(6:1) "In the year that King Uz-zi-ah died I saw also the Lord sitting Upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple"
(6:2) "Above it stood the ser-aphims each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly."
(6:3) "And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.
(6:4) " And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke."
(6:5) " Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."
(6:6) "Then flew one of the ser-aphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs of the altar."
(6:7) " And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged."
(6:8) " Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I; send me.
Here we are witnessing a moment in One mans life were he was changed forever.
We are witnessing God in direct communication with His children…
A brief yet profound encounter with Divinity…
A glimpse of the heavenly realm…
This man named Isaiah was personally delivered a message from on High.
God had a need for his child on that day…
And while he was delivered this message…
Isaiah’s mind, body and spirit was captured in a moment of time and to a place that exists but is not of this world…
This is a place that functions differently than what we are used to…
This is a place were angels live…
Where spirits dwell…
Were man is made perfect…
And the Bible says that Isaiah saw the Lord sitting upon a throne…
High and Lifted up!
His train filled the temple…
And the Angels worshiped him…
And while He looked upon him you can imagine the Light of Gods glory upon this man…
The Bible says that the angels had six wings…
Two to cover there face because His glory and the Power of God…
Two to cover their feet because their feet are not worthy of touching the Holy ground were God was seated…
And with two they did fly….
Yes Isaiah saw all of this in vision…
God’s majestic presence had filled this place and in a moment had transcended any earthly experience this prophet of God had already encountered.
And in a moments time he was lifted up to a state that left him unconscious to the outside world but with His inner eye He saw what God revealed to him and what God wanted for him…
Which brings me to my first point this morning:
Pt 1: GOD WANTS YOU TO LOOK INWARDLY TO ACHIEVE OUTWARDLY.
God wants you to look at your self inwardly if you are going to achieve success outwardly.
God wants you to place the mirror in front of yourself and look closely at what you see…
And like Isaiah, God has a marvelous plan for somebody…
God is calling you to do great things…
And God wants you successful not only in ministry but also in our day to day walk on this earth.
But even though we are children of God…
Even though we are set aside by Gods grace…
Even though we may already have our ticket to heaven…
Even though we are saved…
Many of us have not fully realized how to capture success for ourselves.
Many of us are still trying to scale personal and professional and family barriers that are hindering what both God and you want for our lives…Amen?
So if we agree on these items…
We then can agree that we have much we can learn from Isaiah’s experience.
Now, watch this closely,
In verse 3, One angel cried unto another angel and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory…
And as this angel cries out…
The posts of the door move at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
And as the posts of the door moved…
Something happened that made Isaiah’s inward man speak out…
Something happened that made him changed his perspective on himself…
Something reached down into the basement of his spirit…
Something pushed and shoved its way out of his belly…
Something moved inside him and gave him a fresh anointing…
It made him cry woe is me for I am undone…
It made him see himself in a different manner…
It made him come to himself and humble himself to something greater then anything he had seen…
You see what happened to Isaiah was that the closer he got to God…
The closer he came to the throne of God…
The more he realized that with all that had gone on in his life…
He had even a greater purpose.
His inner person leaped out to the Lord…
What He now new and understood about himself had to cry out…
He had to let someone know that He was ready to give himself to a greater power and that he had realized that he was nothing compared to what had called him…
Somebody out there might be going the same feelings…
You are growing closer and closer to God…
You are seeking your purpose…
You desire success…
You are days, hours, minutes from your visitation.
And the Holy Spirit is going to speak to you…
Because the Bible says (Eph 3: 16) That He WILL grant you according to the riches of His glory…
(Eph 3: 19) so "That you might be filled with the fullness of God…"
I know it may seem rough out there…
I know the world doesn’t care about you…
But you don’t have to be paralyzed in the present…
You don’t have to Constrained with your current situation…
You don’t have to be Limited by life’s circumstances…
For If God be for us, who can be against us…
If the Lord is for us, who can be against us…
If Jesus is for us, who can be against us…
For who shall separate us from the Love of Christ?
