Serving Our World in the Name of Christ: Isaiah 58

Let's hear from the Word of God.

Following up, Tom's sharing from Isaiah 58 last week.

I'm going to focus in on four verses from that same text as we continue this two-week series.

Isaiah 58, verses 9 through 12.

Isaiah 58:9–12

The word of God.

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer.

You shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.

If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then, then shall your light shine in the darkness, and your gloom shall be as the noonday.

And the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and make your bones strong.

And you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail.

And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt.

You shall rise up the foundations of many generations.

You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.

Lord, have your way through your word.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for giving us to one another in this day and in this season.

As we begin this new year, and as you call us, as you call us out again, would you speak to each of us personally?

Lord, you have a particular call for APC.

And that's why you've brought these people.

So reveal yourself.

Lord, speak powerfully through your word.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Some of you will find help, sermon notes in your bulletin.

And praise God for the sanctity of life ministry.

Wow.

As you'll see from one of my references today, that is a great blessing in the body of Christ.

Serving our world, last week, serving our city, today, serving our world in the name of Christ.

Today we will continue to take a new look at an essential biblical principle and its application in our lives.

Fasting and the actions that flow from our humbling ourselves before God are where we are moving today, continuing from last week.

You might say this is a new take on old stuff.

A new take on old stuff where words continue to change in their meanings.

In my preparations for today, I was quite struck to discover there apparently is some new form of Generation Z Bible that's being put together.

Apparently, there's a 22-second clip with 3.6 million hits where a Gen Z narrator is sharing about Mary's becoming pregnant with Jesus, appropriately called the Annunciation.

It's accurate biblical content stated in a way that a lot of us simply won't identify with.

Listen.

Mary was a pick-me girl for God and was simping for him in prayer.

The video said.

Interesting.

Accurate, different words.

Often God begins to speak to new generations through different words than some of us are comfortable with.

Powerful message.

Fasting is another word that has taken on new meaning today.

How many of you are familiar with the concept intermittent fasting?

Let's see the hands here.

Come on.

Come on, raise them high.

Raise them high.

Proud, I am one of you.

Intermittent fasting is not exactly the biblical focus.

No, it's fasting has become about getting back as a bodybuilder here.

About getting back to your bodybuilding sculpted physique, or about getting back into your favorite dress.

Hmm.

Not quite the same as the biblical reference to fasting.

No, let's, in fact, how about we turn back to the focus on fasting that Tom brought us to last week?

And how God first changes our hearts and then propels our actions into our city.

And then today, even out to the rest of the world, through people just like us.

We're taking a new look at an old concept.

Out of this idea of fasting, of not eating, to avail myself to the Lord, the concept of sacrifice is a key part of this.

Some of you are aware of Nikola Jokic, famous basketball player whose Denver Nuggets won the NBA World Championship last year.

He was quoted as saying this immediately after they won the championship.

Listen very carefully.

I think if you sacrifice yourself for something bigger than yourself, or for the team, or whatever.

Like my teammate Aaron did, for the sake of the team, the sacrifice he made, well, I think that's why the one upstairs blessed his game so much.

And he nodded up, note to heaven.

Interesting.

I think if you sacrifice yourself for something bigger than yourself, oh, what possibilities abound.

For something bigger than yourself.

This is where Isaiah 58 and fasting leads us to that kind of sacrifice.

As Tom led us last week, he used two phrases in talking from Isaiah 58 that I'm going to use because they're so helpful and so accurate.

The first, the specific actions that we are led to are first actions of personal piety.

Abiding in Jesus, listening to God in prayer, to the absolute humbling of self.

Which leads us to the second phrase that Tom used, what Tom called social flourishing.

That is, that Jesus' impact on us is so personally impacting, it creates such impact and zeal or excitement or conviction that we are willing to extend ourselves beyond ourselves to our neighbors, to respective roles and parts in our cities, and even to the rest of the world.

