away deliberately from rightful authority. To revolt. To willfully transgress against the One who raised you up. God is not confused about the state of the nation. He does not need an intelligence briefing. He calls it by its name. PASHA. Deliberate rebellion.
(Hebrew: pasha / paw-shah — to break away deliberately from rightful authority; willful rebellion, not accidental drift)
Verse 3 — The Ox Knows More Than the Nation
Stay with me in the text. Verse 3 ...
"The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand."
This is the verse that hit me hardest when I woke up with the Bible still playing in my ear. The ox knows who feeds him. Every morning that animal walks to the same trough because he knows whose hand fills it. The donkey knows where home is. He knows whose voice to follow. But Israel — the people with the covenant and the temple and the scripture — does not know. Does not UNDERSTAND.
The Hebrew word is BIN (bene) — to discern, to perceive, to connect what you believe to what you are doing. God is not saying His people are uninformed. He is saying they are not connecting the dots. They have the Word but they are not applying it. They have the name of God but they are not seeking the face of God.
(Hebrew: bin / bene — to understand deeply, to perceive and apply; the deliberate act of connecting belief to behavior)
And I need to stop here and make a connection to right now. While we sit in this room, on Easter Sunday, on Resurrection Sunday ... there is a war happening. And while that war dominates the news ... another people — in Ukraine — are still being bombed. Buildings are still falling. Children are still being displaced. And the news cycle has moved on. The cameras left. But God did not leave. He has not stopped considering Ukraine just because we have. That is what BIN means. To consider. To not let the noise of one crisis make you stop thinking about the suffering God is still watching in another place.
Verse 4 — Utterly Estranged
Now verse 4. And this one lands harder than the previous three ...
"They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged."
"Utterly estranged." The Hebrew is NAZORU ACHOR (naw-zor-oo ah-khor) — turned away backward. Not just wandered. Turned their backs and walked the opposite direction. They still have the religion. They still have the ritual. They still have the title. But their face is pointed away from God. And you cannot find God's direction when your back is turned to Him.
(Hebrew: nazoru achor / naw-zor-oo ah-khor — turned away backward; utterly estranged, having deliberately reversed course from God)
With that foundation in the first four verses ... now let us walk into the passage where God puts the religious leadership on trial. Jump with me to verse 10.
Verses 10–15 — The Sacrifice Without the Surrender
"Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!"
God is not addressing the enemies of His people. He is addressing the LEADERS of His people. And He is calling them rulers of Sodom. Why Sodom? The prophet Ezekiel tells us in chapter 16, verse 49. Sodom's sin was pride, excess of food, prosperous ease — and they did not aid the poor and needy. Sodom had enough ... and kept it for itself. Power without compassion. Plenty without responsibility.
Verse 11 — God says the sacrifices mean nothing to Him. The worship services are empty. The prayers are hollow. And then verse 15 lands like a hammer:
"When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood."
"Your hands are full of blood." Not the blood of a righteous war authorized by God.
The blood that accumulates when leaders convince themselves that their cause is God's cause ... without ever submitting that cause to God.
And somebody might say — preacher, that was Isaiah. That was 700 years before Christ. Nobody is saying that today.
I want you to know ... just two days ago ... on Palm Sunday, March 29, 2026 ... the Pope of the Catholic Church — Pope Leo XIV — stood at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome before the whole world ... and quoted Isaiah 1:15 directly to the leaders waging this war. He said:
"God does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood."
He then declared: "God's name can never be used to justify the absurd pursuit of war."
Now I am not Catholic. But I recognize a prophetic voice when I hear one. And when the leader of over a billion Christians on this earth stands up on Palm Sunday ... and quotes Isaiah 1:15 to the most powerful leaders in the world ... that is not politics. That is the Word of God preaching itself.
God is not confused. Even Rome knows it.
And if you want to see what Isaiah 1:15 looks like in person ... look no further than the trial of Jesus.
Pilate stood before the crowd. He examined Jesus himself — three times — and said: I find no fault in this man. He knew Jesus was innocent. He said so. But the crowd was loud. The religious leaders were insistent. And Pilate ... afraid of the people more than the truth standing right in front of him ... took a basin of water. And washed his hands before the multitude. And said: "I am innocent of the blood of this just person." — Matthew 27:24.
He spread out his hands over that basin. And thought that washing them would resolve the part he played.
But the order was already given. The soldiers were already armed. And no amount of water ... washes away the blood of innocent hands ... when you had the power to stop it ... and chose fear instead.
