My Prayer for Our Church | Isaiah 6:1-13 | Pastor Neil McClendon

Are you content with yesterday's blessings, or do you crave a deeper, life-changing encounter with God? Discover the transformative power of God’s holiness, presence, and severe mercy.

In this powerful sermon, Lead Pastor Neil McClendon steps into Isaiah 6:1–13 to share his heart and prayer for the church. Unpack the historical context behind Isaiah's vision—a culture that trusted in human leadership, grew spiritually complacent amidst wealth, and treated religious rituals as a substitute for true devotion. Learn what it means to truly see God in His transcendence, experience the seared purification of His grace, and stand firm as a faithful remnant in a compromised world.

In this episode, we cover:

• Seeing God in Power: Moving beyond superficial experiences to witness the weight, presence, and unrepeatable work of God.
• Growing in Knowledge: Balancing God's immanent closeness with His majestic, high-and-lifted-up transcendence.
• Making Progress on Your "Stuff": Stopping the cycle of self-comparison and allowing God's holiness to expose and transform our deepest flaws.
• Receiving Severe Mercy: How the "burning coal" from God's altar sears away guilt and permanently reshapes our desires.
• Hearing from the Lord: Standing as a resilient, faithful remnant even when the surrounding culture turns a deaf ear to the truth.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

If sometimes you're praying and you don't know what to say, just say to God, hey, your ways are higher than my ways, and your thoughts are higher than my thoughts. Could you entrust me with some of your ways and your thoughts? Because I'm sick of mine. I'm just sick of saying the same thing I always say, God, and then going out and doing what I always do.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Amen, church. Let's pray together. Lord, we come to testify that we've witnessed this year. We've seen your goodness. We've tasted and seen that the Lord is good. But the more we experience you, the more we want to experience you. And so, Lord, we're not uh content to live in yesterday's provision or yesterday's blessing. It's Lord, we've tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and it makes us hunger and thirst after righteousness. Said differently, God, we just want more. We want more. We're not greedy, we're your sons and daughters. We're not greedy. We want to relate to you in such a way that maybe people could accuse us of being greedy. We just say, I got an appetite. I've tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and it makes me crave more of his goodness. So, Lord, would you come? And you're not just a God of existence, you're a God of application and apply your goodness to our badness today. Lord, apply your sufficiency to our lack today. Lord, say something today. Ring bells today that we can't unring. That we are we are tainted by and stained by to the glory of God and the goodness of your people. Lord, this is our prayer. Make it our experience, Lord, from your word and by your spirit now in Jesus' name. And all God's people said. Amen. Amen. You have a sea. If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it open up to Isaiah chapter 6. If you're our guest today, let me say, welcome. We're glad you're here. My name is Neil. I'm the lead pastor at Grand Parkway. Uh, and uh we're preaching through the gospel of Matthew, which we'll get back in next week in Matthew chapter six. Uh uh, but today I want to just preach a one-off. And basically, uh every year, it's kind of around this time, really around Thanksgiving, I start kind of looking and as I'm reading the scripture, like, hey, I'm looking for a passage I can pray for our church. Uh, and so I call it my prayer for our church. Uh, sometimes I preach about it, sometimes I don't. Uh today I'm gonna preach about it because Thursday, uh a podcast dropped. I don't know if you know, we have a podcast here at our church. It's called Circling Back with Neil McClendon. Uh and hey, why is your name in it? Because there's another circling back. And if you don't, if you Google Circling Back, you won't find it. It's Circling Back with Neil McClendon. We're basically uh it's a really good podcast because Blake's in it. He asks all the questions, I just answer. Uh uh, but anyway, circling back is where you all write in questions. Blake writes questions uh from sermons about sermons, stuff that you've heard here, and we kind of unpack it and go into more detail. So Thursday, it got, I thought I'll listen to it. Uh I want to hear this. Uh, and and then in this episode, latest episode, we talk about Isaiah chapter six. And so I've been since November, kind of like, Lord, what is my prayer? Nothing. Nothing. And so I'd just be like, okay, so I'd be like, and so I'm not gonna reach because God's got a revelation, he's gonna reveal it. And so Thursday, as I'm listening to the podcast, and it wasn't even part of what it was like an off-the-cuff question that got us down this rabbit hole. But as I'm listening to the podcast, I was like, oh, there's my prayer for our church. And so I went to the passage and we're gonna read for some of you what will be a familiar story. Uh, but what most people do not understand is the context uh uh what was happening, because everything in the Bible happens in a context, okay? Uh and so this is kind of what was going on amongst God's people. This is the part we don't know, but I want to give you the context before we read. And so basically, here's four things I want you to understand about that was happening between God and his people. Number one, God's people trusted in human leadership more than they trusted God. Yeah, yeah, it's uncanny the parallels. Uh, but God's people trusted in human leadership more than they trusted in God. Secondly, increased wealth brought a diminished view of God. You know, I hey uh you you would you there are things that you have to really be you have to be really successful that are so stupid. There are things that are so stupid, you can't save them unless you're really, really successful. Uh you you say, what do you mean? Uh things like, well, I can talk to God in the deer stand just as easy as I can in church. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's just kind of like uh increased wealth. It's kind of like, hey, the more we're crushing it, the better we're doing. Hey, I don't need God. And so, God, you just kind of stay right over there. But it led to a diminished view of God. Thirdly, people felt secure in their sins as long as they performed the right religious rituals. They would come to the temple with an animal and they would offer it to the priest, they'd sacrifice it for their sins, and then walk out and just do the same sins over and again. Because, like, hey, God's not gonna, God's still making animals, so I'm good. Uh, and so they didn't have a relationship with God as much as the religious rituals. And here's the last one they presumed upon God's grace, and so they required God's judgment. And so it's in this context that we read these words from Isaiah 6, starting in verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. And above him uh stood the seraphim, each with six wings. With two wings he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew, and calling to one another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke, and I said, Woe is me, for I am lost. For I'm 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 me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And then I said, Here am I, send me. And then most sermons on Isaiah 6 stop right here. And this is how they launched mission movements and church planners. Here I am, send me. But the text continues, because God's a speaking God, and he said, Go and say to this people, Tell me if this doesn't sound like our culture today when it comes to hearing and responding to the things of God. Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed. And I said, How long, O Lord? And he said, Until cities lie waste without in without inhabitant, and houses without people, Detroit. And the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it has failed. The holy seed is its stump. Now you may be thinking, okay, where do you where do you get a prayer from that? Here's four or five things that I'm praying for our church. Number one, that we would see God. That we would just see God. Uh let me be clear about what I mean. I don't mean just I don't mean visually look upon God because you really can't. Uh so when I say see God, I mean you witness what only God can do. And when you see what only God can do, it ruins you for how you think about everything else. Uh, and it creates, it ruins you and it creates in you this appetite to see God do it again. Uh, does that make sense to anybody in this room? Uh when you see God, do what only God can do. And so my prayer for our church is that we would just see God. That we we we just you say, what do you mean? Seeing God means the pre the experience of God's presence, his power or glory. And it usually comes in the form of understanding, knowledge, or revelation that we could never experience on our own. Uh, this is why Jesus says, like somebody asked me, hey, we're getting back in Matthew. Yes, next week we'll be in Matthew 6, because man, that Matthew 5. And I said, You think Matthew 5 was bad? Matthew 6 is gonna kill us. Uh, and then when you get out of that, you get to Matthew chapter 7, and it's even better. Uh and so he said, Well, uh, okay, I look forward to it. Uh, but but one of the things that God says in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says is, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The reward is this experience that you get to see God, not just visually look upon him because there's a there there's a transcendence to God that we'll talk about. Uh so let's just be clear. I don't want you to think, well, I want to visually see. You you couldn't look upon God because he's so holy, his nature is so resplendent uh that you couldn't take it in, okay? Does that make sense uh to anybody besides me? Do you hear what I'm saying? There's an otherness to God. So when I say seeing God, I'm not like I can remember years ago we used to sing a song which I was just like quietly protesting, just put my hands in my pockets, like I don't, I don't, I unamen to that. Um but we would sing and say, I want to see you, I want to touch your face. And I would just put my hands in my pockets and be like, No, you don't. No, you don't. Ask a guy named Uzzah how that went. Uzzah was the guy of the Old Testament that had the Ark of the Covenant that's the manifest presence of God, basically God in a box, uh, and he's on a cart, and and they're taking it down the road, and it kind of shifts, and Uzzah thinks, oh, I'm gonna steady the ark, and he touches what contains the presence of God, and God strikes him dead. And so I was at, I never forgot, I was at camp in Colorado, and a kid came to me and he said, Hey, we're all worshiping, and I look over, you're the camp speaker, and you got your hands in your pocket. Why are you got your hands in your pocket? Because I cannot say to God and call it worship, I want to see you, I want to touch your face. God is not your kitty that you pet. And so he goes, What's your favorite worship song? Bad for you. Bad for you, not good, not not good. So when I say I want us to see God, uh, here's what I mean. I remember years ago I was in Perrington, Texas. You have to be going to Perrington, Texas to get there because it isn't the panhandle, like go to hell, hang a left, and you're in Perrington, Texas. I'm there, I'm speaking at a church, and one afternoon they had a little get together, I mean the student thing, and and we went to the bowling alley. And there were guys over there smoking cigarettes and playing pool. And one of the