It appears that out of fasting, out of a willingness to make ourselves available to the Father, he takes normal people, that would be you and me, he takes normal people, as my Ugandan friends say, normal people humbled down, normal people humbled down, and thus more able and willing to hear from God, personal piety, and then to respond when he calls, social flourishing.

This opportunity we have to sacrifice to listen to him and then to respond.

Respond to whom?

To specific people in specific places with specific actions.

Normal people.

Dorothy seemed quite normal to me.

Many of you know Dorothy, she's an active member for many, many years.

And then I discovered that Dorothy leads a ministry to the same place that I go in Uganda.

I've been to the city she goes to, I know people in the places she goes.

Turns out her market project mission is having quite an impact.

It appears that Dorothy and Jim, Jim and I work out at Planet Fitness at the same time.

And so I know he's pretty normal too.

As I mean, as normal goes.

You know, I think that's we can evaluate that, but we don't really have to have time for that this morning.

What's the point?

Normal people who've made themselves available by humbling themselves down, available to God, being used in some pretty amazing ways.

Wow.

Normal people humbled down.

So it is with this background, an introduction to our text, that brings us to these four steps of application.

Two steps of personal piety, humbling ourselves before God, and then two steps of social flourishing.

Four steps that will move us forward today.

In 2024, in this two-part series, intended to call us out to be willing to humble ourselves and to hear from God, even if our plans are set, to be available to Him in this new season.

Step one, first step of personal piety.

It's first half of verse nine.

First half of verse nine.

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer.

You shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.

I call this opening your hands to a here am I God.

Opening your hands to a here am I God.

I love Jesus' words in Matthew 11, 29, where he actually, Jesus actually referenced something that's in Isaiah 58, verse 5, the whole idea of humility.

Isaiah 58:5

Matthew 11, 29.

Take my yoke of gentleness and humility on yourself.

The father is after a posture in us.

Good posture, so important.

The father is after a posture in each one of us.

He desires that we look like this.

Open hands.

Open hands.

This posture is really a statement of releasing control of my life.

You see, some of us, often myself included, are not listening well right now.

For whatever reason.

Some of us are so proactive, moving forward so quickly, already with plans fully in place.

It turns out that we miss him sometimes when he desires to speak and say, Here I am.

Sometimes we're just not listening or aren't watching.

This word, frankly, is why God has some of us here this morning.

His call for us again is what?

It's to humble ourselves down.

It's to humble ourselves down, to release control even of the great plans that we've made.

To open our eyes and our ears so that he can say again, here I am.

Let's go forward.

Let's practice for just a second.

If you're not comfortable with this, that's fine.

I'm I'm not checking or taking notes as to who does or doesn't.

But if you're comfortable, let's try it.

Let's put our hands out.

There's something about this posture that's very vulnerable.

It's a statement of releasing control.

Father, make it so.

Our second step of personal piety, of humbling ourselves down, is found in the last half of verse 9 and then in the beginning of verse 10.

It turns out in this part of the personal piety steps, there's a taking off or a putting off and a putting on.

First, the taking off, if you take away the yoke from your midst, middle of verse 9, if you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, the speaking wickedness, which I call malicious talk from another translation.

And then put on, if you, verse 10, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, put off, put on, put off, put off pointing the finger.

I don't think I'm familiar with that.

Well, let's practice.

Oh Trump, you.

Oh Biden, you.

Oh husband, you.

Oh child, you.

Oh former friend who gossiped about me, you.

I think most of us are familiar with the pointing finger.

Another translation calls it the wagging finger.

God through Isaiah says, take off this yoke.

It is not our call to fix everybody else, or to stand in judgment over them.

Because it often leads to the second thing we're called to put off, the second heavy yoke.

Speaking wickedness, malicious talk, saying things that in my own eyes might actually be mean-spirited.

Words against another, where I'm actually lording myself over them.

So it turns out that this process of humbling ourselves down actually takes specific response.