The basin did not clean him. The basin convicted him. Because you cannot wash away what you authorized.
And Isaiah 1:15 was fulfilled ... even at the trial of the Son of God.
And here is where I need to pull in another scripture to make sure this lands. You may know it. First Samuel 15:22. Samuel looked at Saul and said: "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams." You can have all the ceremony in the world. All the public prayers. All the religious language. But if the obedience is not there ... God says I am not hearing your prayers. Let's go back to our text — because Isaiah 1 picks up exactly where Samuel left off.
Verse 17. Isaiah says: "learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause." Now stay right there. Because that verse is being violated in real time. Right now. Today. The nations are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on single military strikes while over 700 million people go to bed hungry every night. The children made fatherless by those weapons ... are Isaiah 1:17 in the 21st century.
Verses 18–20 — The Door That Is Still Open
But now — come back to Isaiah with me — because God does not end at the indictment. He never does. And verse 18 is the verse I want somebody in this room to hold onto today ...
"Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord: "though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
"Come now, let us reason together." The Hebrew is YAKACH (yaw-kakh) — to reason, to argue a case, to come into legal dialogue with God. This is not condemnation. This is an invitation. In the middle of all the blood and the failure and the sacrifice without surrender ... God opens a door. My terms. But the door is open.
(Hebrew: yakach / yaw-kakh — to reason together, to enter into legal dialogue; an invitation from the divine judge to the guilty party)
And verses 19 and 20 give us the only two outcomes. "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword." No third road. No middle ground. You cannot claim the name of God ... ignore the counsel of God ... and still expect the blessing of God to follow.
God is not confused about what is happening. The question ... is whether we are.
POINT 2 — THE PATTERN AND THE BLUEPRINT: HISTORY TEACHES IF WE WILL LISTEN
Walk with me now through the pages of history.
Everything happening in the world right now ... has happened before. The names change. The weapons change. The geography shifts. But the pattern never changes. And if we do not know the pattern ... we will keep watching it repeat and think it is something new.
It is not new. It is ancient.
And before we look at what is happening today ... I want to ask a question that is at the heart of everything Isaiah 1 is saying. It is a simple question. Just three words.
Did they pray?
Did anyone in the room where these decisions are being made ... seek the face of God before they acted? Did anyone humble themselves the way Second Chronicles 7:14 requires? Did anyone spread the situation before the Lord the way Hezekiah spread that letter? Did anyone call a fast? Did anyone say Lord ... we do not know what to do ... our eyes are on You?
Because the answer to that question ... determines everything. And the Old Testament gives us a clear record of what happens when the answer is yes ... and what happens when the answer is no. Let me show you both sides of the ledger.
The Good Kings — Four Who Sought God Before They Acted
There have always been leaders who got it right. Not perfect men — David had failures, Solomon had too many wives, Jehoshaphat made some bad alliances late in life. But there was a consistent posture in each of these four kings that set them apart from everyone else. They sought the face of God BEFORE they moved. Not after. Before.
David — before every major battle — inquired of the Lord. Second Samuel 5:19. "Shall I go up?" He asked first. He did not assume God was on his side. He asked. And God answered. And when the Philistines came again ... David asked again. He got a different strategy for a different moment. Because David understood something that bad leaders never learn: what God authorized yesterday does not automatically authorize today. Every new decision requires a new inquiry.
Solomon — when God appeared and said "Ask what I shall give you," Solomon did not ask for power or the defeat of his enemies. First Kings 3:9 — he asked for a discerning heart to tell the difference between good and evil. Not military strength. A discerning heart. A heart that can tell the difference between God's counsel and man's counsel. Between the voice of the Prince of Peace and the voice of the prince of this earth. And God gave him the wisdom ... and everything else besides.
Jehoshaphat — when three armies surrounded Judah simultaneously, he did not call his generals first. He called the nation to prayer and fasting. Second Chronicles 20:12 — in the assembly he prayed: "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you." Not I have a plan. Not I have an alliance. Not I have a deal. Not I have a strategy. Not I have a press conference. LORD ... my eyes are on YOU. And God said: the battle is not yours but God's. Stand firm. And when Jehoshaphat sent singers before the army — praising the beauty of holiness — the enemies destroyed themselves. The battle was won before a single sword was drawn.
And I want you to notice something. Jehoshaphat did not go to the nations first. He did not call a meeting. He did not send envoys. He did not deploy troops. He did not raise the age limit to serve the country. He did not make a bilateral agreement. He did not call a summit. He called a FAST. Because Jehoshaphat understood what some leaders today have forgotten — that the God who holds the nations in His hand does not need your deal. He needs your dependence.
Hezekiah — when the enemy sent a mocking letter threatening God's people, he took it to the temple and spread it before the Lord. Second Kings 19:14. Lord, You see this. You hear what they are saying about Your name. You handle it. And God sent one angel. One. And 185,000 enemy soldiers were dead by morning. Sennacherib went home and never came back.
Four kings. Four examples. Same result every time. When the leader sought God first ... God moved. The pattern of the good kings is as consistent as gravity.
But now ... let me show you the other side of that ledger. Because the bad kings are just as consistent. And they are the ones that preach hardest to this moment.
The Bad Kings — Four Who Moved Without God's Order
Saul — First Samuel 13. The battle was pressing. The people were scattering. Samuel said wait for God's prescribed order before you move. But Saul could not wait. He moved on his own timetable. He offered the sacrifice himself without authorization. And Samuel arrived and said: "You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord." Moving without God's prescribed order always costs more than you planned to pay. It cost Saul the kingdom.
Rehoboam — First Kings 12. When he took the throne the wise counselors said: listen to the people and they will serve you. But Rehoboam rejected the wise and surrounded himself only with those who agreed with him. And he told the people: my father disciplined you with whips; I will discipline you with scorpions. The kingdom divided. Not because of an enemy from the outside — because of arrogance from the inside. Leaders who only listen to yes-men always fracture what they were supposed to hold together.
Ahab — First Kings 16. He formed a political alliance God never authorized. Married into a godless political arrangement. And through that alliance ... the worship of Baal entered Israel through the front door of the palace. When you make covenants with those who do not serve the God of Israel ... their gods walk in through your front door with them.
Manasseh — Second Kings 21. He shed so much innocent blood that it filled Jerusalem from one end to the other. And still carried the title of leader of God's people. Second Kings 21:16. God keeps a record of innocent blood. Every drop.
And speaking of innocent blood ... the Prime Minister of Israel recently sat across a table with an American official and showed him a list. A list of leaders who have already been killed. A list of leaders who are next. And presented it as a scorecard. As progress. I want to ask the question that apparently nobody in that room asked: Did anyone open a Bible? Did anyone open the Torah? Did anyone say — Lord, is this Your direction?
And I want to ask one more question. Jerusalem is right there. The Western Wall — the Wailing Wall — is right there. That sacred place where the Jewish people have stood for centuries ... pressing their prayers and their petitions into the ancient stones ... believing that God hears from that place. Did anyone go there? Did anyone press this decision into that wall and say — God ... this is in Your hands? Did anyone stand at the holiest site in Judaism ... and actually seek the God of Judaism ... before they acted?
Because Matthew 10:28 says: "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." These are men who fear man more than they fear God. They are not doing this because God directed it. They are doing this because they are afraid. Afraid of prosecution. Afraid of losing power. Afraid of what happens when the gavel falls and the courtroom calls their name.
History has seen this before. When leaders feel their power slipping ... they reach for tools designed not to govern ... but to stay. The poll tax in the American South was not about revenue. It was about control. A fee set at exactly the amount the poor could not afford to pay. Dressed in the language of civic order. But designed to keep certain people out of the room where power was decided. The spirit of staying in power at any cost is not new. And it is not of God.
Proverbs 29:25 says: "The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe." The fear of man lays a SNARE. And when leaders operate from that fear ... they pull nations into the snare with them. That is what we are watching right now.
And I want to say one more thing about leaders who operate from fear rather than faith. Because fear does something else to a man beyond the snare Proverbs 29:25 describes. Fear robs you of your rest. And a man who has lost his rest ... has lost more than sleep. Proverbs 3:24 says: “When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.” That is the promise for the man who trusts God. But the man who fears man ... cannot sleep. And the man who cannot sleep ... cannot think clearly. And the man who cannot think clearly ... sends things at 3 in the morning that a rested, praying, God-fearing leader would never send. He makes decisions in the dark that God never authorized in the light.
Only the hit dog hollas.
And it is not just the kings. The pattern runs deeper than that. Let me take you to the book of Judges. Because what the kings did in the monarchy ... the entire nation did in the period of the judges. And it became a cycle that repeated so consistently ... it reads like a blueprint for every broken culture in history.
