Send Me Series

Dangerous Prayers – Send Me O Lord!

Isaiah 6:8

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

So far, we have explored two of Groeschel’s dangerous prayers. The first dangerous prayer was taken from Psalms 139 in which David threw off the bubble of spiritual safety and boldly approached God’s throne of grace to ask Him to search and reveal any anxious thoughts or offensive ways in his life so that he might confess them and forever be lead on the righteous path. The second dangerous prayer was taken from 1 Corinthians 11:24 in which Groeschel states like Christ whose body was broken and poured out for us, we too should live daily for Him, broken and poured out! Instead of praying for a comfortable spiritual bubble of self-preoccupation and gratification, quoting James 1:2-4 Groeschel states we are to not avoid hardship and struggles that might “break us” because in preserving such afflictions one’s maturity and faith increase. It often in our brokenness and utter weakness that God chooses to work in our lives, and we can do great things in His name and for the praise of His glory! In the following sermon we are going to look at the last of Groeschel’s dangerous prayers, “Search Me” that is based on Isaiah’s commission.

Isaiah’s Call

In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah went into the temple and saw a glorious vision of the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne with His train filling the temple. Above the Lord was seraphim, each with six wings, two covering their faces and two covering their feet. As the seraphim called out “holy, holy is the Lord almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory,” their voices shook the doorposts and thresholds of the temple as it became filled with smoke. In seeing the immense gap between his filthy rags and God’s holiness Isaiah thought that he would be put to death for who of such unclean lips could ever “see the King, the Lord Almighty” (verse 5). It was not until one of the seraphim touched his lips with a coal from the altar and said, “your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for” (verse 6) that Isiah felt reassured that he might survive this glorious encounter with God. It is at this point that the Lord asked, “whom shall I send and who will go for us” (verse 8) to which Isaiah, boldly said “Here am I, send me.” Isaiah’s commission was to go to the people of Israel and tell them that they have reached a point that God’s judgment upon them was inevitable but in His mercy He will leave a stump or remnant that will one day become a great tree, a restored nation.

Get Rid of the Excuses

Notice how Isaiah did not flinch for even without knowing where he was to go or what was being asked of him, he told God YES, send me? If God were to ask you to surrender your comfortable spiritual bubble that you have been so earnestly praying for Him to maintain to go somewhere and to do something really BIG for Him, would you say YES? Truthfully most Christians when faced with a mission from God tend to be quick to recite Moses’ excuses such as “I am not adequate” (Exodus 3:11), “I don’t know what to say” (3:14), “what if the people don’t believe what I say” (4:1), “I am not good with words” (4:10) and the real truth of what is in their hearts “I simply am not willing, send someone else” (4:13). Our excuses of course have no validity for God usually calls the “imperfect, flawed, weak men and women” to do great things in His kingdom. After all was not Moses a murderer, David an adulterer, Gideon one who lacked faith, Jeremiah too young, Abraham too old, Elijah one who frequently battled depression and Paul a persecutor of Christians and yet they were called and did great things in God’s kingdom? If we want to grow spiritually and please God the Father in heaven then we simply must put aside our insecurities and life of comfort and be like Isaiah and pray his dangerous prayer, “here I am send me.”

Glory to God

Let us be truly honest, Groeschel states, to be like Isaiah and be willing to serve in any way or manner God requests can be quite frightening! To pray the dangerous prayer, “Send me,” requires a deep trust and reverence for God that Groeschel suggests is only attained through a genuine, deep, and ever-growing relationship with our Creator. While we are not likely to see a glorious vision of the Lord with fiery seraphim flying about, we certainly can draw nearer to God through prayer, meditation, and submission to His will so that He in turn will draw nearer to us (James 4:8)! Groeschel invites us to: