Here I Am! Here I Am!
Isaiah 6:1-8
Printed Text: Isaiah 6:4-8
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphim’s unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
Good evening! It is good to be here in God’s house with God’s people! How many here tonight know that we are in the final weeks before the super bowl? I am just full of questions. Let me see a show of hands, how many football fans are in the house? OK, Now how many of you have watched a football game sometime in your life. Good!
I want to use football to illustrate God’s Word. If you have seen a ball game then at sometime or other you have witnessed a scene like the following. The center gives the Quarterback the ball, the quarterback drops back to pass, he begins to look for his receivers, then all of a sudden way down field he sees one of his men waving his arms and yelling, “Here I am! Here I am!”. The quarterback sets his feet and hurls the ball as hard as he can to this receiver. The receiver catches the ball and scores a touchdown and the team goes on to win the ball game. For the win to take place that receiver:
He had to be willing to accept the task.
He had to be where he was supposed to be.
He had to be willing to complete the task.
The scripture we just read was an encounter that Isaiah had with the Lord. God said he had a task to be performed and Isaiah said,”Here I am, send me”. We are told in the book
of Acts, Chapter 1, verse 8,
“But Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
So we see that as with Isaiah God has a task to be performed and is asking everyone “Who will go! How about you? What are you doing? Are you waving your hands and yelling,”Here I am, here I am” or are you hiding and saying, “I sure hope he doesn’t see me.
For those of you who are willing to say “Here I am, send me” Like the football player you must be willing to be obedient, be where you ought to be with the Lord, and be willing to complete the task.
I. Be willing to accept the task
God has the need for witnesses in this world today. It doesn’t take a genius to look around and see that people in this world need to meet the Lord. Every day on television, in the paper, or on the radio there are horrow stories of crimes that are a result of sin. As I was reading the paper in the court section there were at least five cases of rape. There was a report on Fox news recentl discussing the increase in incidents of teachers sexually abusing students. We hear of murders and other crimes of violence. Even in good we see satan’s work. I heard just this past week that extortion scams have already been found that are based on tsunami relief efforts. Let me say here if you heart is moved in compassion to help out please, and let me emphasize please give to a proved agency such as the Red Cross. God has issued the call for people to spread His word. The football player could have said, “I’m not going to run all the way down that field or he could have said I’m not listening to that quarterback who does he think I am, but instead he waited for the count then ran with all his might to be in the exact spot where he was told to be. That is all that God asks of us today is that we be willing to do what He tells us to. God doesn’t say we have to meet any other requirements. As a matter of fact if you look at that verse in Acts again God tells us that he will empower us to do His will. All WE have to do is be willing to be used. Are you willing?
II. Be where you ought to be with the Lord
To receive this power we must be in a right relationship with the Lord. This begins with salvation. Each of us are sinners. Scripture tells us in
Romans 3:23 that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Before Jesus entered into his ministry God sent John to proclaim, “Repent and be baptized”. Things haven’t changed. We are still sinners and until we admit that and repent we cannot be of any use to God or ourselves. Repent means to turn away, or to take the opposite direction. This simply means that you look at the direction that you are moving in and make a conscious decision to turn from that way. Scripture also teaches that
“For God so love the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Once you realize that you have sinned and are willing to turn from that sin then you have to have something to turn to. What I should say is someone to turn to and that someone is Jesus. You see, there is punishment for sin, God said if you sin you shall die.
Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death.
A price is demanded for sin and that price is death. But listen up, that verse doesn’t end with that truth it also tells us that, “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. You see Jesus came to this world, born of a virgin, lived among us, took the sins of the world upon his shoulders and the climbed up a hill called Galgotha where for all of our sins he was crucified. His body was taken down from the cross and placed in a borrowed tomb and on the third day the stone was rolled away to reveal that Christ had defeated death and was alive. For 40 days he was seen by many different people until the day came when he was taken up into the heavens. The desciples that witnessed this were told by men in white apparel, “Why stand you gazing up into heaven, this same Jesus which is taken from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.
He is alive! He is Alive!
And we are told today, that he sits beside the Father and makes intercession for you and me. So I preach the same gospel tonight, repent and accept Jesus as your savior. It is God’s will for you to be a witness, are you willing to put yourself in the right place.
I John also tells those of you that have accepted Christ that you too, sin and that God will forgive you of that sin. Tonight is the night for you to make a resolution not for the sake of having a New years resolution but for you own peace and joy. Tonight is the time for you to resolve to do the will of God.
It is God’s will for you to be a witness!
III. Be willing to complete the task.
Now that football player could have looked at all the men on the opposing team running after him and said ain’t no way, they will kill me. He could have just decided that he was tired and stopped. He could have dropped the ball BUT HE DIDN’T. He stared the ball into his hands tucked it to his side just as the coach had told him to do, dropped his head and ran with all his might until he saw the shadow of the goalposts. We must be like the football player. We must not be discouraged by the enemy. We must follow the instructions of the Father. Finally, we must continue, or as they say in sports, follow through until the task is complete.
Conclusion
I have clearly shown you that God intends for His people to be His witnesses in this world. You are God’s receiver. He has dropped back and thrown the ball. Are you willing to accept the task? Are you where you ought to be? Are you ready to complete the task? The ball game can’t be one without each team member doing his part. Your life will not be complete if you are not doing you part for God. Where are you tonight? God says ,”Who will go? What is your answer?
