Sermon
Ep 361 | "Here I Am, Send Me" - Brian Osburn 1-3-21
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Great to be together. It's good to see you.
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And we were just thankful just to see one another and the time
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of sickness and people have been affected by this virus and
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certainly we care for them, we pray for them that they become
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better, but it's good to assemble this morning together
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as gods family, to Give Him worship to give him honor and
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Glory. We see a neat thing happen.
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Kind of within this scene here that we're going to talk about
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this morning with Isaiah and I want to read verses 1 through 8
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just to introduce our thoughts this morning of what happens
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here with Isaiah. It says, beginning in verse 1 of
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Isaiah chapter 6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the
Isaiah 6 chapter mention
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Lord sitting on the throne high and lifted up and the train of
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his robe, filled the temple above it, stood seraphim.
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Each one had six wings with two. He covered his face with two, he
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covered his feet and with two he flew and one cried to another
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and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts.
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The whole earth is full of his glory.
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And the post of the door were shaken by the voice of him, who
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cried out and the voice was filled with smoke and the house
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was filled with smoke. And so I said, woe is me for.
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I am undone because I have a man of unclean lips and I dwell in
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the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes, have seen the
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king, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to
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me having in his hand, a live coal, which he had taken with
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the tongs, from The Altar, and he touched my mouth with it.
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And said, behold this has touched your lips, your iniquity
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is taken away and your sin purged.
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Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send?
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And who will go for us? Then I said, here, am I Send me.
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And we have just In this passage here.
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One of the most significant things and events that happens
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in the life of Isaiah. And so we find Isaiah.
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He's called to be a prophet of the Lord here at on this
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occasion. He sees this Lord, he sees the
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Lord, he's there sitting on his throne and the angels.
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They're they're worshiping their, their proclaiming, the
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glory of the Lord. And I left this scene, as it's
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painted for us. There's the Lord, he's high.
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He's lifted up showing his Holiness.
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He's showing his reign. He's pictured here as being
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higher than any other thing than the Angels.
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They're they're proclaiming that the whole earth is full of his
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glory and certainly it is And you see a similar praise, that's
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happening when you go to the Book of Revelations, Revelations
Revelation 5 chapter mention
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chapter 5, but on a grander scale with the numeral
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innumerable host of angels that are gathered there.
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In that particular scene that John is witnessing and their J,
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Angels, gathered around. Jesus proclaiming his glory and
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honor. And when you it's a blessing to
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be able to see seems like this inscription Picture and just a
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glimpse of what's beyond and how great it's really going to be to
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be with the Lord and to worship Him.
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Seeing the Majesty of the Holiness of the Lord with Isaiah
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here. Seeing how greedy is Isaiah
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acknowledged I'm a nobody. I'm a sinner, I'm unclean.
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I am undone. He saw himself as unworthy here
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in the context as he standing before the Lord.
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And that's how we might see ourselves sometimes as we might
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picture ourselves before the Lord, because we are, we're
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really I'm worthy. We are unworthy to be in his
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presence. We are unworthy to even be
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called his children. And the reason for that is
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because the sin in our lives compared to the Holiness of God.
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That causes us to put things in such a perspective.
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But here in Isaiah, when you look at what happens, one of
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these seraphim, one of these angels flew over to Isaiah
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touched his lips with the hot coal from The Altar and Proclaim
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your iniquity, your sins. They've been taken away.
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You've been forgiven? Perhaps maybe this made Isaiah
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feel better. Maybe it gave him a boost of
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confidence seeing that his sins had been forgiven after.
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Considering himself, not to be worthy a sinner before the Lord.
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now forgiven, And having understood that and the Lord.
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Now, asking the question, whom shall I send and who will go for
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us? It seems to me from the response
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here that Isaiah did not skip a beat.
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He was ready, having the understanding of what the Lord
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had done for him. Singing, I'm going to go for you
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here. Am I send me?
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I want to do. What your will is?
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I want to be sent forth. To live a life for you and to
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Proclaim. To proclaim a you to other
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people. and, Maybe, I don't know, put yourself there in
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Isaiah shoes there for a moment. I mean, how would you respond
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seeing what great thing that the Lord has done for you?
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How would you respond? Would there be the type of
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excitement excitement that Isaiah shows here?
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To be able to go and be a servant.
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Maybe perhaps, would you be hesitant?
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Maybe considering the dedication.
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It's going to take the time that the sacrifices That might be
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involved. so, you can have mixed responses here, but Isaiah
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Isaiah is willing to be sent. You know, when we talk about
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being sent, I'm not really talking about being sent to a
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foreign place. Of course, we send some of our
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Brethren to work in foreign lands or in foreign places and
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they do great work. There and churches are are being
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established churches are being strengthened because of the
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dedication of mana and families that go.
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But maybe being sent to our neighborhood, maybe being said,
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to the people who are around you at work or around you at school.
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Is their fear is their hesitancy.
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Are we as eager or not? As eager?
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As Isaiah to be sent. Well, let me discuss just
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briefly this morning. Just a few.
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A few things that might hinder us from having the type of
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attitude that Isaiah had within this context here.
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And I want to, first of all, talk about Moses.
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Moses beat example of really what not to do.
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And Moses, he was kind of in a similar situation where God
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wanted him, he wanted him to, to speak to Pharaoh.
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So that is people could be set free and Moses wasn't quite.
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So eager to do just that in fact to remember that God was
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speaking to Moses. He appeared to him through the
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burning bush and God had this to say to him in Exodus chapter 3.
Exodus 3 chapter mention
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Verse number 10, it says come. Now therefore For and I will
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send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people the children of
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Israel out of Egypt. Now based upon what the Lord
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wanted for one and Moses to do our, he wasn't quite excited
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about that because he responds this way in verse number 11.
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But Moses said to God, who am I? That I should go to pharaoh and
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that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt.
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And so the first excuse that Moses gives is that he didn't
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feel worthy enough to fulfill this task or maybe he didn't
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think he was the right man for the job.
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And when you look at Isaiah, yes, he did not consider himself
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to be worthy or yet. He was still willing to obey the
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Lord, though, with Isaiah. And maybe maybe we could feel
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like that at times. Maybe we think that there's
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someone else who is perhaps more adequate to share the gospel
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with others than maybe myself. But when we begin to doubt in
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ourselves that we were never going to carry out what God
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wants us to do then, yes, we might not be worthy to tell of
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the greatness of a savior who saved mankind, but God wants us
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to tell of the truth of the scriptures.
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He wants us to tell of the good news.
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And the reason why he wants us to do that, is he beat.
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He desires everybody to be saved.
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Everybody. There's another excuse that
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Moses gives to God and will continue on.
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Now in Exodus chapter 3 now in verses 12 and 13.
Exodus 3 chapter mention
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It says so he said I will certainly be with you.
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The Lord is assuring Moses. Don't worry, I'm going to be
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with you when this happens when I send you out to pharaoh, and
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this shall be a sign unto you that I have sent you.
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When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you saw serve God.
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On this mountain, the Moses said to God indeed when I come to the
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children of Israel and say to them, the god of your father's
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has sent me to you and they say to me, what is his name?
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What shall I say to them? So here is excuse, number two,
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from Moses that he wouldn't know what to say. after being sent,
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he was afraid that he wouldn't have all the answers if Pharaoh
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resisted I'll let you in on a little secret.
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We don't know everything. And we don't have to know
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everything. It is okay to say I don't know.
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It is. Okay.
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I say this all the time when at in my profession talking to
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people with their computer problems, some things I really
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don't know. But Google is my friend and
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Google will tell me. And people are good with with
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you telling them, I don't know. Because you get back with an
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answer but honesty plays an important part in this and so
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you could take the same approach with others.
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It, if they ask you a question regarding a belief, if they ask
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you a question regarding maybe a scripture, Or particular passage
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that you don't have the answer answer to it's okay to say well
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I don't know but I'll tell you what.
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Let me get back to you on this. Let me go home.