kids said, Oh, yeah, those guys are like thugs. They're they're involved in the occult and this, that, and the other. And I'm just over here with a bunch of Baptist nerds drinking Sprite, and I look over there, and there's two real sinners. Where do you think I want to be? And so I just go over there, they're playing pool. I slap my 50 cents down, I say, I played the winner. And they go, Uh uh, we're playing for money. And I went, Oh, what a friend we have in Jesus. Uh Vince is gonna come up from the color of money. Wah! Uh and so we played, uh, we lost the first game, me and my partner, and then we won seven games in a row. And the guy goes, I think we've been hustled. And I said, You didn't ask for a resume. Uh he got so nervous he smoked all the cigarettes. I bought him another pack of cigarettes. He goes, I just I don't have any cigarettes, I can't relax. I said, I'll buy you a pack and we'll just keep playing. He said, Why would you do that? Uh and then we just got into talking. And then I asked him a question about, hey, uh, you guys go to church anywhere? And they go, No, we don't go to church, but we do worship something else. And then we plunge down the rabbit hole. They're two witches. Yeah. And he was on like conky dong. It was a great conversation. Uh and there's a guy behind the counter at the Bowling Alley, and he's kind of working, he's on that end of the counter, and he keeps sliding down and bringing, he comes around behind the counter, and then he walks up to the pool table, and he's standing right there, and I said, Hey man, are you into this? He said, No. He said, I used to go to the church you go to, uh, and but I'm not in what they're into. And then he said this, and this is when I was like, I don't want to play pool anymore. I said, What happened? You just quit? He goes, I just want to see something. I just want to see something. I went every Sunday and nothing ever happened. I just want to see something new. I'm not a bad person. I just want to see something. I was like, oh man. Hey, listen, I get tired of beating up on witches playing pool. I gotta go. I want to go back to my hotel with that taste in my mouth right there. And I want you to end this year and go into the new year with something in you that just says, God, I just want to see you. I just want to have something happen. And not something like just for the sake of experience, but for the sake of being ruined and this appetite awakened in me. So my first prayer is that we would see God. And not just as a church, yes, corporately, but as individuals, you would just look and go, Can you believe that? That is the only explanation for that, is God did that. Second prayer for our church is that we would grow in our knowledge of God. God, you you say, What do you mean? Hear these words again. In the year that King Uzziah died, the king that they loved, the president that they voted for died. And then God says this, hey, he says, Isaiah says, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne. What a novel place for a king to sit. High and lifted up. That's the part I want you to get high and lifted up. See, God is both imminent and transcendent. Imminent means right here, right now. And I think the church in America has kind of got our our fingerprints all over God because he's so imminent and he's such a loving, heavenly father. And he's lost his transcendence. And the God of the Bible is a God who holds on to his transcendence. He exists on a plane that we cannot exist of. And God is what's happening here is God distinguishes himself from King Uzziah that they love. This is my king. I love my king. And King Uzziah dies, and God says, I'm not like him. I sit on a throne, I'm high and lifted up, and the train of my robe fills the temple. The train, we don't understand that unless you've been to a wedding. I did a wedding last weekend. The lady had a lot of dress. It took two bridesmaids to get the train turned. Because every time they would do something, we'd have to just adjust it for the pictures. And people say, Did you get tired of waiting? I said, No. You know, I when a wedding dress comes with a train, it means something for everybody involved. And the Bible says that the train, the hem of his robe, filled the temple. Here's what I want you to understand: that words fail to describe the greatness of God because God exists beyond our categories. So we attempt to describe him in terms uh that we use, like we say that God is awesome and that's great. And then you go to Torchies for lunch and have the queso, and you go, man, this queso's awesome. And so God's like, Am I awesome? Like the queso's awesome, or do I exist on another plane? Or oh, I had a cheeseburger and it was awesome. And I watched football and it was awesome. I I couldn't tell you last time I saw an awesome football game, by the way. But most of them are pretty boring to me. Just put it's just all three and a half hours of millionaires playing catch. This is awesome. No, not awesome. Not awesome. Love it. I'm glad this year this week there's gonna be some good college games on. Hopefully. I'm sad that AM is out. Uh, but you won the volleyball championship. There you go. Comfort yourself with something, losers. Anyway, overrated. Anyway, you gotta have offense and defense. Three points. Come on, man. Uh see, here's the thing. Because, look at me. Look, don't be offended, and if you are, that's a bad sign. Uh uh, look at me. Here's the thing: God is imminent and he's transcended, okay? And so our language pales, it can't carry the weight of who God is. And so I just want you to see some words in the Bible that that describe, because he doesn't wait for us to try to get words to figure out he this is why the incarnation is so important, because God says, Listen, you could try your best and you wouldn't come close. So, what's necessary is for God to translate himself into our terms and come to us in the incarnation. Baby Jesus, born into the womb of