Stopping this and stopping this attitude of lording over that uses malicious talk against others.

Lord, help us to put off, to take off this yoke that wears us down so so much.

We have this opportunity to put off this and to put off this, and then we're ready to put on.

Verse 10.

Put on in Isaiah's words, it begins with pouring out yourself for the hungry.

Now, for the record, that's probably not where I would have started.

Not my first thought.

Pouring myself out for the hungry.

Interesting though.

I was in northeast Uganda in early December with my long-term partners there in a ministry called Youth with a Mission.

They've determined that the most strategic way to serve and to share Christ in this newly reached people group, the most powerful way to share the gospel was to provide three meals a day, seven days a week, at Kabong General Hospital.

Turns out that no food is served in this hospital.

The responsibility is less up to families, which in an incredible in an incredibly poor area means that most folks don't get any food many days of the week while they're in the hospital.

I watched my friends pour themselves out for the 200 hungry people in that hospital.

I watched people from three different countries, normal people just like you and me.

Nothing fancy here.

Very simple, normal people humbling themselves down and feeding the poor.

There are those who start here with a willingness to feed the poor.

Isaiah then says the second action is to put on is to satisfy the desires of the afflicted.

That's not a step that I would often think about in my own personal piety as well.

Satisfy the desires of the afflicted.

A good friend named Laura, who leads an inner city ministry for the Navigator Ministry.

Many of you are familiar with the Navigators.

Laura leads an inner city ministry in Albuquerque, New Mexico, crossing cultures as an Anglo into a primarily Hispanic and black cultures.

Laura is normal, and in many ways, she's one of those people you'd never pick to lead a ministry.

Laura is finishing her 20th year, battling to win back families and kids, in that place where teenagers are regularly murdered, where poverty is rampant and prostitution is rampant, and where kids, where youths simply think they have no way out.

Laura didn't go over the ocean, but she's reaching cross culturally, right next to her own.

neighborhood.

Laura and her team are satisfying the desires of the afflicted.

And now over 20 years many of the teens they started with are now helping lead that ministry for the next generation.

Wow.

Humble yourself.

Available.

Wow.

Funniest thing is that Laura is just like you and me.

Now Isaiah moves us forward.

We have opened our hands and humbled ourselves down.

We're seeking to put this off.

We're seeking to put this off.

We're seeking, if we follow the passage, to be open to loving and serving and feeding the poor even, to satisfy the afflicted, Lord make me open for that.

Now that these pieces are in place, the pieces of personal piety, if we're doing these, if you look at the passage beginning in the middle of verse 10, it says, then, if you do these things then, then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your gloom will be as the noonday.

And the Lord, I the Lord, will guide you continually.

I will satisfy your desire in scorched places.

I will make your bones strong.

You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose water will not fail.

If we are willing and postured and open I call this first step of social flourishing blessed to be a blessing.

Blessed to be a blessing.

We have been guided, we have been protected, we have been satisfied, we have been refreshed, we have been fulfilled.

Now we're ready to enjoy our blessings.

No, no, no, no, no.

No.

We've been blessed so that we might bless others.

Again we're back to open hands.

Open hands.

Father make me open to ways you might want to use me.

Look outward.

Blessed so that I might bless others.

What is blessed to be a blessing look like?

Let me give you two examples from my life.

Again, normal people.

Examples of friends who've joined me in the Uganda work, which is one of the eight places that I have privilege to be a part of international ministry.

And for the record the two people I'm talking about neither of them like travel.

Interesting.

They're not fans of travel.

Brian's the first one Brian was the president of an engineering firm in the Southwest for 20 years.

And in his retirement he's now consulting with leaders of$50 million companies.

He's quite an amazing guy in terms of people seeking his wisdom and counsel for growing businesses.

Twelve years ago Brian humbled himself down and listened to God and God said long story short Brian went to Uganda and invested in a young man named Joseph where and he helped Joseph build five businesses most of which are still going strong but built five businesses for what purpose?