The Judges Cycle — The Pattern That Never Changes
Read Judges 2:11-19 on your own time. But here is the summary in six steps: The people did evil in the sight of the Lord. Bondage came. They cried out. God raised up a deliverer. The land had rest. And then the deliverer died ... and they went back to evil. And the cycle began again.
Six steps. Over and over. For the entire period of the judges. The same disobedience. The same consequences. The same cry. The same deliverance. The same rest. The same return to evil.
And I need somebody to hear me: we are living in that cycle right now. A war with Iran that should not have happened — started without the nations, without NATO, without the humility that Second Chronicles 7:14 requires. And now we are being told that hundreds of billions of dollars will be needed to pay for it. And that it may expand further. And that other nations — other regions — could be next. That is Saul moving before Samuel arrived. That is the judges cycle. And the people always pay the price.
Now let me show you something that pulls all of this together. Because Solomon — the wisest man who ever lived — gave us a list. And this list is not a weapon to aim at someone else. It is a mirror. A mirror for every nation. Every leader. Every person sitting in this room.
Proverbs 6:16–19 — The Seven Things God Hates
"There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers." — Proverbs 6:16–19 ESV
Seven abominations. And I want you to notice — God says He HATES these things. Not dislikes. Not finds unfortunate. HATES. That is strong language from a God who is love. And every single one of these seven is on the front page of the news every single day.
- Haughty eyes — national pride that assumes your cause is righteous without submitting it to God.
- A lying tongue — propaganda, disinformation, the manipulation of narrative. Every party in every conflict has been guilty.
- Hands that shed innocent blood — no translation needed. God hates this. He said so.
- A heart that devises wicked plans — calculated, premeditated strategy that accepts massive human cost.
- Feet that make haste to run to evil — the eagerness for war before diplomacy is exhausted.
- A false witness who breathes out lies — false intelligence used to justify conflict. Claims exaggerated for political effect.
- One who sows discord among brothers — external powers that inflame existing divisions for strategic advantage.
Seven abominations. All seven on display every single day. And God hates all of them equally. Not just the ones being committed by our enemies. ALL of them. This mirror is for everyone. Including us. Including America.
In fact ... let us make sure America does not escape this mirror. Because America was founded on the pursuit of religious freedom. Men crossed an ocean to worship God without interference. And then those same men ... or the generation right behind them ... enslaved Africans for 246 years. The same nation that said all men are created equal ... owned human beings. The same nation that put "In God We Trust" on its currency ... built its economy on unpaid labor. That is Isaiah 1:15 in American history. Hands spread in worship. Full of blood.
But watch what God did. Those enslaved Africans prayed. For approximately 246 years in America ... they prayed in the fields, in the quarters, in chains, without being able to read the Bible in many states — it was against the law. And God heard. And God moved. And emancipation came. And revival came. And the Black church became one of the most powerful spiritual forces in the history of this nation — born not out of comfort but out of suffering and prayer. That is 2 Chronicles 7:14 in American history. When the people at the bottom humbled themselves and prayed ... God heard from heaven.
And America is not off the hook today. Isaiah 1:17 is still on the page: seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless. But here is what I need somebody to know — God does not need your military to bring peace. He never has. He proved that in Egypt.
He sent ten plagues on the most powerful empire of the ancient world ... with a staff and a shepherd. Read Exodus 7 through 12. Hail and fire mingled together. Darkness so thick it could be felt. Locusts that covered the face of the whole earth. Water turned to blood. He did not attack Egypt's military — He dismantled their theology one plague at a time. Joshua 10:11 — God threw great hailstones from heaven and more enemies died from the weather than from the swords of Israel's army. And Elijah prayed and it did not rain for three and a half years. He prayed again and the heavens gave rain. First Kings 18. God controls the weather. He can send rain so hard that no weapon flies. He does not need your F-35s.
And if you still think any nation is indispensable to God's plan ... let me walk you through a graveyard. Because there is not one kingdom ... not one dynasty ... not one superpower in the history of this world that has lasted forever. Assyria fell in 612 BC. Babylon fell in 539 BC — one night, in the middle of Belshazzar's party, while the handwriting appeared on the wall. Persia fell to Alexander the Great in 330 BC. Greece fell to Rome. Rome fell in 476 AD. The Byzantine Empire fell in 1453. The Ottoman Empire fell in 1922. The British Empire declined after World War II. The Soviet Union fell in 1991. Every kingdom eventually falls. Except one.
The Kingdom of God.