a virgin, brought into this world, okay? He says, You can never really know who I am and what I'm like. So let me just take on flesh and come be among you. I I want you to see that's immanence. The incarnation is God's immediately available, but he's also transcendent. There's four words I want to just give you for what God is. He's in number one, he's enthroned. I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, not standing beside it, waiting for you to come take your rightful place. You got to ask yourself, who sets on the throne of my life today? He's enthroned. Secondly, he's transcendent, high and lifted up. He's holy other than. He exists on the plane that I cannot, and that is a good thing. I agree with Isaiah, who over in chapter 55 says of God, your ways are higher than my ways, and your thoughts are higher than my thoughts. If you know if sometimes you're praying and you don't know what to say, just say to God, hey, your ways are higher than my ways, and your thoughts are higher than my thoughts. Could you entrust me with some of your ways and your thoughts? Because I'm sick of mine. I'm just sick of saying the same thing I always say, God, and then going out and doing what I always do. Here's the third thing, third word about God. He's worshiped. There's never a time when God is not worshipped. You say, What do you mean he's worshiped? These seraphim, these angelic beings, each had six wings. With two, they cover their face. Just stop right there. Who covers their face? Because the thing that is closest to God won't even look upon God because he's so holy. Then he says, With two, they covered their feet because we're not gonna touch you and contaminate your holiness with anything because we can't. And then he says this, and with two, they flew. And they cried out to one another. They were telling God, they were telling one another, almost warning, danger, danger. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. They're saying, Let's be careful, let's not get so close that we think we can touch transcendent God. Let's just warn ourselves that this God is holy. You want to get a picture of this on the way home, kids? Slip a pillowcase over your parents' head while they're driving and start yelling from the backseat, holy, holy, holy. And by the way, I got in trouble at the Christmas Eve service. If you were here, I forget which one of them it was, but I told a little seven-year-old boy, he lit his candle, and I said, Go set stuff on fire. This isn't organized, because all the little people they help, they always like to go to the front row. No, take off down the aisle. Religion's organized, relationship with God isn't. It's more organic than that. It's a just just He's He's worshiped. I mean, he's got anytime you see God in the Bible, worship is taking place. You go, you go to God's house, the thermostat of his house is set on worship, me. So here's what I'm getting at because God is worshipped, he doesn't need worship. So when we come in here and we sing before the sermon, we're not like giving something to God that God is lacking and is needed and wanted. Here's God. I know you wanted me to sing this song for you today. Worship is for us. Worship is not for God. God is not looking for worship, he's looking for worshipers who worship him in spirit and truth. So I want to rob you of this illusion of thinking, boy, but well, I'm worshiping, I'm doing something for God. We can't do anything for God. There's no lack in God, there's no deficiency in God. I love what Jonathan Edwards, the great Puritan preacher from the 1700s, he said that he would explain to his people that God is not some half-empty well, and you come with your bucket of guilt or religious determination and you pour into the well and you try to fill up what's lacking in the well. No, no, he would tell his people, you should repent of such foolishness. And one of his people said, Well, then if God's not a half-empty well, then we contribute to what is he. And Edward said, God is a glorious, all sufficient, effusive fountain. And they said, Well, how do we glorify a fountain? And he said, By coming and slacking, slaking, satisfying your deepest thirst in the overflow of the fountain. And they had this thing called the second great awakening. Because that's the way they talked about God. And they would say to people, he would say to his people, you're bringing nothing, nothing to God that God needs. And they weren't offended. They were like, Oh yeah, that's the God of the Bible. But people would come because they want to just we used to sing about it, come to this fountain so rich and sweet, cast your poor soul at Savior's feet, plunge in today and be made complete. Our worshiping doesn't make anything of God that wasn't already true of God. It acknowledges, but it doesn't create. And the house, the foundations shook, and the house was filled with smoke. Just, just, just, just hit. And the foundations of the threshold shook. Can you imagine meeting months today and all of a sudden? And you're like, Mom, did you burn something or smoke? What? No. When I say that he's consequential, here's what I mean. I'll take you back to June of 1993. Remember where you were in June 1993? You knuckleheads right here in the front row, weren't even born yet. Don't even answer, okay? June of 1993. Anybody, anybody? I tell you where I was in June of 1993. Matter of fact, it was on June the 12th of 1993. I spoke at a camp, because I was traveling and speaking back then for a camp in a city called Sugarland. The church was named Sugar Creek Baptist Church. The youth pastor was a guy named Jim Jackson. He said, I'd been married, I got married in January. He said, You want to bring your wife to youth camp? I said, Man, what woman doesn't want to come sleep in the infirmary at a youth camp? I mean, for a week. And having kids come up to her husband every day. Hey, hey, hey, hey, be funny, be funny, be funny. Shut up. How about that? Okay.