Not tribulation
Or distress…
Or persecution…
Nor famine…
Or nakedness…
Or peril
Or the sword…
For you are more than conquerors.
And you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you…
And all things come together for the good of those who love the Lord…
PT II. GOD WANTS US TO LEARN FROM OUR EXPERIENCES WE MIGHT HAVE ABUNDANT LIFE.
The closer Isaiah came to God, The greater was his understanding of himself…
The closer he came to God…
The more he started to realize about himself and the people around him…
The greater an epiphany he had on his life… and on life itself…
This brings me to my second point: You see, God wants us to learn from our experiences…
And through the power of Jesus in our lives have a more abundant life…
Isaiah said (Isaiah 6:5) Woe is me! For I am undone; I realize that I am a man of unclean lips…
We can learn much from this verse of scripture…
You see the origin of the word woeful comes from the Hebrew meaning to frail or feeble…
Ever further, it was meant to describe someone who is desperately or incurably sick…
When I say woe is me…
I am telling you the I am desperate for something…
I’m at a frail season in my life…
I’ m feeling a little feeble right now…
But what in this scripture teaches us that Isaiah was going through learning process…
That He growing beyond years, time or space…
That the Lord of hosts was preparing a one-on-one tutorial for one of his prophets…
How do we know that God wants us to learn from our experiences…
Look at the scripture…
When he said, "For I am undone"…
When He spoke those words, He was saying, I realize now that I am not complete…
That I not finished…
That I have not accomplished everything you would have for my life…
Not what I wanted, but you want…
Not my will, but thine will…
When we can admit that we are undone…
When we can admit that there is more work to be completed…
When we can admit that reason that we are standing still in areas of our lives is because we are not whole….
When we can admit that In spite of my position…
In spite of my personality…
In spite of my title…
In spite of some of the good that transpires in our lives…
I realize that I am undone…
I realize that I am deficient…
I am incomplete…
I need and want something more fulfilling…
I need to fill the gap in my life…
Then we can move out of a maintenance mentality in your life and begin to prosper beyond the place you’ve been for the last 10 years…
A great author once said that "God doesn’t want us to do extraordinary things; He wants us to do ordinary things extraordinarily well."
What does that mean?
That means that you can’t take short cuts in your life…
You can’t take short cuts to success…
And you can’t take short cuts with God…
That means that you can’t be like the children of Israel…
They heard, but did not receive…
They knew, but did not act…
They needed, but did not partake…
You have attack the ordinary with extraordinary energy…
And when you attack the ordinary with the extraordinary energy and wisdom of God…
He will reveal a plan for you that cannot be shaken, moved or destroyed…
You will look at your life experiences and realize how far He has brought you…
You will take that frail, feeble, fleeting inner you…
And it will shout out in the name of Jesus…
And honey in the name of Jesus…
If you Ask and it shall be given to you…
If you Seek, you shall find it…
If you Knock and that door of success shall be opened to you…
Watch him open blessings for you…
Watch him go before you…
Watch Him send His angels to protect you…
Watch him lift you up…
Watch him cast off spirits of lack and destruction…heal your relationships…restore your body…renew your finances…make a way out of no way…heal your family…fix your relationships… cleanse your body…
Purge your sin…
Watch Him forgive you…
And like Isaiah he will speak to your mind…
He will touch your heart
And you will say send me…
Send Me!
Send Me!
Watch him send you…
Now, when Isaiah heard the voice of God he not only saw his inner person leap outward…
He not only came to himself and learned a new lesson of life…
But he offered himself to God to go to the people and to bring forth fruit in the name of the Lord.
The scripture says (Isaiah 6:8) that when he heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
He then said, Here am I, send me.
Send me!
Pt III. GOD HAS CHOSEN YOU AND WILL PREPARE YOU FOR HIS GREAT THINGS.
Now, I want you to go with me to the Book of John chapter 15 verses 15 and 16. And we will try to close this out.
