Isaiah 54: Lengthening the Ropes

Well, good morning, beloved.

Good morning.

It's a glorious day today for us.

We will have a little bit of a different service as you'll discover in a few minutes.

I'd like you to take your Bible and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 54.

Isaiah 54 · chapter mention

Isaiah chapter 54.

Isaiah 54 · chapter mention

If you are looking at the Pew Bible, you can find that on page 651, 651.

On May 31st, 1792, at a minister's meeting in Nottingham, England, William Carey preached a sermon called the Deathless Sermon.

And it was based on Isaiah chapter 54, verses 2 and 3.

Isaiah 54:2

Enlarge the side of your tent and let your tent curtains be stretched out.

Do not hold back, lengthen your ropes, and drive your pegs deep, for you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will dispossess nations and inhabit the desolate cities.

That sermon by William Carey on that day was probably one of the most powerful and life-changing sermons he ever delivered.

It had two main points: expect great things, attempt great things.

Those two points of his sermon have been turned into a missionary motto: Expect great things of God and attempt great things for God.

Because of that sermon, William Carey continued to have a concern about the gospel and the effect of the gospel around the world.

And in October of that same year, on October 14th, Carey and 14 other ministers came together and founded the Baptist Missionary Society for the propagation of the gospel.

His original desire was to go to China, but over the course of time he realized that his call was to go to India.

And he and his friend Andrew Fuller were talking about the necessity of there being a partnership between William Carey going to India and churches supporting him in that endeavor.

And there was a famous phrase that speaks this way There's a gold mine in India, but it is as deep as the center of the earth.

I will make an effort to go down, but you all must hold the ropes.

Because of Carrie's love for God and the people of the world, on January 10th of the next year, he was appointed as a missionary to India.

And later, on March 20th, 1793, they had a farewell meeting in Leicester, England.

And Andrew Fuller, who was appointed the first secretary of this Baptist Missionary Society, said these words to Carrie and to the group that was going.

Go then, my dear brethren.

Stimulated by these prospects, we shall meet again.

Crowns of glory await you and us.

Each of us, I trust, will be addressed at the last day by our Redeemer.

Come, you blessed of my Father.

These were hungry and you fed them, a thirst, and you gave them drink, in prison and you visited them.

Enter you into the joy of your Lord.

This morning I want us to take some minutes together and look at this passage of scripture that drew Carrie's attention as he preached that deathless sermon about the need to bring the gospel around the world.

Isaiah chapter 54.

Isaiah 54 · chapter mention

When you read Isaiah chapter 54, it's good to remember that you're in a larger part of the book of Isaiah called the Servant Songs of Isaiah.

Isaiah 54 · chapter mention

And there are three sections to this portion of scripture in Isaiah.

There are three parts to the servant songs.

The first part begins in chapter 49 and runs up near to the end of chapter 52.

And in that portion of the servant's songs, God is speaking to the nation of Israel, a nation that has already been prophesied about as about to be banished from their land and to be exiled in a foreign country because of their apostasy, of their treacherous revolt against their God.

So they're going to be brought into exile and banishment from the land.

However, this first part, God speaks to this nation and tells them that there is more to the story than just their banishment and exile.

He issues in this first part of the servant songs a promise, a promise that he would remove the sin of the nation that had caused this exile, that he would remove from them the shame of their banishment, and that this removal of that sin would come through the one who is the servant of the Lord.

This servant of the Lord would be for Israel what Israel could not and would not be for itself, obedient to the Father.

And through his servanthood, the people Israel would be restored to the Lord.

And through him, the redeemed people of Israel would have an influence into the nations, and the whole world would find the possibility of redemption because of this.

In Isaiah chapter 49 through 52, God is telling the people of Israel that he has not utterly cast them off, that he has a plan to deliver them.

Isaiah 49 · chapter mention

He has a plan to deliver them not just from physical captivity, but from spiritual captivity.

The climax of that promise comes in chapter 52.

The second part of the servant's songs is found in the last verse of 52 and all of chapter 53.

And we discover not only the promise, but how this promise of restoration is to happen.