Daniel 2:21 — "He removes kings and sets up kings." Daniel 4:17 — "the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will." Isaiah 40:23 — "He brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness." And Psalm 2:4 — "He who sits in the heavens laughs." The Hebrew word is SACHAQ (saw-khak). Not warm laughter. The laughter of sovereign certainty. The laughter of a God who sees the end from the beginning. Completely undisturbed by the plans of men who forgot to consult Him.
(Hebrew: sachaq / saw-khak — to laugh, to mock, to hold in derision; the laugh of sovereign contempt for the futility of rebellion against God)
And then Psalm 2:6 — the verse I need you to hold: "As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill."
"AS FOR ME." (Repeat)
In spite of all the raging. In spite of all the counsel taken without God. In spite of all the deals and the bombs and the kill lists and the wars that should not have happened. AS FOR ME ... I have set MY King. On MY holy hill. Not the board of peace. Not the strong man. MY King. And Psalm 2:12 closes with: "Blessed are all who take refuge in him."
Not in the deal. Not in the military deterrent. In HIM. And that brings us to the blueprint that God gave His people long before any of this happened.
2 Chronicles 7:14 — The Blueprint for Revival
Second Chronicles 7:14 was written to Israel first. To Solomon's Israel. On the day God appeared at the dedication of the Temple. And God said to His covenant people: "if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
Four conditions. Not a military strategy. Not a diplomatic initiative. Four conditions that release three promises. HUMBLE THEMSELVES — the Hebrew is KANA (kaw-naw) — to be brought low. The actual bending. Not the performance of humility. The real thing. PRAY — not a ceremony. The prayer of Jehoshaphat: we do not know what to do, our eyes are on You. SEEK MY FACE — not God's hand, what He can do for you. His FACE — who He is, His specific will for this specific moment. And TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS — nobody wants to talk about this one. Because it requires admitting the ways were wicked.
(Hebrew: kana / kaw-naw — to be brought low, to submit; the actual bending of the knee in genuine humility before God)
Three promises when those four conditions are met: I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin. I will heal their land. Not before the conditions. THEN.
And through Jesus Christ, this promise is now for ALL who are called by His name. Galatians 3:29 — "If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise." The whole church. Every tribe, tongue, and nation. IF MY PEOPLE ... that is us. Right now. In this moment. The world needs revival. Not a board of peace. Not a bilateral agreement. REVIVAL. The kind that comes when MY people ... called by MY name ... meet the four conditions that release the three promises.
And the great supper in Luke 14 tells us the table is still being prepared. Jesus said a man made a great banquet and the invited guests all made excuses. So the master said: go to the highways and hedges — "compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." The table is still set. The invitation is still open. God is still compelling people to come in. But MY people have to stop making excuses ... and seek His face.
TRANSITION — WEEPING MAY ENDURE FOR A NIGHT
I need to stop here for a moment ...
Because I know somebody in this room came today carrying something heavy. The weight of the news. The weight of the world. The weight of watching things happen that you cannot fix and cannot stop and cannot explain to your children. And you have been doing what David did in Psalm 56:8 — you have been collecting your tears in a bottle. You have been weeping.
And I came to tell you ... the weeping is not wasted.
Psalm 30:5 says: "Weeping may tarry for the night ... but joy comes with the morning."
We are not in the morning yet. Some of us are still in the night. The bombs are still falling. The hungry are still hungry. The nations are still raging. And it feels like a very long night.
But I need you to hear what the psalmist said. He did not say the weeping lasts forever. He said it tarries FOR THE NIGHT. It has a time limit. The night has an end. The morning is coming. And when the morning comes ... JOY comes WITH it. Not after another deal. Not after another election. JOY comes WITH the morning.
And I fell asleep in Isaiah 1 ... in the night season ... under the weight of conviction ...
And I woke up in Isaiah 40. In the morning. And the first words God had playing in my ear were: "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God."
That is the God we serve. He does not leave you in chapter 1. He carries you to chapter 40. He does not leave you in the night. He walks you into the morning. He does not leave you in the weeping. He brings you into the joy.
And that is why I can stand here and close this sermon the way I am about to close it ...
Because I came today to tell somebody ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED ABOUT THIS WAR.
ARE YOU?
POINT 3 — HAVE YOU NOT KNOWN? HAVE YOU NOT HEARD?
I need to come back to the dream.
I fell asleep to Isaiah 1. The indictment. The covenant lawsuit. The ox that knows more than the nation. The hands full of blood. The sacrifice God is not accepting. And God kept the Word playing in my ear all night. All the way through the warnings and the woes. And then I woke up in chapter 40.