(John 15:15) "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant not knoweth not what his lord doeth. But I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard from my father I have made known unto you."
(15:16) "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you."
God not only wants you to release that bound inner man or woman in you…
And not only does he want us to learn from our experiences for his glory…
But He wants to remind you that He has chosen you and ordained that you will receive the blessings that he has not only in his kingdom, but also here on earth…
And that God will prepare you for His work.
Somebody out there might think that you can’t do the work of God well enough to give God the glory.
That you are not gifted in areas that you would like to work…
And because you have these feelings of self doubt…
Because you have allowed this intrusion of a low self-concept on these matters invade your spirit…
You are not accomplishing things in the Church.
You are not accomplishing things at home.
With relationships…
And even on your job…
Your inner thoughts are still a war with your outer actions…
You want more than you are prepared to take action on…
God is preparing you for great things, but you refuse to take action on them…
And because of this lack of action on those places in your life…
Nothing is happening that is fulfilling to you…
And when nothing happens… Guess What? Nothing happens!
And you see, until you see, breath and digest the idea of one word nothing might ever change…
One word…
Success…
Success…
You have to live with the idea of: I want success with my life…
I want success in my home…
I want success at my job…
Success at school…
Success for the Church…
I want success in my relationship with God…
I want success for my children…
And I’m going to fight for it…
I’m going to scratch and claw for it…
I’m going to dig down deep for it…
Because I’ve got a right to be blessed…
I’ve got a right to praise him…
I’ve got a right to have joy…
Because the Lord has chosen you…
The Lord has ordained you…
The Lord has sent you…
The Lord has prepared you…
He’s heard your cry…
He wants your heart…
(Phil 4:19) And God will supply all our needs according to the riches and glory by Christ Jesus…
Through all the tests in life…
Through all the attacks of the devil…
Through all the bad decisions…
Through all the hurt, harm and danger…
God will make a way somehow…
Through all the confusion…
Through all the sickness…
Through all the suffering….
In the name of Jesus, God will work it out for you…
For God said…
What ever you shall bind on earth…
You shall bind in Heaven…
And what ever you shall loose on earth…
You shall loose in Heaven…
If you follow my ways…
and if you keep my charge…
In the Name of Jesus...
You can climb the walls of lack
And in the Name of Jesus...
He will subdue the giants for you…
For the Battle is not yours…
it the Lords…
And in the Name of Jesus...
You will take the victory…
You know saints, In life there is something called the ladder of success…
And as humans, in this world we like to measure our success in terms of the
material…
And although God will bless you with nice things…
The spiritual ladder of success is the ladder that we really want to climb…
Because, I’ve found out that once you begin to climb that ladder…
Grabbing the rungs of that ladder…
You are truly complete…
And the blessings of God are in more abundance than you can imagine…
There was a survey conducted of those who have found success and felt like
They won the game of life…
And as the Pastor comes I want you to think about this in regard to giving
your life and your commitment to the Lord…
Or renewing a commitment to the church and its ministries…
The survey said that of those who found success and fulfillment in life:
0% of the winners said I won’t…
10% said I can’t
20% said I don’t know how
30% said I wish I could…
40% said I could…
50% said I might…
70% said I think I can…
80% said I can…
90% said I will…
100% of the winners said…
I did…
God wants to prepare you for a work…
Just like Isaiah, God wants to cleanse you…
Just like Isaiah, God has his angels watching over you…
Just like Isaiah, God is asking: "Who shall I send?"
When Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord…
He leaped at the opportunity and said send me!
Isaiah knew he could do and did it…
Today you have the same opportunity.
And with that opportunity, I pray you will be obedient to His voice…
And say…
Lord Send Me…
May God bless you today, and forever.
Thank you.
Rev. Robert W. Parker
Southern Mission Missionary Baptist Church
St. Louis Mo.
(314) 521-3951
cwp240@aol.com
Reverend John Mitchell Jr. Senior Pastor and Teacher