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Let me study this and I'll get back to you on this and people
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are okay with that, in fact what it does, it sets up a study or
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sets up, another study with them, And so you're able to
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discuss that maybe even more things could come up through the
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Bible study people, appreciate honesty and the reality is, we
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can't know everything, we really can.
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Sometimes it does take studying to find the answer, but we
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should never be afraid to be set because we might not know what
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to say or we might not have all the answers.
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And that's what Moses is trying to do here.
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He used another excuse. Let's go to Exodus chapter 4,
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verses 10 through 12, then Moses said to the Lord O my Lord, I am
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not eloquent neither before before nor since you have spoken
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to your servant but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.
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So the Lord said to him who has made man's mouth who has made or
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who makes the mute the death, the seeing of the blind have not
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I the Lord now therefore go and I will be with your mouth and
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teach you what you shall say. So a third, excuse that Moses
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gives here is that I am not really a good speaker.
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I am not a good presenter. I'm not going to be very
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effective with pharaoh. I am really the not the right
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guy for the job. Something, maybe we get
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tongue-tied. Sometimes when we're nervous or
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afraid we might forget what to say.
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No one is perfect. And very few of us have just the
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right things to say. But I like what Paul wrote about
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this when he referred to himself, presenting the gospel.
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And this is in First Corinthians chapter 2, verses 1 and 2 says,
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and I Brethren when I came to you, did not come with
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Excellence of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you, the
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testimony of God. What he says for, I determined
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not to know anything. Among you except Jesus Christ
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and him crucified. and I think there's a key when Paul is
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saying this to these Brethren here, he wasn't worried about
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being an eloquent speaker among people or among the brethren All
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he was concerned about, was the message?
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And that message was Jesus. And really, that should be our
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Focus. That should be our attitude,
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just share, the good news about Jesus and and the truth of the
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scriptures. And don't worry.
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About how good or not. Good.
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You are in relating information to other people.
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The message is going to shine through whatever you say.
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It's about the message. And not the messenger.
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And lastly, Moses, he pleaded this with God.
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In Exodus chapter 4 verse 13. But he said O My Lord please
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send by the hand of whomever else you may soon and after all
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the excuses that he gave God Mosley, simply ask God, please
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just find somebody else. He tried to talk his way out of
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it. He was convinced, he was not the
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man for the job. But we can look at what Moses
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did before the Lord and say, let's not be like that.
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Let's not give those types of excuses when it comes to our own
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individual responsibilities. And sharing God's word and
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proclaiming it. Let's not reason or try to
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convince ourselves that were not able to do it, or we are not the
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person to do just that let others do it, you know how God
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felt. After Moses gave these excuses,
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or said these things to him. When you look at the next verse
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in verse number 14, it tells us that God was angry at Moses for
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offering all these excuses for trying to get out of his duty.
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God was mad. We don't want the Lord mad at
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us. We don't want the Lord
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disappointed at us because we would rather have someone else
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do it and not tuck to take on that responsibility.
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So, after seeing really what not to do, when we're called, I want
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to take a look back and Isaiah and see what motivated and drove
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him to be so willing to answer that call from the Lord.
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You know, when you consider how Isaiah reacted to the vision, At
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first being unworthy to be fought before the Lord.
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It is remarkable as to why Isaiah was so willing to be a
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messenger of God. And I believe it was a reaction
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on Isaiah's part to the event that his sins in general, had
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been taken away and his iniquity was removed as well.
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And so he understood what the Lord had done for him.
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He had that realization of what the Lord had done for him and he
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was willing then to devote his service to the Lord because of
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the mercy. And because of the grace that
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had been shown to him by the Lord when he didn't deserve it.
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And in that same light, We are so many years removed from
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Isaiah. But we read in scripture, the
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Messiah Jesus himself came to this world, he lived as a man
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who was free from sin, he died on the cross, he was buried and
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was resurrected from the dead on the third day.
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And we find that the reason why all this happened, why Jesus
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went through all these things. Was for me.
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It was for you. It was for the whole world.
