Ever gotten in over your head?
In one of the most famous moments in scripture, these words are spoken: “Here I am, send me.” As soon as Isaiah spoke those words, I wonder if he felt like he was in over his head?!
Have you ever volunteered for something only to discover you had absolutely NO idea what you were getting yourself into?
Years ago when our family lived in Atlanta we were part of a great neighborhood. In the area where we lived every neighborhood had a large community pool. In fact, just about every neighborhood had a large pool and they all had swim teams made up of the kids in each neighborhood. And they were super competitive!
Before I knew it all 3 of my children were swimming with the Berkshire Barracudas!
What I didn’t realize at the time was that if your kid was on the swim team then you, as a parent, had to volunteer in some way.
OK, not a big deal. I love helping out. Sign me up for concessions or make me the guy who hands out the towels or something easy.
No problem. Except, there was a problem.
There was a guy at my church who loved swim team. He caught me at church and let me know that he was the head of the judges for swim meets and he wanted me to be a judge, too.
One problem… I don’t know anything about swimming!
He sent me all the training materials and I had to attend a Saturday workshop but even after all of that I had no idea what I was doing or how in the world I ended up volunteering to be a judge for swim meets.
Here’s a picture of me in my required uniform, blue shorts with a white polo, pretending to be a judge at a swim meet. I told my wife, unless a kid walks across the bottom of the pool, I’m not disqualifying anybody!
How Long?
Sometimes we sign up for things we’re not ready for.
What happens when we get in over our heads is that we either fake it till we make it, we pretend like we know what we’re doing, or we try to get out of it as soon as possible.
We regret, sometimes immediately, what we signed up for and try to get by, get it over with, get out of it, or just show up and do as little as possible until whatever it is ends.
And I think for a lot of us this describes our lives.
We didn’t know our job would be this hard.
No one told us that marriage requires this much work.
We didn’t know that the Christian life, deciding to follow Jesus, would be hard sometimes.
It’s all harder than we imagined. And for many of us we’re unwilling to stay in the tension. When it, whatever it is, gets hard we want to get out.
You’re Not the Only One
If you’ve ever felt that way, you’re not the only one. In one of the greatest stories in the Bible this is the question. “HOW LONG?”
We wonder, “How long will it be like this?” “What did I sign up for?” “What have I gotten myself into?”
In Isaiah 6, something happens in Isaiah’s life that changed everything for Him. I’m so glad he wrote it down.
If you grew up in church, you’ve heard this story more than once. But chances are you’ve stopped short of the tension. Even in scripture, we try to avoid the tension. But I want us to lean into the tension today because I think here we see in vivid color what it really means to say, YES LORD!
Isaiah’s Vision
1 It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.
Isaiah situates this vision, this encounter with the Lord, into his historical context. This is when this happened. It was the same year King Uzziah died. That year, I saw the Lord!
Yes, the world was in political unrest. But our God was unmoved. Yes, there were questions about who would be the next king. But there was no question about who was the King of kings, the Eternal King. Yes, the king’s palace in Jerusalem was unoccupied. But the Lord Almighty still occupied the throne of Heaven. Yes, king Uzziah had been brought low, buried in the ground. But the Lord was high and lifted up! Yes, earthly kings come and go. But our God is ever present, eternal, everlasting, and his reign is unending.
In other words, there is absolutely no KING, no God, like our God.
2 Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.
The angelic creatures Isaiah saw were created by God for God with ONE mission, ONE purpose, ONE aim… to declare the holiness of God.
3 They were calling out to each other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
The whole earth is filled with his glory!”
4 Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.
Just like how the temple musicians and singers when the Temple in Jerusalem was first constructed never stoped playing music and singing his praises (1 Chronicles 9.33), these angels cry Holy, Holy, Holy without end. Without pause. This is unceasing praise. Unending worship.
The name and renown and worship of God is always in progress. In fact, whenever we worship we join in the unending worship already and always happening in Heaven.
The First Tension
5 Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
Isaiah beholds the holiness of God and he is completely overwhelmed.
You cannot encounter the holiness of God and not be undone with the reality of your unholiness. You can pretend like you’re good, like you have it altogether, you can even convince me that you’re doing just fine. But there’s no pretending in the presence of God. There’s only truth.
Nothing is hidden. Nothing is withheld. Your sin, your shortcomings, the gravity of your guilt is seen in the light of His presence. His light illuminates every dark corner of your heart.
Isaiah realizes this all at once and he hits the floor in front of the Holy God.
But then, something happens.
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”
Sheer Grace!
He expected judgement, he received forgiveness. He deserved condemnation, he found grace.
God purifies him with fire, with a burning coal to touch his lips to remove his guilt and forgive his sin.
It would be tempting to move on quickly from this moment, but I want us to stay in this FIRST TENSION for a moment because until you encounter the Lord, feel the weight of your sin, and experience His grace in your life it will be difficult for you to ever experience what Isaiah experiences next.
So many of us would like to skip this tension, ignore our sin, avoid being in His presence, yet still hope to have a place on the stage. So many people in the world want to skip the process, avoid the hard inner work, and step into the spotlight.
Isaiah doesn’t skip the process. He confesses his status as a sinner in the presence of the Holy God. He waits, who knows for how long, until God sends a flaming angelic being with a fiery coal to purify his life so he can be used by God.
It’s only after the refiners fire, after the tension, after the heat that he’s ready to be used by God.
After this moment, Isaiah hears God speak.
Here I Am
8 Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”
What do you do when you see and hear a Holy God ask for a volunteer and you’re the only one in the room?