Isaiah 40 begins with two words that are the hinge of the entire book: "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God." The first 39 chapters — conviction, judgment, warning. Chapter 40 through 66 — comfort, redemption, promise. God put me to sleep in the judgment ... and woke me up in the comfort. And now He wants to do the same for you.
Verse 28 — Two Questions That Change Everything
"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable."
"HAVE YOU NOT KNOWN?" The Hebrew word is YADA (yaw-dah). To know by experience. By relationship. Not intellectual knowledge about God. Experiential knowledge OF God. The kind that comes from walking with Him through the hard seasons. God is saying: you have been through enough with Me to know who I am. You have the testimony. You have the history. You KNOW this. Do not let the pressure of the moment make you forget what you know.
(Hebrew: yada / yaw-dah — to know by experience and relationship; intimate knowledge gained from walking with God through history)
"HAVE YOU NOT HEARD?" The Hebrew is SHAMA (shaw-mah). To hear with full understanding. To receive and process what has been spoken. You have heard the stories. The Red Sea. The manna in the wilderness. The walls of Jericho. The fourth man in the fire. The resurrection. You HEARD. Do not let the noise of the world drown out what you have heard.
(Hebrew: shama / shaw-mah — to hear with full attention and understanding; to receive and process what has been communicated)
And then God answers His own questions. Four declarations. Listen to each one carefully ...
He is EVERLASTING. Before this war started, He was God. While it is happening, He is God. After it ends, He will still be God.
He is the CREATOR of the ends of the earth. The borders of nations are in His hands. Daniel 2:21 — "He removes kings and sets up kings." No deal, no alliance, no military action changes who holds the nations in His hands.
He does not FAINT or GROW WEARY. The Hebrew is YAAPH (yaw-af) — to grow faint from exertion. And God says: that is not Me. What is exhausting you is not exhausting Him. What is wearing you down is not wearing Him down.
(Hebrew: yaaph / yaw-af — to grow faint from exertion; used in contrast to God who never experiences this fatigue)
His understanding is UNSEARCHABLE. No bottom. No limit. His grasp of the situation cannot be exhausted by its complexity. He already knows the solution.
Verses 29–31 — The Promise for the Weary
Now comes the promise. And I need somebody to receive this today ...
"He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength."
Not to the strong. To the FAINT. To the ones who have used up everything they have. To the ones who have been standing when everybody else was bowing. To the ones who have been carrying the weight of a broken world until there is nothing left. God increases strength to the one who has no might.
"Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted." Even the strongest human strength has a limit. Diplomatic solutions run out. Military deterrence runs out. Political alliances run out. Human strength always runs out.
BUT. Verse 31.
"But they who wait for 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."
WAIT. The Hebrew is QAVAH (kaw-vaw). Not passive sitting. Not ignoring what is happening while you wait for God to fix it. QAVAH means to bind together like a cord ... to stretch toward ... to expect with confident anticipation. Active waiting. Intentional waiting. The waiting of a person who is fully engaged with God while God is fully engaged with the situation.
(Hebrew: qavah / kaw-vaw — to wait with expectant hope, to stretch toward what is coming; a cord under tension reaching toward the expected)
"Shall RENEW their strength." The Hebrew is CHALAPH (khaw-laf) — to pass through, to emerge from something different than you went in. You do not renew without going through. You do not get wings without going through the valley where you needed wings. You do not run without fainting unless you first went through the season when you could barely walk.
(Hebrew: chalaph / khaw-laf — to pass through, to exchange; emerging transformed from what you went through)
"They shall mount up with wings like eagles." Eagles do not flap their wings to climb. They find the thermal — the current of air that is already rising — and they ride it. The people of God who wait on the Lord ... catch the current of the Holy Spirit ... and rise on something that is not their own strength.
"They shall RUN and not be weary. They shall WALK and not faint." This is supernatural endurance. It does not come from strategy or alliance or a peace deal. It comes from one place:
Waiting on the Lord.
THE CLOSE — GOD IS NOT CONFUSED. ARE YOU?
I need to close this out ...
Because I came today with a question in the title. And I need to answer it before I sit down.
The question was ... God is not confused about what is happening ...
ARE YOU?
Well ... let me tell you what I know.
I know that the nations are raging ...
I know that the kings are taking counsel without God ...
I know that the bombs are falling ...
I know that the people are hungry ...