The servant of the Lord, the servant of the Lord, who is that one who Israel could not be for itself, is going to give up his life on behalf of the people.

And because of his sacrifice in service to God, the people would be restored.

They would be no longer alienated from God.

They would be brought into fellowship with God and would be thus again serviceable to God.

And then in the third section of the servant songs, chapters 54 and 55, we find that God is singing songs to the nations of invitation.

Chapter 54 is a love song by God to Zion of all the things that He's going to do for these people that are restored to him.

And then in chapter 55 is an invitation for the nation not to miss the promises and the fulfillment of the servant, or of these great things that God has in store for them by way of continued unbelief.

They need to believe these promises.

They need to believe the God who has granted these promises.

They need to trust the suffering servant.

They need to enter in to the fullness that is ahead of them.

This morning, before we could transition into our commissioning part of this service, I want to draw out some points from this passage of scripture.

This passage of scripture that led William Carey to preach his deathless sermon about the need to bring the gospel around the world, where he made these two points: expect great things and attempt great things.

I'd like for us to draw out four points this morning.

The first is found in verse one, and that is the call to rejoice.

The call to rejoice.

Take a look at chapter 54 in verse one.

Rejoice, childless one who did not give birth.

Burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor.

For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of the married woman, says the Lord.

God is speaking to the nation of Israel, people who were disobedient, who were rebels against God, who, because of their treacherous apostasy, were about to be brought into exile, banishment from the land of promise, members of foreign nations.

And God tells them that they are presently barren, childless.

And in this culture and in this day, to be childless and to be barren was to bear a weight of shame that was hard to deal with.

Infidelity would mark a woman with a great degree of being ostracized and shamed by the other people in society.

And God is looking upon this nation and saying that you, Israel, are a people that are a shamed people, a barren people, an infertile people.

You are a people that have nothing to be happy about.

God, when he formed the nation of Israel, said that they were to be a light to the world.

Had they been that light?

No, they had not.

They had participated in idolatrous worship with the nations around them, and had been more influenced by those nations than to be an influence to those nations.

No, this infertility was not just simply a providential moment.

It was because of their activity of sin.

It was their own fault.

But God is inviting them to rejoice.

He's inviting them to lift up their voices and to sing.

And on the surface, this seems like a rather cruel and bitter mockery of their condition.

But Isaiah's not rubbing it in.

Isaiah is calling them to sincere rejoicing, to calling them for a real reason to take up their voices and to sing with joy, triumphant.

Because he's relocating Israel's focus from themselves to the Lord, the suffering servant in Isaiah 53, who would see his offspring and increase his seed.

And throughout the book of Isaiah, God has reminded them that their failure is real, that they really have no hope at all in themselves.

But if they would believe on the suffering servant, they would thrive.

If they would hear and believe the good news of this sin-bearing servant of the Lord, the mountains of frost and ice of their hearts would melt, and their own treacherous apostasy would fall away, and the shame of it would disappear, and they would find reason to rejoice.

Because there was a good news of a surprising salvation.

There was a future to look forward to that would cause them to laugh and to sing and to shout and to cheer.

And it is the servant song of Isaiah 53 that pronounces the good news that the anointed one would take their failure.

The anointed one would take their shame.

The anointed one would take their sin.

The anointed one would take their judgment.

And if they believed on the anointed one, they would be free.

Their sin and shame and separation from God is gone.

And in its place is a surprising fellowship with God, the Holy One, an undeserved deliverance.

And there's reason for us to rejoice, isn't there?

Because we too, like these people are called to do, not looking forward to that coming servant of the Lord who would give up his life.

We look back on the servant of the Lord Jesus, who already has given up his life.

And we find that our shame of sin and the separation from God of our sin is gone in Christ.

And now we have a surprising, undeserved salvation.

We have reason to lift up our voices and to laugh and to sing and to shout and to cheer.

And this is why the apostle Peter wrote, he said, Though you've not seen Jesus, you love him.

And though you're not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexplicable and inexpressible glorious joy, because you're receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your soul.

John Calvin understood this, and he said this.

He said, The church is a place where the good news is preached, and the gospel is that good news.

