← ArchiveSunday, September 20, 2015DateSeptember 20, 2015Speaker—TextIsaiah 40Passages in this sermonGalatians 5:66:55Romans 8:3415:26Psalms 8616:502 Corinthians 1:318:18Psalms 2319:15Psalms 23:119:55Romans 2:2320:59Romans 3:2320:59Luke 12:221:26Psalms 119:7622:48Isaiah 4024:22Philippians 2:1329:17TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Thank you, Greg. Thank you, choir. Thank you, instrumentalists. That's a great song. We brought your Bibles, and I hope you did. Turn with me to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5 of Matthew's Gospel. We're going to continue to read each week. We're going to read the complete text of0:27the Beatitudes to kind of set us up as a launch for each week's teaching. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5, beginning with the first verse. Seeing the crowds, he went up to the mountain, and he went, and he sat down, and his disciples came to him. Verse 2, and he opened his mouth, and he taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they0:53shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are1:19the people who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for their kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you who others rebel against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if a salt1:47has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket or on a on a stand and it gives all gives2:14light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Let's pray. Father God, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight today. Lord, as we unpack your word today,2:42do your work in this place. Thank you for the privilege standing before this great bunch of folk. And Father, I pray that you use the message today to us. Father, I pray that we will grasp your word today and we will send forth from this place, understanding who you are more than ever.3:07Lord, we love your word. And Father, we pray that this word will continue to direct us, direct us, and we will listen to it. And we will surrender to it each and every day. We love you. We thank you for what we have to do in this place. In Jesus' name we pray. And the church said, amen. Last week we talked about admitting our faults and our failures to God, which was easy,3:36not a problem. Most of us in this room have no problem confessing our sins before the Lord. We have no problem with that. But the whole blessing it, someone that we trust. Now that's a whole kind of a horse of a different color, so to speak. That's a whole different element, isn't it? I'm not so sure I want to confess that to my brothers. I went to the dentist this week. That's not one of my most favorite things to do. It was my semi-annual4:07checkup. I go every month or twice a month, twice a year to have my teeth cleaned. And so I was going to the dentist and I knew it was an early morning. I always go early and get it over with so the rest of my day can be just get it past me. But you know, I don't know if we have any dentist in this room, but they are an interesting animal, are they not? They always make these interesting statements to4:33you. It's only going to hurt just a bit. You feel a whole lot better. And then they proceed to stick a needle that's about that long into your mouth. Now I went for a cleaning. I didn't have to have any work done on it. Praise the Lord. No cavities. Everything's in good shape. All the fake teeth are still in place and all those good things, right? You know, but you're always looking over on that little table that they got there because they got that. And it says, it's going to be just a little5:02stick, a little pit. And then your mouth gets to where you can feel the drool just coming out of your mouth. You know what I'm talking about? Start sticking all these foreign objects down into your mouth. And then they go there. Hey, this. Well, tell me, how's your day going? They do that. I know they do that. They teach that in dental school. You get everything in your office5:32inside their mouth and then start asking them questions because, you know, we can't answer it, right? But dentists are just, they just like to say, it's going to be just a little stick. It's not, it's going to hurt just for a second, but it's going to be okay in the end. Man, let me tell you something. I know over this next few weeks, as I've looked and forecast and prayed over5:55and read over and studied and researched over the next several weeks, about eight weeks totals, what we're going to be in this whole Beatitudes series. It's kind of like it's going to be a little stick, but in the end, it's going to feel a whole lot better. Because I think when we unpack it verse by verse by verse, I think you will grasp the freedom that we have are in Christ Jesus. Now,6:20some of us in this room, we've got a lot of hangups. Some of us have got some hurts and bad habits, and we are been imprisoned and we are in these jail cells and we can't get past the past. We can't get past the hurts and we can't get past the bad habits or the hangups. And some of you in this room are just needing an encouraging word. Well, I want to give you a key that's going to help us launch for6:45today. I want to give you a verse of scripture that's going to help you launch from the day. It's Galatians chapter five, verse six, for it is for freedom that Christ has set you free. If you're a saved saint by Jesus Christ in this room today, you have been set free. You do not have to have the thought pattern of living inside that jail cell any longer. Christ sets us free,7:12free to live. He would live not to live, want to live, do things the way he would have us do them. If last week we talked about admitting today, I want to give you God's plan for us today is that hope plan. Now we have two choices in this room today. We can take it our pathway7:40to freedom and hope that we think will be adequate, or we can choose God's pathway. It's a choice that we must make in this room. The Bible says, "Blessed are those who mourn." Now you think, wow, that's a strange verse of scripture because you're happy for those who are mourned. Remember we studied last week when we understood the word "blessed" or "blessing." "Blessed" means happy in the Greek. "Blessed" are those who mourn.8:07If you're here today and you have your body, I want you to circle the word "who mourn" because that's key. Like in spirit last week, "in mourn" is very key. I don't want you to feel bad about your faults and your failures here today. I want you to feel good about that. But the Christ follower in this room, we will mourn time to time. We will mourn after we admit our faults and failures to the Lord Jesus8:34Christ. We will mourn. And that leads us into the path of comfort. You see, we have to admit it first, then we will mourn for a second, and then we move on into that. You know, some want to choose their own pathway to do that. Some want to have their own way. They want to choose their path to comfort and hope.8:56Some take a drink. Some find that maybe alcohol is that pathway. It's a drug of choice. Maybe hide behind some kind of movie. Maybe hide behind your computer screen in pornography or illicit relationships or getting involved in relationships outside your marriage or gambling. Some go to Vegas and9:21say, "Well, it happens in Vegas. It stays in Vegas." Well, folks, let me tell you something. That's false. That's not the truth. Some, now I know I'm going to make some of you in this room mad, but some run to the shopping mall. They go shop and they spend more money than they have trying to impress people they don't even like with things that they can't afford, right? So they end up buying things.9:49They're trying to buy their comfort and trying to buy their hope. Some find their pathway in a pity part, or they want everybody else to feel bad, but they feel bad, and they want everybody else to feel bad so that they can start feeling good because everybody else feels bad. You know what I'm talking about? Those kind of people that always are downers. They always want to draw everybody out. Some, some in this room maybe, their pathway is anger. They lash out. Their temper, their fuse is so10:18short. They use anger. They want to belittle you into thinking, you know, their way is the best way sometimes. So they take it on that. They have anger. Some want us to feel as they feel. I said that earlier, so our path is one word. It's an escape. The one word is escape. Our word to describe our path10:46is escape. The problem with us escaping with all those things, it's only for a moment. It's only for, you might think that hiding behind that computer screen, you might think that that illicit affair, you might think that shopping spree, you might think that drunkenness that night, that11:14drug that you took that night. You might think, well folks, let me tell you something. If the Lord gives you the next day to wake up, you wake up back in the same mess, in the same spot. It's a fleeting moment. When I look at this focal verse today, verse three, when I look at verse four, excuse me, I notice that Jesus turns happiness upside down. When you look at, blessed are those who mourn, for they will be11:38comforted. Things I mourn about make me the happiest when I confess them, when I realize that they will never make me as comfortable or give me the everlasting hope that Jesus can. You see, I might think these things, you know, you've heard the story, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. Some think that's the way it might be. Some think it's like this, boy gets girl, boy gets better girl, boy gets a12:07really better girl, right? That's really not how it works. That's not how it works at all. If you think that work life works that way, let me tell you to circle in here close to me, we need to grow up. We need to grow up. Life is about blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.12:27So if you're thinking about escape, stop. Stop in your tracks today. Your path of escaping from dealing with the realities of your life, we need to surrender to his lordship today. So we can choose today your comfort and your pathway, your escape, or you can choose God's way. You could choose God's12:56way. And so that's our whole message today is escape. You're going to escape to the world, the things that you think the world might give you pleasure, or will you escape into God's pathway? Second principle today is God's pathway to comfort and hope is to see, number one, to see God for who he really is. Folks, let me tell you something. We forget it. We've been in church so long. We've been13:22baptized so many times into this fellowship. You say, wait a minute, I've only been baptized one time. I'm talking about the whole Baptist thing, man. We go to church. We've been to church. We go into church all the time. We've been to church services, every kind of church service you can possibly imagine. Been to every kind of small group time we possibly imagine. Been to every kind of video production thing we can possibly imagine. But sometimes we are so immune to really seeing who God really is. Sometimes we need a reorganization in our own thoughts of who God really is. I think we need13:50to look what Raymond's chapter eight, verse one says. There is there now no condemnations for those, now I want you to circle this word, who are in Christ. Those four words, who are in Christ. If you are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation in your life. We will stand before the Lord for our actions. We are not, God is not a condemning God. He is a compassionate God. Every Easter, last Easter,14:16there is, of the seven point some odd billion people on the planet, over a billion people celebrated resurrection Sunday. Over a billion people. About a seventh of the world's population celebrated that. Resurrection is all about telling us that he's not a condemning God, and he's not here to condemn us.14:42We choose that condemnation. We choose by separating ourselves from the love of God. We choose by saying no to Jesus Christ. Those who are going to hell choose to go to hell. The Bible says all could come to faith in Christ. There is no not one should perish. Not one. Not one. The Bible says for God so loved the15:07world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him. So folks, let me tell you something. If