The answer might seem obvious, but remember…
Moses said, “No!” (Exodus 3.11)
Abraham said, “I’m too old.” (Genesis 17.17)
Elijah said, “I quit!” (1 Kings 19.4)
Gideon said, “I’m not strong enough!” (Judges 6.15).
But Isaiah says, “Here I am, send me!” (Isaiah 6.8)
Isaiah had been summoned into the throne room of heaven and he had survived being in the presence of the Holy God! Isaiah is welcomed, forgiven, and now commissioned in His presence.
He is SENT!
But his mission is not glamorous. Most of the time, we stop here. We stop here because this is the high note! Isaiah responds, “Here I am, send me!” And we want to have this same experience, this same encounter, and we want to say the same thing to God! “Here I am. Send me.”
And, I do want that for my life, and I want that for your life.
I want you to say, “YES, LORD!” I want you to say YES to Jesus! To say YES to His GREAT COMMISSION.
Your Calling
As Jesus stood with his disciples on the mountain before He ascended to Heaven, he said… “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28.19-20
This is the Great Commission. Not the Great Suggestion. It’s not enough to show up every Sunday and to love God. We are called, commanded!, to love our neighbors and share the love of God with those around us.
The question God is still asking today is, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”
Sometimes this story gets pulled out of context, much like it did in recent political remarks by our president.
But make no mistake about, this moment is about God asking for someone to step up, rise up, and be His messenger. If you want to pull this story forward into our context, then here’s the questions we need to ask and answer…
Who will go and make disciples of all nations? Who will share the story of the life changing love of Jesus with their neighbors? Who will leverage their life, risk everything, for God’s name and renown?
But you should know before you make a decision how the rest of this story unfolds.
Isaiah’s mission is destined for failure. This is the SECOND TENSION, and it’s not easy to stay in this tension either.
The Second Tension
9 And he [GOD] said, “Yes, go, and say to this people,
‘Listen carefully, but do not understand.
Watch closely, but learn nothing.’
10 Harden the hearts of these people.
Plug their ears and shut their eyes.
That way, they will not see with their eyes,
nor hear with their ears,
nor understand with their hearts
and turn to me for healing.”
11 Then I said, “Lord, HOW LONG will this go on?”
And he replied,
“Until their towns are empty,
their houses are deserted,
and the whole country is a wasteland;
12 until the Lord has sent everyone away,
and the entire land of Israel lies deserted.
13 If even a tenth—a remnant—survive,
it will be invaded again and burned.
But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down,
so Israel’s stump will be a holy seed.”
Isaiah lived his life preaching a message no one would hear or respond to. According to tradition, Isaiah died a martyrs death, he was sawn in two!
Saying Yes LORD may cost you absolutely everything. In fact, it does. (Matthew 16.24)
“Yes, Lord?” Or “No, Lord?”
What do you do when you get in over your head?
Isaiah could have walked away from the tension. He could have said, “No, Lord.” But he didn’t. He said, “Yes, Lord. Send me.”
Sometimes you are called to a life of long obedience in the same direction not knowing if or when you will see the results.
So here’s the tension, here’s the question…
If you knew that your life’s work would end in failure by the world’s standards, but that you were living in complete obedience to God, would you still say, YES LORD? Would you still say, “Here I am, send me?”
Hudson Taylor lived in the 1800s. He was one of the first missionaries to China. He once said…
“God isn’t looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow Him.”
– Hudson taylor
Here’s the problem, we are not called to a life of comfort, we are not called to maintain the status quo, we’re not called to be lukewarm Christians, we are called to live for Jesus, to share the light and love of Jesus with others, to spend our lives striving to make a difference in this world through the love of God.
God sent Hudson Taylor to China. Maybe God just wants to send you across the street.
Here I Am, Send Me
Who does God want to send you to so you can share his love with them?
I wonder if the Great Commission isn’t about church growth, but obedience. If the goal isn’t about attendance, but about our faithfulness to share the good news of the love of God with the world.
The early disciples understood this. They understood that their job was to plant and water, it was God and God alone who gave the increase. (1 Corinthians 3.6)
What if the success of your life isn’t determined by what you produce, how productive you are, but by your willingness to say, “YES LORD,” over and over again? By your willingness to say to Jesus, “Here I Am, Send Me.” No matter the outcome, no matter the response, no matter the result… “Here I am, send me.”
And sometimes your message is received, sometimes it’s rejected, but thanks be to God unlike Isaiah what you point to is more than a seed (Isaiah 6.13), you get to point to JESUS!
Maybe you feel unprepared, you might feel like you’re in over your head, but when you live your life in obedience and follow the lead of the Holy Spirit living in you, you…
Leverage your life for the name, the fame, and the renown of Jesus.
There’s no greater Name to leverage your life for. There’s no greater story you can spend your life telling. There’s no greater love than the great love of God displayed on the cross of Christ for you and for me.
Isaiah spent his life for the glory of God, will you?
The Holy Spirit
Some of us want an Isaiah experience, hit me over the head, give me a vision of Heaven, and tell me what you want me to do. What God has given us is so much better. We have His Spirit living inside of us, prompting us, directing us, giving us inner strength, wisdom and discernment. Yet so many times we are simply unwilling to follow. Unwilling to listen. Unwilling to go.
But there are people all around us who need the hope we have. There are people all around us who are far from God, who do not have or belong to a church family, who are like the lost sheep that has wandered away and the Spirit of God within you is asking you, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”
May we have the faith, the courage, the humility to respond like Isaiah, “Here I am, send me.”
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