And good news makes people happy, and happy people sing.

Amen.

Why do we sing?

Why is this building filled with joyful sound?

Is it because we're trophies of our own self-righteousness?

No.

Because our shame is gone in Christ, our sin is gone in Christ, our separation from God is gone in Christ, and we've received a surprising deliverance.

A holy God has looked on us and said, There's no condemnation to you in Jesus Christ.

Boy, that'll cause the dead to sing.

And that's exactly who we are.

Those who were dead in trespasses and sins and now made alive in Christ.

And what marks us as believers is a rejoicing heart.

We rejoice.

Israel is called to look forward, to look forward to a time when the shame will be gone and all that's left is singing.

When the separation is gone and all is left is fellowship, when the barrenness is over and all is left is fruitfulness.

Look forward, they say.

Burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor.

Why?

Because the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of the married woman.

You're no longer going to be barren.

The prophet Isaiah spoke to Judah as a people like a forsaken woman, deprived of husband and children, all because of her treacherous behavior.

She was stricken with shame.

She was left barren without strength or resources.

Her destiny was utterly hopeless.

She would come in like a barren, forsaken wife, with no protector, left desolate only to think about a haunting darkness of her future, all the more intense in the knowledge that she had brought it upon herself because she had forsaken her husband and was the reason why she was barren.

As a nation, Israel truly was floundering.

Her husband was gone, she had no children, no life could come from her again by her own strength.

But that's not the end of the story.

God would turn all of this around.

A day was coming when Israel would flourish.

A day would dawn when the children of this desolate woman would be more than the children of the married women.

And that day indeed is dawned.

It's dawned with the coming of the suffering servant who would see his offspring.

And this is why, in the early days of the church, when Peter stood in Jerusalem just some days after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, he preached to the nation of Israel.

He spoke to his Jewish listeners, and he said to them, brothers and sisters, and he meant my fellow Jews.

I know that you've acted in ignorance, just as your leaders have also done, but in this way God has fulfilled what he's predicted in all the prophets, that the Messiah would suffer, Isaiah 53.

Therefore, repent and turn back.

Why?

So that your sins might be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send you Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah.

If you believe on Christ, your sins will be forgiven, people of Israel, and refreshing will come.

Life will enter into death again.

There will be God's activity of new birth.

Believe on the Lord, Peter says.

One will be more than the children of the married one.

But it doesn't end there either.

Because not only would it be a return of those who had found Jesus as their Messiah within the context of the household of Israel, there was something bigger that was about to happen.

Verse 2 enlarge the side of your tent, and let your tent curtains be stretched out.

Do not hold back, lengthen your ropes and drive your pegs deep, for you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will dispossess nations and inhabit the desolate cities.

Isaiah speaks the word of the Lord that the day is coming when the Lord would cure her barrenness and cause her to give birth.

And this childless, rejected woman would have a husband return, and her household would be overflowing with children, so large that he says, Make your tent bigger.

No, make it bigger.

No, make it bigger.

No, make it larger, because not only will your children be there, but there will be the nations in the tent as well.

The nations will come to feel the influence of this blessing of return.

The apostle Paul, writing to the Gentile people of the churches of Galatia, in chapter four, quotes Isaiah 54 and speaks to these Gentile believers with these words Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear.

Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate will be more than those of the one who has a husband.

That is Galatians chapter 4 and verse 27.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

A direct quote of Isaiah chapter 54.

Isaiah 54 · chapter mention

The Apostle Paul is asserting here that the Gentiles coming to Jesus Christ are the fulfillment of the promises of Isaiah's prophecy in chapter 54.

And he's showing that the incoming of these Gentile believers on the Lord Jesus Christ are part of God's refreshing rejuvenation of the people of Israel.

And he insists that Isaiah's prophecies being fulfilled among the Galatian churches.

They are part of the children promised in Isaiah 54.

And this is why the two verses before that, he says this now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

Paul is taking the prophecy of Isaiah and speaking about the new covenant promises that are found in Christ the suffering servant, and that those of the household of Israel who believe in Jesus the Christ are part of this new band of people who are now fruitful in increasing and affecting the nations.