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And so

SPEAKER_01 22:00

We did a youth I did cam, and then they said, Hey, we want you to come back and preach at our church. And they put us up in a hotel. They were very gracious, Sugar Creek was. And he said, Hey, we'll take your lunch at this Mexican place we had called Papacitas. I was like, What's Papacitas? I know now. And then he said, There used to be a movie theater, Rivera 59. Uh, it's not there anymore. But he said, Yeah, there's a new movie out about dinosaurs I want to see. You want to go see it? And I was like, No. Inwardly, I was like, no, but I wanted to get to hang out with the youth pastor and you know be a good friend and everything. So we go, and I'm just like, here's two hours of my life, I'm never gonna get back. Movie starts, no big deal, blah, blah. I'm like, uh, inwardly in my head, I know you don't do this. I was having kind of a running commentary. I'm 28 years old, and I'm in a movie about dinosaurs? Really? What is this? Is Barney coming out soon? And then all of a sudden they went on the little tram ride and before it explored, going through the park, and all of a sudden the thing breaks down, and I'm like, okay, we're 25 minutes in, I ain't seen no dinosaurs. It's about these bright little kids. I want to whip that obnoxious kid and tell him to turn the light out. And then this happened. If you remember where you were in June of 1993, you're like, oh, I know what happened. Then the back of the gun that comes around, they're like, oh well, you know, the headquarters header, we'll get stay there, we'll get to you. And all of a sudden the camera hones in, tight shot on a little cup of water and a cup holder in the backseat of the Ford Explorer. And my life changed. I never thought about God the same way ever again. You say, What do you mean? Because you hadn't seen a dinosaur, but what you heard, and the camera just zoomed in and it stopped, and all of a sudden you heard and there's ripples in the cup. And I don't know why, but I was like, oh, I just kind of just slunk down in my seat, like, I don't know. My new wife was like, Yeah, here, hold me, I'll hold you. Uh and then it just got, and then you heard again, and just these ripples. And I was like, and then the kid with the flashlight, all of a sudden you see something kind of shrink and you lit and you get big, and you're like, oh that's a thing's the eye. Why don't I tell you this? Look at me. There's a thickness to God's being. When he moves, it has weight on it and it brings consequence. It sends shimmers out into the physical world. So when I say he's consequential, that's what I mean. He's enthroned, he's transcendent, he's worshipped, he's consequential. Okay? This is the God that we want to see. Third prayer is that we would make progress on our stuff. We make progress on our stuff. You say, What do you mean? He says, Hey, and I said, Woe is me. Verse 5, woe is me, for I'm lost. If you got the NIV, he says, I'm ruined, I'm lost, dude. I'm out of ideas here. I'm 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. Look at me. Everything's okay until you see the king. But if you ever see the king, you never are the same ever again. You don't need pep talks, you don't need how-tos. You you see the king, and all of a sudden you begin to make some progress. You say, Well, I don't know what you mean. It happens more easily when you stop focusing on everybody else and stop focusing on yourself. You say, What why? Because you see others clearly and you see yourself clearly when you see God accurately. Let me say that again. You see others clearly. Stop comparing yourself. Get off social media, it's just a platform of comparison. Who cares? Yeah. Stop looking at other people, stop navel gazing at yourself. You see God clearly, and you'll see yourself clearly when you see God accurately. This is why Isaiah doesn't compare himself to others. Because he realizes that only the holiness of God can show us what we're really like. You want to hear my depravity? Listen, I do really good until I compare myself to the holiness of God. Like, I've got a friend that pastors at church here in town, and they took Sunday, they took today off. And I'm like, because he's like, hey, are you preaching? Are you having church on the on the 28th? Uh I guess that's what today is, day 28th. Uh he said, You having church on the 28th? And I said, It's Sunday, isn't it? Yeah, but bro, it's the Sunday after Christmas, and a lot of churches in our city take that Sunday off. And I was like, I thought he was clowning on me. I was like, What? Is that like national not go to no? It's a Sunday. I'm a Christian. I worship on the first day of the week. Yeah, yeah, well, we're not meeting that day. And then he goes, Oh, so-and-so, they're not meeting this Sunday or next Sunday. I'm like, I don't I don't compare myself to others. I ain't hating on them that do that or whatever. Great. And then he goes, Well, you're not preaching, are you? And I said, Well, I go, Oh, it's kind of an off Sunday. This is a quote from a man that pastors the church. And I'm like, what did you just say? Well, I mean, everybody's tired after Christmas and everything. That's all we don't meet. My people love it. And I said, You just said out of your mouth, your people love not meeting. Does that concern you as their pastor? Oh no, man, no, no, no. And then he said, So are you preaching? I said, Yeah. Oh man, I can get somebody else to do that. Oh Jesus, this is lonely. Uh you say, why you why are you telling us that? Because I look good in that conversation. Here's my depravity. I thought, I didn't say it, but I thought to myself, Lord, you see how hard I work and this guy doesn't. I know you never have thoughts like that. I thought this out, I thought that this was so audible, it was almost came out of my mouth. And and you, Lord, he's probably getting paid for the Sunday that he's not working, not having church. You see your little servant down here? And we walked away, clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit said, by the way, he ain't your standard. I am. No, never mind. Yeah. Again, you you you you see yourself most accurately against the backdrop of God. What I mean when I say we'd make progress on our stuff. I mean that you would stop blaming your family of origin and your spouse and your ex and all this kind of stuff. Ask yourself this question: what do people assume is just you? What do people just, oh that's just uh yeah, that's just her, you know how she is. Oh man, you know what he's like. I mean, I we just kind of roll with it, and we've been friends a long time. So when I say we'd make progress, one of my prayers we'd make progress on her stuff. This is the kind of thing that I mean. It's so easy just to slip into, well, it's just me. You should ask yourself, what is it that people say about me? This is just me, and start working there if you want to make progress. Yeah, because he uses this generic term. He says, I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. And unclean is kind of a general Old Testament term for all that is unfit to be in God's presence. And yet, here's where he finds himself in God's presence. And he's like, I oh, this is why he says, I'm lost. I'm a woe is me, I'm in danger. This isn't this isn't safe. This is why I say that we would make progress on our stuff. Uh, confession leads to this kind of experience, and many people never experience the Lord because they're unwilling to admit the truth about themselves. And here's why. This next one goes together. You don't make progress unless you understand how God may respond, which is my fourth prayer, that we'd receive from the Lord. Progress is born of receiving. You say, What do you mean? Look at verse six and seven. He says, This. After he says, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of uncleanness, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then, then that's a conditional statement. This doesn't happen until this happens. Then one of the seraphim flew to me in his hand, having in his hand a burning coal that he taken with tongs from the altar. And he took with it, he touched my mouth, and he said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. Now, everyone would say, I know it's New Year's, I don't make resolution. Everyone would say, I want to make progress on my stuff. But do you want to make progress in the way God wants to make progress? Or do you want you want to just come up with something? Well, you know, I tried, and you know, like today is Good Ridd's Day. Did you know that? In New York City, today, it's already started. Today is Good Ridd's Day. People down Times Square, they have a uh chalkboard, and God holds it right here, and he says, Happy New Year on it, and you take a piece of chalk and you write down something you want to get rid of: a bad habit, a bad memory, a bad person. You write it and then you erase it and good riddance. And I'm just like, Are you serious? Reminds me of a guy that came to see me this past year for counseling. I said, Tell me why what makes you seek out counseling? He goes, Well, I'm a good person, I love the Lord until I lose my temper, and then I cuss like a sailor. And I said, You need to see my wife. She's on the other hallway. She she she specializes in this. That's her struggle as well. Now he said, I said, Well, tell me what all have you done to address this problem. He said, Well, I mean, I've made vows, I promised my kids. He said, Dude, they got my order wrong the other day in some Applebee's or something. I said, Well, wait a minute, Applebee's still exist? That's your first problem. You're eating an applebee's. But go ahead. They got his order wrong and he snapped. He said, Dude, I cussed out the waiter. The manager came out, I cussed him out, they kicked me out of the restaurant. My wife Ubered home and left me there. I said, Your wife sounds like an interesting person. He said, Dude, it's bad. It's like something happens and it's like a squish gets flipped, and I just I lose my mind. And I said, So what else have you done to he said? Well, my uh my wife and kids got me this little thing called the cuss box. And I was like, Oh, this is good. Please tell me you plug this thing in. He goes, No, it's like a piggy bank, but it says on there, if you say a not so bad word, put a dollar. If you say a really bad word, put a five dollar. If you say something you should never say, you put a 20 in here. I thought he was kidding. He wasn't, and I said, So, he said, Yeah, the thing was full of cash in two days, and that's just what people heard me say around my house. And I I just said, Are you open to God's solution to your problem? That's why I'm here, bro. I said, No, no, no, no. You're looking at me. I'm talking to you about a God who wants to come to you with some tongs with a hot coal right off the altar. And he said, What are you talking about? And I turned to Isaiah 6 and I said, God's solution to our problem typically exceeds the level we think about it. We're gonna go to therapy and we're gonna sit in a circle with some other guys and drink bad coffee and say, Hey, I'm a profane man. Hi, Bill, I'm a profane man too. And God's over there just stoking up the billows, getting it good and hot. He's gonna come and he's gonna apply this to your place of greatest need. You say, uh, what do you mean? He says he comes. Uh uh uh then one of the seraphim flew to me, having his hand a burning coal they'd taken with tongs from the altar. You should hear that and go, altar? What do you do? He's in the temple, there's two altars in the temple. An altar is where people would come and they would bring an animal, they would sacrifice to cover their sins. Remember, I said the people love their religious rituals more than they love the Lord? They they worked out a system where they could live, like, hey, this is my thing. I can't give this up. And I just all I gotta do is do this religious ritual and go back to this because you know it's just hard to give this up. It's hard. Oh man, sobriety is so hard, you don't know what it's like. Okay. I