you think God's a condemning God, you're thinking wrong. There is there now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Now I want you to notice what Romans chapter eight, verse 34 says, for who is the one who condemns Christ Jesus? Is he who died? Yes, rather who was15:31raised and who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Jesus Christ came to this planet. He lived his life for us. Then he went to the cross for us. He rose from the grave for us. And now he is preparing a place for us. Those of us that are saved by his grace. His desire is to have a loving ongoing relationship with him. He is someone who is not out to get us. He's not out15:59to say, I'm out to get you. He said, I'm here to love you into the relationship. Who are we are going to trust? Are we going to trust our feelings and our escapes and our hiding behind all our sins? Are we going to trust that? Are we going to trust a loving God? It would be much easier to surrender to his Lordship of Christ. You see, the reason why most of us and including this preacher don't16:28surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is because we want to do it our way. We think we've got it all figured out. We're smart, intellectual. We're college grads. Some of us in this room, multiple degrees in this room and we feel like we've got it all figured out. Folks, let me tell you something. We really don't. I want to trust a loving God because he demonstrated his love for us. Look what Psalms 8616:50verse 15 says in the New International Version. "But you, I Lord, a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness." Does that sound like a condemning God? You see, we need to really see who God really is. We think, "Oh, if I surrender, he's going to smack me around. He's going to beat me up." Yes, he's going to spank us every now and then. We need that,17:17do we not? Just like we need to discipline our physical children. You know, I love the Bible when it says, "Spare the rod, spoil the child." We didn't have a spoiled kid in our house. We didn't spare the rod. And you say, "Well, I don't believe in spanking." Well, we know. We've been around your kids. Can we spank them for you? Amen? Oh, I know some of you going, "Oh,17:46goodness gracious, he's going to do something." Let me tell you something. This whole timeout thing, that's the dumbest thing. This is not part of the manuscript, but I want to give it to you. Timeout is the dumbest thing ever invented on the planet. Amen? Smack them one good time and be done with it. Amen? I'm not saying in the face, just put something on that back side that'll make them remember it. Amen? Make it a little hard for them to sit down.18:13That's a whole nother sermon right there. But look what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1:3, "God is the Father who is full of mercy and all comfort." That's who he really is. When we start seeing God for who he really is, we will realize that the good shepherd is the way to follow. The good shepherd,18:35we don't have to escape to the things of this world that are presented to us. We choose God's pathway and his comfort. Blessed are those who mourn. Yes, we are mourning because of our situation. We're happy because we get to call upon his name. For those will be, for they will be comforted.18:59I love what the word says. We can see God who he really is. I remember back when we studied Psalm 23 when we unpacked those six beautiful verses. I love the international version of this. It says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. For you,19:22God, I really see you. You are with me. Your rod, your staff, they comfort me." Maybe you remember. I'm going to remind you, but there's about 105 words in that six verses. 105 to 115, depending on your translation. Every one of those words point us back to the first two in19:47Psalms 23:1. The Lord. When we start seeing God for who he really is, we will start doing what God really wants us to do and that surrender to his lordship and receive that comfort. We will mourn, but we will also rejoice in that comfort. The second thing I want us to notice, let you notice God's path in comfort and20:13hope is not to see God for who he is, but we also need to see who I really am. I need to see who I really am. Folks, let me tell you something. The coolest guy in this room is broken. The sharpest person in this room has got problems. We are loved, but we keep our hurts hidden sometimes. We keep our bad habits and20:41our hang-ups and our secrets hidden away. Forgive me in your handout that's a typographical error there. It's Romans 3:23, not Romans 2:23. That's on me, but we corrected it on the screen because the Bible says, "For all has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." That means every person in here,21:06the sharpest person in this room, the most spiritual person you think in this room, all has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We need to realize that we are desperate without Christ. Luke 12:2 says, "There is nothing, nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that not be made known." Not known. We are all in the same boat. He loves us with an everlasting love.21:35He loves us with an everlasting love. We always stop when we say Romans 3:23. We always, because that's part of the Romans road, a spiritual outline for sharing somebody, leading somebody to faith in Christ. But we always forget to go to verse 24. I want you to notice what verse 24 says in the New Living Translation version. "God is gracious in kindness, declares us22:05not guilty. He has done this through Jesus Christ, who has freed us by taking away our sins." Folks, let me tell you something. If he is a condemning God, that verse there says he's not. He is faithful and just to cleanse us of all unrighteousness, but he's also going to hold us accountable. Folks, let me tell you something. He loves us with an everlasting love, Jeremiah says. So I will continue to show my22:33kindness. We don't need to stop at verse 23. We need to understand that verse 24 is there for a reason. Psalms 119:76. The first part of that verse says, "May your unfailing love be my comfort." Your