Isaiah 6:1-8
I Have A Dream
Today we honor fathers and we honor father figures.
Whether we are male or female, hopefully, growing up, we have dreams.
As a child you may have or had a dream to become a fireman or a doctor, or lawyer, or yes, even an Indian Chief, maybe even a cowboy or a race car driver, or President of the United States.
Fulfilling our dreams is very important.
As we grow older, we may discover that our dreams were set too high in the sky, and we may reach reality and set new dreams for ourselves.
Growing up, I wanted to be a Prima Ballerina, but my guidance counselor in high school directed me on what she thought was a more practical path…an academic path.
So now I fulfill that dream as an adult, when I dress up like a princess and waltz with my knight in shining armor.
But today, we celebrate men’s dreams and manhood…and specifically,.fatherhood.
We can look at great men of the past,
Dr. Martin Luther King realized his dream of becoming a great leader.
We even remember the beginning words of his speech long after his death, as he began…”I Have A Dream”
George Washington is known as the Father Of Our Country.
Abraham Lincoln recognized the need for our nation to be one nation under God.
And in today’s scripture reading, we look at another great leader…King Uzziah.
Uzziah was one of the great kings of Judah that restored the glory and power of David, another great king.
Uzziah was 16 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 52 years.
He brought his kingdom to military health and prosperity with 307,500 soldiers and armed them with shields, spears, helmets, bows, and stones for slinging.
During his reign, many wells were dug and there was an abundance of food for the people.
But when Uzziah was strong, he became proud and it was to his destruction.
He entered the temple to burn incense on the altar.
But 80 priests went after him and declared that it was not for him to do.
Uzziah became angry with the priests and leprosy broke out on his forehead.
It remained with him until his death.
But in the year king Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Above him stood the seraphim…angels, each with 6 wings, 2 of which covered their faces, 2 covering their feet, and 2 being used for flight.
And one of the angels called to the other saying, “HOly, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
And Isaiah spoke these words…”Woe is me! For I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"”
Then one of the seraphim flew to Isaiah with a burning coal in his hand and touched Isaiah’s lips with it and said to him….
“Your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
And Isaiah heard the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
Isaiah replied, “Henene”, which means, “Here I am.”
He continued, “Send me.”
We know that Isaiah became a great prophet to the nations.
Isaiah had an encounter with God…
An experience when God intentionally met with Isaiah in a time of great personal need, as Isaiah was grieving the loss of a great king.
God was preparing Isaiah for a great task, even though Isaiah didn’t fully understand all the mysterious elements of the encounter.
God is like that….
God is like a patient father who gives us spoon fulls of food, one at a time and waits until we have digested that food before feeding us another.
God does not force food down our throat and make us choke.
I’m talking about spiritual food…spiritual tasks…and spiritual wisdom.
To better explain what I mean, I need to draw from my own experiences.
As a 7th grader, I was scared to death of English class because we had to give 3 speeches that year in front of the class.
I was terrified.
But eventually, God prepared me to be able to speak to hundreds of men at the Chamber of Commerce who were Corporate Presidents at one of their breakfasts. I gave a 9 projector, 3 screen multi-image animated slide show highlighting my business, Unger Computer Graphics, and then talked to them about my company for about 10 minutes. And I wasn’t scared at all!
I didn’t know God was preparing me for ministry, but God did.
God gave me a caring, concerned heart and a listening ear, all preparing me for a task He had in mind for me somewhere in the future, but for which I was clueless at the time.
That is the love of the Father.
A loving Father who gently prepares us for what lies ahead.
God is a loving Father who gives us the tools we need to do the work He intends for us.
The sad part is when we use those gifts and those tools for work other than the kingdom and not for the kingdom, or even worse, hide those gifts under a bushel and never use them at all.
I believe a good Father prepares His children to use their God-given gifts.
I believe a good Father doesn’t expect his child to fulfill the dreams he once had, but was unable to accomplish, unless the child desires to fulfill those dreams himself or herself.
I believe a good Father provides shelter for their child and brings money home to put food on the table.
I believe a good Father is a man of strength for which a child can hide their face in their Father’s chest and feel comforted and safe.
I believe a good Father helps his child develop along the way by being a good role model and someone the child can look up to when he or she becomes an adult.
And I believe a good Father can dish out tough love, and not always give us our own way or what we want, so that we develop good character and don’t become spoiled brats.
I believe a good Father can be gentle enough to read to his child or children a bedtime story to help them get to sleep, yet confident enough to scare away the monsters that sometimes hide under the bed.
I believe there are too many children today that have Fathers who are not the best role models….Fathers that have fallen away from the faith…Fathers that don’t rely on prayer to get them through the difficult times in life.
But most of all, I believe there are wonderful Fathers who have nurtured wonderful children to guide them into becoming the best they could be.
We take this day to honor all Fathers and all men.
And most of all, we celebrate the joy and the love which our heavenly Father has given us, and the comfort our Heavenly Father provides when our earthly Father is no longer there to guide us.
No matter what kind of Father we had or have growing up…
We know that our Heavenly Father will always lend a listening ear, never be too busy to hear us, never be too tired to comfort us, and never be too far away to be present at our times of greatest need.
We thank our Fathers, and our God for helping us to fulfill our dreams, and for guiding us to be the people we are today…
(Time For Sharing)
God Bless Us All.
Amen.
