Searching

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.