will tell you this: God is not just a God of existence, he's a God of application. It's not enough to say God exists, he's going to apply what he knows to be true. And like if God, here's a question: if God came to you with a coal right off the altar, where would he apply it to your life? Isaiah said, I'm a man of unclean lips, I live among the people of unclean lips. And this angel comes and says, Pucker up. Now look at me. There are experiences that you have that are so traumatically searing, you never go back to who you used to be. Allowed me to demonstrate when I was eight years old, grew up on a farm in East Texas, and in my house, you went to school, you worked. If you were sick, you couldn't do either, you stayed in the house all day. So I told my dad, I don't feel good. My stepsisters and brothers went and caught the bus. My dad's stepmom went to work on the farm. My dad said, You do not leave this house. About one o'clock in the afternoon, I was starving. I went there, there was never food in our house, hardly at all. So I opened the refrigerator, there's a pack of hot dogs and a pitcher of water. I was like, Well, that's somebody's bad idea. And so we'd cooked hot dogs before out over a uh uh a campfire. So I took a fork and got an oven mint, and I turned it on the stove, and I laid out two pieces of bread, had me a couple hot dogs, and so I'm got them on there and I'm cooking them. I'm like, who needs parents? I'm like bear grills, I'm off grid here out in the middle of nowhere. I'm cooking them, and I walk over and I put them down on the bread and I pull the fork out. Uh, and just a moment of sheer brain crab, had a little juice, little hot dog juice. I just went and licked the juice off the fork. And the next I heard, I just blocked out for a minute. I heard, and then I was like, ha ha ha ha ha. I slung the fork down, like, oh I ran in the bathroom, my lips were white, and my tongue was white. It was seared. Yeah, because the fork was glowing orange. Because I'm a moron, that's why. I see some of you looking at me like, are you okay? No, I was not okay. And immediately my lips begin to swell and throb, and I'm like, oh, it hurt, and there's nobody there. I'm eight years old. I'm like, what am I gonna what am I trying to do? Well, ha ha ha ha. And and they swallow, uh, and I got a coal rag, I put it on there, and I got ice, I put it on there, and I thought, oh, uh, uh, uh about an hour later, I stopped panting and crying fiercely, and then I just kind of relaxed. I thought, well, maybe I can close my mouth after all. And then I close my mouth, and about 30 minutes later, I went to open my mouth, and my lips had stuck together. And then my dad comes home full of compassion. Hey, boy, what the hell's wrong with you? Ik, uh-uh, or my dad's like, what'd you say? Uh-k, uh-uh, or my uh and my hum. And my dad walked over, and I had to write it down. I couldn't, I mean he's like he's getting frustrated, and I'm like, I ek, uh, or he goes, Don't you say it to me one more time, boy. I can't. And so I wrote it. I I I cooked a hot dog and I licked the fork. And my dad slapped me in the back of the head and said, You idiot, and just walked off. There was no gentle parenting back then. He would say things to me like, Hey, shame on you. Now, when my wife and I were dating, she was like, What? But here's the good news. This is crazy parenting here, kids. I learned to attach shame with doing the wrong stuff, with doing dumb stuff. Because I don't do dumb stuff. Because I feel shame. And then the next day came and I was like, I got to take hunt today. And my dad said, You're working or you're catching that bus to school? You ever ridden a school bus? It's like a social meat grinder on wheels. I walk up the three steps, Mr. John's, I hang a left, and somebody from the back, oh my gosh, what happened to you? And I look, and they were plumped back up. Big uh. And I had to explain to everybody, I icked or or and they're like, what? And then I get to class, okay? I'm eight years old. I get to my class, I sit down, my teacher says, Neil, what happened? I ick or or I had to write out and read in front of the whole class. I was cooking a hot dog and I licked the fork. Why'd you lick the fork? Look at me. I was so traumatized by that. Two weeks ago, I'm in Costco. I'm walking out. And the lady's standing there, she goes, sir, we got special on our hot dogs. And I just looked at it, I said, I ate the orc. No, I've never. I'm 61 years old. That when I was eight, I've never bought a pack of hot dogs. There's never been a pack of hot dogs in my house. Ask my wife. It's just like trying, it's just like, oh, ho, oh, no. See, here's the thing. There's look, look at me. There's a this is what we don't tell you. Look at me, we're almost done. You still with me? Look at me. There's a severity and a completeness to what God does. There's a severity and a completeness. I don't know what you mean. It's right there in the text. Look what happens. He said, The seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal. He'd taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips. Yeah, he did. Behold, this has touched your lips. Behold, look, don't miss this. Two things. Here's the severity and the permanence. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. There's a completeness and a severity to what God does. That's why it's severe. Number one, your guilt is taken away. Notice the order. He says, Your guilt is taken away and your sins atoned for. Well, doesn't the other one happen first? Yeah, but you feel it in your emotions first. Some of you who are sitting in this room, you feel guilty today about something you did years ago, and you felt guilty every day since then. And I'm talking to you about a severe God that says, you know what, I deal with that in such a way that I take that guilt away. And your sin is atoned for. Your sin is atoned for. In other words, what you did has been atoned for, and then how you feel about what you did, that guilt, it is taken away. So when we say earlier, be for sin, the double cure, I thought about this. I just thought, yep, that's exactly what it is. Here's the last thing I'm praying for us as a church this year that we would hear from the Lord. We would hear from the Lord. God's realism prepares us for reality. He says in verse 8, and I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? And Isaiah said, I here I am, send me. This is where missions talks end and church planning talks in. But God goes the rest of the way and says, All right, this is what I'm sending you to. And he said, Go and say to this people, keep on hearing but do not understand. Keep on seeing but do not perceive. Some of you, you just had this experience at Thanksgiving or Christmas with your family. You keep on talking, they don't understand. You keep putting it right before them, they can't see it. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed. And then I said, How long, O Lord? That's some of you today, your heart is like, How long, God? How long am I am I gonna have to worry about my adult child ever coming back to the faith? Will they ever converted to begin with? How long? And he said, until cities lie waste without inhabitants and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the Lord removes people far away in the forsaken places or many in the midst of the land. What kind of God would do this? What kind of people would push God's grace to the discipline phase? Hey folks, there's a capacity to God that you do not want to experience. There's just a capacity to Him you do not want to experience. And I'm not trying to be foreboding, I'm just trying to be in line with the Bible says. I love what Paul Washer said. He said, Don't pick a church close to your house, pick a church close to the Bible. I'm just trying to be close to the Bible. There's a capacity in God you never want to experience. So if you're here, if you're here and you're like, man, I'm just living in sin, doing my thing, by the way. Okay, great, wonderful. You're gonna experience the capacity of God where it gets like this. And then he says this, and though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again like a pterobinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is failed. The holy seed is its stump. Look at me. There's always gonna be a remnant. There's always gonna be a remnant. It's those people who are not afraid of the severity of God. The severity of God just magnifies the mercy of God. And they've they they've been seared. They had to walk away going, what happened? I ek or but that's not what's gonna come out of you, what's gonna come out of you. You know what happened was I just realized I'm being in this relationship the way I've been in every relationship, but it never works. And I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, so I'm repenting of all this, and I'm just waiting. There's a severity to God's solution to your problem that we would hear from the Lord. What do you mean? Uh there's an Arctic explorer named Ernest Shackleton. He said that on a ship called the Endurance. They were gonna go to the Arctic and explore. Uh and he put an ad out, and this is what the ad said. Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return, doubtful. This is not gonna be on Indeed today. Or monster. Hear it again. Men wanted, women wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return, doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success. And look at me, he had to turn men away. I read this when I was 22, that quote, and I had to just find out about Ernest Shackleton. So I'm an Ernest Shackleton expert. I can tell you all about it. They got caught in pack ice in his incredible story. I'll just tell you this when they left, they had dogs on the ship. When they came back, no more dogs. But the men survived. They were stuck in pack ice for over a year. And he said to his men, I'll be back for you. And they said, We know you will, and we'll be here. And he did, and he was. So when it got cold and dark, they weren't like, Oh, this one did the brochure. The brochure is gonna tell you it's gonna get cold and dark sometime in the new year. You still want to believe? It's gonna get lonely. You're gonna look around for like man, I'm just a stump in the land. Come on, man. Yeah. But if you hear from the Lord, if you receive from the Lord, if you make progress on your stuff, if you grow in your knowledge of God, you'll be the man or woman who sees God. And you'll be looking around, just kind of going, it's okay. It's okay. We're not doing anything wrong, we're doing something right. Just because it's hard doesn't mean it's wrong. You're doing something wrong. Maybe you're doing something right, and God's just testing your willingness to keep trusting him. Let's take this understanding into the new year, church. Let's pray together. If you're our guest, just relax. We like to teach the Bible, then we give you some space to think about it. Some questions come up on the screen. But right now, let's just uh think and ask ourselves what had your name on it today? What is it when you saw it and heard it, you just thought, oh yeah. Oh, I gotta think about that. Because if all you've ever heard about is the kindness of God, then you take offense at the severity of God. But God is a severe, consequential, weighty being. His kabbab, his glory has some thump to it. And it displaces all the draws in your life. And that's what you were made for. Let's think about that for a minute. Lord, we uh we want this truth to inform and influence our living in the new year. The rest of this year, into the new year, that we need you. We're never we're never gonna not need you. We want to understand and know and enjoy the God that we need. And so, Holy Spirit, thank you for your word. Do in us whatever you have to do. We embrace the kindness and the severity of God. Both are good for the soul. So we say thank you for that in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, Amen, amen.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

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