unfailing love. So we need to see who God really is. He's a loving, comforting, and guiding God. But we also need to see23:00we have a need for him. We all are in the same body in this room. The third thing I want you to look at, the third thing is to see how God can change me. Now, not only do we see how God, who he really is, but we see who we really are. But we ought to see how God can change me on this course, on this path.23:27The whole idea of change has two negative reactions, does it not? First of all, I'd like to change, but I don't have the time to change, or to go through the process of change, or the energy to go through the process of change. I've been at this for so long. I just don't have time. It's so grueling. Secondly, who am I kidding? I've tried it before. I've changed. I've kind of said I've thrown my23:54into the spiritual fire before, and I've tried it. I've prayed hundreds of prayers, and nothing has worked. I've disappointed myself and many others many, many times. I feel like I'm such a disappointment to God as well. Who should I, why should I even try? Who really cares? God can change us. That is his job. Isaiah chapter 40, it's a beautiful passage. I challenge you to go read24:22the entire text. We won't take the text today. But Isaiah chapter 40, it actually begins with comfort. Comfort, my people. Then it gets down to chapter 40, verse 28 through 31, which is a beautiful text, and the translation gives us a beautiful rendering of it. Listen to what it says. It says, "Have you ever heard or understood, do you not know that the Lord is everlasting God,24:50the creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one measures the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out. He offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, and you men will give up. But those who wait on the Lord will find strength.25:11They will fly on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and they will not faint." When you listen to those beautiful words in Isaiah chapter 40, they will run and not grow weary.25:33If we will just wait on the Lord. Let the Lord shape a Genesis in your own personal life. Create a new idea, a new heart in you. I was thinking about this illustration. It's kind of strange for me to talk about hummingbirds. I don't sit around looking at hummingbirds.26:00Some do. They have more time than others. But hummingbirds are an interesting little bird. Have you ever seen them? They're about this big, nothing. They've got this long beak. And they, have you ever noticed, I mean, they just work so hard to tick their little nose in that little red stuff and get that sweet stuff and they just work. And they're working so hard. But God made them. They're beautiful, I guess.26:28They're beautiful. But then he also made that beautiful eagle. I mean, that eagle has that wingspan and it's flapping. And some people let them out of a cage and they start swirling. And they float all the way around. And they sweet. And they, and they just move. They're not,26:59it just looks so effortless, doesn't it? And they, and there's, you know, everybody's just kind of going like this. And, you know, and they're just, Trent, they're just kind of floating. And that big, flapping wings. And then they just kind of glide. I started doing some research on the eagle. Now, and I'm not just talking about the ones down in Lee County. I'm talking about all over the world,27:25old man. These eagles, there's something about those eagles. What makes them? They're just working so hard to stay up. And the eagle's just up there and takes one big sweep. And then he can just float for a long while. Well, it's the air, the updraft holds the wings of the updraft. I started thinking about that. Here's the truth. God has designed in our souls to catch the updraft of his grace,27:52his mercy, and his love. We don't have to work so hard for it. We can just spread out our arms and just receive his grace, his mercy. It doesn't matter what God is saying to try to hope our way through it. But I'm trying to tell you, we trust him moment by moment, day by day, every aspect of our28:17life. And we will receive the updraft of God's grace, his mercy, and his love. Let me tell you something, folks. There's no way we can achieve that in our own merit. We just got to surrender our life to him. The eagle launches out of that nest with those massive wings and knowing in his own heart that28:46the updraft of God's wind blows underneath him. Church, in this room, some of you are struggling. You're working. You're flapping your wings to stay afloat when you just need to stretch out your arms and say, "Lord Jesus, here I am. I come just like I am. Change me the way you want me to be changed."29:07I love what Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God who is at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve his purpose." It's God who is at work within you, giving you the power to change, giving you the ability, the energy into your life, changing your29:36attitude, changing your will, changing your life, giving you clarity and direction for daily living. I earnestly believe that God exists and I believe that it will matter to him and that he has the power to change me. You say, "Where did you get that, Dan?" That is directly from Rick Warren and Celebrate Recovery.30:02Because some of you in this room, you need recovering. Some of you need to see who God really is. You may not have the addiction. You may have just a bad attitude. Maybe you don't have the addiction to alcohol, drug or pornography or gambling or any of the things or the major six or eight,30:28ten things that we call real bad addictions. Maybe your addiction is to a bad disposition. Maybe you have a bad attitude. Maybe you have a bad marriage because you're not working at it. But some of you in this room need to realize that God exists and that you matter to him and he has the power to change you. But you keep resisting. You keep working with your little wings and you're trying so hard and all he30:52wants you to do is spread those wings and let the updraft of his love change you. Let's pray.31:15Let's pray.More sermons on Isaiah →