I know that the church has been quiet ... when it should have been loud ...
But I came to tell somebody today ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
And I know He is not confused ...
Because if He was confused ...
He never would have done what He did ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
That is why He sent His only begotten Son ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
That is why He sent JESUS ...
Not a diplomat. Not a general. Not a deal-maker. Not a king with an army ...
He sent a SAVIOR ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
Because what happened after the courtroom ... changed EVERYTHING.
But GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
And every leader ... in every generation ... who has spread their hands in prayer and washed their hands of responsibility ... while the order was already given and the soldiers were already moving ... Pilate is their mirror.
Pilate could not wash away what he authorized. And Isaiah 1:15 was standing right in front of him — "your hands are full of blood" — and the water did not change it.
But Easter tells us ... God is not fooled by clean hands that gave unclean orders.
Because Pilate stood right there. And he looked at the Truth. And he chose the crowd. And he spread his hands over a basin of water and said: I am innocent. I am clean. This is not my doing.
But before we get to the cross ... I need you to stop at the courtroom.
And they took that Savior ...
And they hung Him HIGH ...
And they stretched Him WIDE ...
His hands were nailed to a cross He did not deserve ...
His feet were pierced for ground He already owned ...
A crown of thorns on the head that holds the universe together ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
And He hung there ...
Between two thieves ...
While the soldiers gambled for His garments ...
While the crowd mocked ...
While the religious leaders shook their heads ...
While the disciples ran ...
He hung there ...
And He bowed His head ...
And He said ... IT IS FINISHED ...
And He died ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
They took Him down ...
They wrapped Him in linen ...
They rolled a stone across the door ...
They put a Roman seal on it ...
They stationed soldiers outside ...
They said ... THAT is the end of THAT ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
Because early ... on the third day morning ...
Before the sun came up ...
Before the soldiers woke up ...
Before the news cycle could spin the story ...
HE GOT UP.
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He got up WITH ALL POWER in His hand ...
ALL POWER. (Repeat)
Not some power. Not limited power. Not power that expires when the next empire rises.
ALL. POWER. IN HIS HAND.
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
Death could not hold Him ...
The grave could not keep Him ...
The stone could not stop Him ...
The seal could not contain Him ...
The soldiers could not guard Him ...
HE GOT UP.
And He is alive RIGHT NOW ...
Seated at the right hand of the Father ...
Making intercession ...
FOR YOU ...
And THIS Sunday ...
EASTER SUNDAY 2026 ...
Churches around the world will say HE IS RISEN.
Not because the war has stopped ...
Not because the killing has ended ...
Not because the leaders have humbled themselves ...
Not because Pilate finally washed his hands clean ...
But because the God who raised Jesus ... does not wait for the world to get its act together before He moves.
HE GOT UP ... while the empires were still raging ...
HE GOT UP ... while Rome was still in charge ...
HE GOT UP ... while the disciples were still hiding ...
HE GOT UP ... while the stone was still being guarded ...
HE GOT UP ... in the middle of the mess ...
And THAT is the Easter message for THIS war ...
Not that the bombs have stopped. But that the GOD who stops the bombs ... IS STILL ON HIS THRONE.
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
And THAT is why ... after all the kings ... after all the empires ... after the kill lists and the bombs and the wars that should not have happened ...
No man who feared a courtroom has ever successfully outrun the judgment of God. Not one. In all of history. NOT ONE.
Ask Pharaoh ... who feared losing his workforce more than he feared God ... and watched his army drown in the Red Sea ...
NOT ONE.
Ask Nebuchadnezzar ... who called himself the greatest king on earth ... and spent seven years eating grass in a field like an animal until he learned that the Most High rules the kingdom of men ...
NOT ONE.
Ask Belshazzar ... who threw a party with the vessels stolen from God's temple ... and saw a hand appear on the wall that night ... and was dead before morning ...
NOT ONE.
Ask Herod ... who killed James and imprisoned Peter to maintain his popularity ... and Acts 12:23 says the angel of the Lord struck him and he was eaten by worms ...
NOT ONE.
Ask the Roman Empire ...
Ask the British Empire ...
Ask the Soviet Union ...
NOT ONE.
In ALL of history.
NOT ONE has outrun the judgment of God.
But I will tell you who we CAN ask ...
Ask JOSHUA.
Joshua saw the Red Sea.
Joshua walked around Jericho.
Joshua watched walls fall that no army could have knocked down.
Joshua watched God throw hailstones from heaven and more enemies died from the weather than from the sword.