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To have their sins washed away. It was a way for God to extend
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his love and mercy and Grace upon people.
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And I know, you know that But to know it to the point to drive
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you and it put it forth into action and to be excited about
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it as Isaiah was excited about the mercy and the Forgiveness
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that he had received to be willing to be sent out. and for
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us to have that same Drive, the song upon this realization.
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That prompts us to obey the gospel and become a servant of
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the Lord is what happened with our.
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That's exactly the case with Isaiah with it.
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He had been forgiven want to be that servant I love what what
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what David wrote regarding Psalm 51 and I want to read verses 10
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through 15 here. and it really, I love looking into David's
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heart when he writes these Psalms because we relate, We can
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relate in one way or another, no matter who reads.
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This, his Psalms create a me, a clean heart o God and renew.
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A steadfast Spirit within me. He says, do not cast me away
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from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
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Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your
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generous Spirits. I love verse 13.
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Then I will teach crimes a transgressor.
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Your ways and sinners shall be converted to you deliver me from
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the guilt of Bloodshed. Oh God, the god of my salvation.
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And my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
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O Lord. Open my lips and my mouth shall
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show forth. Your praise.
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As David wrote, here we are to be a people who are being who
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are willing to be sent in order that those who are lost, might
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hear the saving message of the cross for again, he says here, I
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will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be
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converted to you. And that's a great great
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opportunity for everyone of us to do that, we have a chance to
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let others know that Jesus died for them, so that their sins
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would be forgiven. And as our sins had been for
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have been forgiven, they could be saved as Jesus has given us
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that opportunity to be saved in eternity, in heaven.
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And so, having this realization now, I know we've heard it over
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and over and over about the Glorious.
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The good news of Jesus Christ, how great the Lord is that he is
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able to save us that he even wants us to be his children.
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Having understood that compared to, what we once were, or will,
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we would be without him having that drive.
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Now, that Zeal, that Isaiah had a long with the rest of God's
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Messengers. You know, you had the apostles.
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You read what they went through in the book of Acts.
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Those people knew what I meant to be saved.
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Those people knew. Of the cost.
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But they were so thankful for what the Lord had done for them
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and it drove them to many trials.
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Persecutions. Many threats.
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To not preach that message. They still proclaimed it though.
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They still proclaim the message of the Cross because to them it
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was a joy. To them.
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It was a blessing to them. Was it was a privilege. and the
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scripture says, They did it. They found this blessing to be
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found worthy to save others because of the truth of the
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Gospel. Telling others about the saving
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power of Jesus and it really shouldn't be embarrassing to us.
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It should not be difficult to us.
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But to counter the blessing and a privilege that.
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For one thing, we ourselves have been saved but also others can
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receive that same grace and mercy that God has shown So
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Isaiah he was ready. Isaiah was willing to proclaim
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the Commandments of the Lord, the apostles, they devoted their
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lives to saving souls and in retrospect to all those who have
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dedicated their lives to Towing the world of the saving power of
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Jesus, we should be a people to preach the truth.
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And to stand up for the truth and not be ashamed of the truth.
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There's an old song that we have sung through the years.
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I love to tell the story. It will be my theme in glory to
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tell the old old story of Jesus and his love.
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Is that your attitude? Is that your drive?
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To love to tell the story. It should be, if it's not we're
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in a new year. New year, brings new resolutions
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new goals, for people. If you're one of those
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individuals that sets goals or seds resolutions, perhaps, this
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could be one of them if maybe, or maybe the strengthen it, or
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maybe if you haven't done so resolved to do that, Resolve to
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do that. Precious Souls need to know the
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truth. We needed to know it and we've
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been saved by it. Why not share it, why not?
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And so let us always have the drive.
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Always have the attitude of here.
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Am I send me? Send me.
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And I hope that through our study this morning.
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That maybe maybe renew a spirit within you.
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Maybe challenge you, whatever it is.
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I hope that you've been edified through the teaching of the word
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this morning and that God has been glorified through our
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teaching as well with the study of his word.
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We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the
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Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you
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