Listen very carefully with a goal to hire homeless men, young men off the street, teach them business skills, and disciple them in Christ wow amazing how these two brothers had just a wonderful time Brian came home and he said I don't think I'll probably ever go back that was a great experience.

Not a big fan of traveling internationally well Brian's hands remained open and Brian just came back from a second trip the guy who said he probably wouldn't go again just came back from a second trip.

So now investing in two more young entrepreneurs who want again listen very carefully these two young entrepreneurs want to invest in the next generation around them and help them build self-sustaining businesses and also help them to learn to love their wives like Christ loved the church.

Turns out in this part of village culture it's completely male-dominated and even Christian men treat their wives poorly.

These two 35 year olds are taking on that battle and calling out these young men.

Each of them are training 15 Brian and I have privilege to be alongside that process.

Amazing what God is doing.

And then there's Cheryl if you don't identify with Brian there's Cheryl the quilter there's Cheryl the precepts Bible teacher.

Cheryl has helped Jane Okello start a ministry to young single moms who've gotten pregnant out of wedlock and have been cast out of their families and their villages not a popular thing to do in Uganda the purpose of this hands of grace ministry that Cheryl's helping Jane establish is to help these young women cast out of their culture to become tailors making their own clothes and selling clothes fixing others' clothes to help them develop a self-sustaining income so they can live and have funds for themselves and for their child.

After 10 months of ministry I had privileged to be at their first graduation on this trip recently in late November, early December 17 graduates and stories of life changed beyond what I have time to tell you.

I think the one that struck me the most was the young lady who said they asked for any of the graduates to speak and she said in my village where they'd sent me away they used to call me names I cannot repeat.

Today they just call me their tailor she's been received again back and her story was one of eight that I heard what's amazing about Cheryl's alongsidedness to this ministry is that Cheryl's not been to Uganda.

Cheryl as I said is not a fan of travel Cheryl has built a long distance relationship through phone calls and emails of great substance and impact.

Cheryl and her quilting friends have helped provide 17 sewing machines and two sweater machines all supporting from long distance just I just got pictures yesterday of 11 more sewing machines that have come I don't have time to tell you about Gabe, the 40 year old guidance counselor at a North Dakota high school who's also a farmer who has joined Brian and me on that side of the ocean in Uganda investing in Emma and Solomon so amazing to watch what God is doing.

So it is then in the summary of these three steps my goal was to walk you through those three and in summary we'll reference four as we move toward closing.

So it is with these three steps we become prepared to be used of God for social flourishing in Tom's word propelled to impact people around us that God has prepared open hands taking off this yoke taking off this yoke even a willingness to serve the poor to help the afflicted with those things in place we're blessed to become a blessing and so if this those things happen in steps one two and three step four verse twelve listen catch a vision for God's purposes here and your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt and you shall raise up the foundations of many generations just like Emma and Solomon are doing you shall be called the repairer of the breach literally repairer of the holes in the walls and the restorer of streets to dwell in normal people humble down taking things out of their lives so they don't block listening to God a willingness to be available even to the poor this prepares us to have foundational generational impact in our worlds for some of us it's in our neighborhoods right next door for some of us it's roles in our respective cities where God has placed us and for others of us it's the wider world so many people are in need of rebuilding.

So many people are broken broken walls needing mending some of us all of us who know Christ and are full of his spirit have been given supernatural gifts and supernatural passion to invest our lives outwardly for such a time as this I've been around here for two years.

God is doing an amazing work and his call outward continues Lord make us available let's pray father we humble ourselves down Lord you have spoken your spirit has done the heavy lifting this morning you have spoken to many of us in a very personal and specific way would we respond?

Would we not put that aside would we not stuff that back we seek to open our hands and humble ourselves down so that we might again listen even if we're clearly defined in your call Lord we desire to be open would you open our hearts to this world to which you've called APC and to many of us individually oh Lord make it so in Jesus' name amen