Joshua had SEEN what God could do.
Joshua had walked with this God for a lifetime.
And at the end of his life ...
He gathered all of Israel together ...
And he looked at them ...
And he said ...
"If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord — choose this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods your fathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." — Joshua 24:15 ESV
Joshua was not confused.
He had been through too much with God to be confused.
And I came today to tell somebody ...
After Isaiah 1 ...
After the pattern of kings ...
After the cross ...
After the empty tomb ...
After every name of God ...
You have been through too much with God ...
To still be confused about who He is.
CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY.
As for me and my house ...
WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.
He is JEHOVAH JIREH ... my Provider ... He has never run out of resources ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is JEHOVAH NISSI ... my Banner ... my Victory ... He has never lost a battle ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is JEHOVAH RAPHA ... my Healer ... what the nations have broken He can still restore ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is JEHOVAH SHALOM ... my Peace ... not the board of peace ... not the deal of peace ... but the GOD of peace ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is JEHOVAH SHAMMAH ... the God who is THERE ... in the rubble ... in the refugee camp ... in the place where nobody else will go ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is JEHOVAH ROHI ... my Shepherd ... He knows where every lost sheep is right now ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is EL ELYON ... the Most High God ... higher than the highest military rank ... higher than the highest political office ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is EL SHADDAI ... God Almighty ... when the world says there is not enough ... EL SHADDAI says I AM ENOUGH ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is the LILY OF THE VALLEY ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is the BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is the ROSE OF SHARON ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is the WAY ... when there seems to be no way ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is the TRUTH ... when everything around you is a lie ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is the LIFE ... when death seems to be winning ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He is the PRINCE OF PEACE ...
And Isaiah 9:6 says the government shall be upon HIS shoulder ...
And Isaiah 9:7 says of the increase of His government and peace ... there shall be NO END ...
GOD IS NOT CONFUSED.
He was not confused in Egypt ...
He was not confused at the Red Sea ...
He was not confused in Babylon ...
He was not confused at the cross ...
He was not confused at the tomb ...
And He is NOT confused ... right now.
I fell asleep in Isaiah 1 ...
And I woke up in Isaiah 40 ...
And God carried me from the conviction ... to the comfort ...
From the weight ... to the wings ...
And THEY THAT WAIT upon the Lord ...
SHALL RENEW their strength ...
They shall MOUNT UP with wings as EAGLES ...
They shall RUN ... and not be weary ...
They shall WALK ... and not faint ...
BECAUSE GOD ...
IS NOT ...
CONFUSED.
(Repeat — slow, full weight, every word lands)
ALTAR CALL
Every head bowed ... every eye closed ...
If you have been carrying the weight of what is happening in the world ... feeling helpless ... wondering whether anyone in power is listening to God ... and you want to make the commitment today to be a Second Chronicles 7:14 person in a Psalm 2 world — humble, prayerful, seeking His face, turning from whatever has separated you from His full presence — I want you to slip your hand up right where you are.
And if you have never given your life to Jesus Christ ... I want you to know that the Prince of Peace has already done what no board of peace ever could. He went to a cross. He bore the weight of every sin, every act of injustice, every drop of innocent blood, every decision ever made without God. He bore it all. And He rose. And He is alive. And He offers the only peace that the world cannot manufacture and cannot destroy.
"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." — Romans 10:9–10 ESV
If that is you today ... come. The doors of the Kingdom are open. The Prince of Peace is waiting. Come down this aisle ... give me your hand ... and give God your heart.
BENEDICTION
Before you go ...
One assignment. Go home and pray the prayer of Jehoshaphat:
"O our God, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you." — 2 Chronicles 20:12 ESV
That prayer moves heaven. Every single time.
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.
Amen.
About the Preacher
Rev. Kelvin L. Parks, M.A. is an expository preacher with over 31 years of preaching experience and a SermonCentral contributor since 2000, with sermons downloaded in over 90 countries. He is the CEO and Founder of C3PT Executive Solutions and C3PT Kingdom Culture Ministries, based in Apopka, Florida.
Rev. Parks is available for speaking engagements, church revivals, leadership training, and organizational culture consulting. His C3PT framework addresses the five pillars every healthy organization needs — Communication, Collaboration, Culture, Perseverance, and Trust.
For speaking, teaching, or leadership training inquiries:
📧 Visit: www.c3ptexecutivesolutions.com
📞 Call: 479-339-9381
"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." — Joshua 24:15