The writer of Hebrews said, in similar tone and words, exactly what Paul is saying here.

You've come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels, and to a festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better things than the blood of Abel.

You have come to the life of the new covenant.

And though the New Testament church in those early days was extremely small, a band of eleven men cowering in an upper room, wondering what happened to their Savior who died, to find him alive and appearing to them as they prayed and feared, saying, Don't be troubled, be at peace.

A promise is coming, and you will receive the spirit of power, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and to all the ends of the earth.

And this small little band of meager men realized that they were about to give birth as they preached the gospel to more and more and more people.

And the nation of Israel, and we'll see this in a few minutes, increased and grew in the household.

But that influence came not just to them, but also to the nations.

Because God promises here that his people would flourish and would be greatly enlarged, and they would be enlarged by the welcome of the gospel by the Gentile nations.

And this is why Paul the Apostle frames up his apostolic ministry in this way.

If you were to simply read the book of Romans, you would hear these things said.

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who's a descendant of David, according to the flesh, appointed to be the powerful Son of God according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, from whom we've received grace and apostleship to bring the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among the Gentiles, including you who are also called by Christ Jesus.

Paul said, I have been made a messenger of the gospel for the purposes of bringing a people who do not know our God to know our God in Christ.

And this is why he said in Romans 1:16 that he was not ashamed of the gospel, for it was the power of God to the Jew first, but also to the Gentile.

Romans 1:16

And why in Romans chapter 15 he said that Christ had become a servant to the circumcised on the behalf of God's truth to fulfill the promises made to the fathers, Isaiah 54, and so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

As it is written, therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles.

I will sing praise to your name.

And again it says, Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people, and again praise the Lord, you Gentiles.

Let all the peoples praise him.

And again, Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will appear, the one will rise to rule the Gentiles, and the Gentiles will hope in him.

Paul understood the expansive nature of this reversal that was about to happen when the suffering servant is believed.

And he understood that it wasn't just for the people of Israel, but it was going to be for the people of all nations that the Messiah had come.

And this is why he said, My aim is to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named, so that I will not build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who were not told about him will see.

Those who have not heard will understand.

And he couldn't wait to get to the places where the blind would see and the deaf would hear.

He brings the gospel to the Gentiles.

And that leads us to where we're at today, to the third point.

To reach, to reach.

Enlarge the side of your tent, and let your tent curtains be stretched out.

Do not hold back.

Lengthen your ropes and drive your pegs deep, for you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will dispossess nations and inhabit the desolate cities.

God is saying to spiritually barren Israel, who were not fulfilling their commission to bring the knowledge of the true God to the nations, that there would be a reversal of that, and that they would indeed become the people out of exile who would be bringing the message of life and that it would grow.

And so this barren woman, this forsaken wife, is told that her house needs an expansion project.

Enlarge the site of your tent and don't hold back.

What is God telling the people?

A day is coming when you're about to have a family so large it will stagger your imagination.

You can't even begin to grasp how large this family is about to become.

That's not big enough.

No, these promises here are directly connected to the prophecies of all of the servant's songs, which includes Isaiah 53 about the death and the resurrection of Christ.

So the people, when they understood that the suffering servant was Jesus Himself, were to expect great things from God, and they were to attempt great things for God.

And here they were to expand and to reach further and further and further and further until all the nations are covered and the empty cities are dispossessed.

So in Acts chapter 2, a little band of believers gathered in Jerusalem, pulled up the stakes, and they wondered how large it would become as they stepped out into the streets of Jerusalem.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And as they went there, they stepped out and proclaimed the wondrous works of God found in Jesus Christ.

And the Lord swept in with the wind of his power and expanded the tent by the breath of his voice of life.

And little did they know that this 70-person tent would now be stretched out with new ropes and new fabric.

And on that day, 3,000 would be baptized.

How much larger was that tent now?

So much larger.

This once childless mother, Israel, was beginning to experience the realization that it needed a new tent.

It needed a larger tent.

It needed longer ropes.

It needed to stretch.

In Acts chapter 2, in verse 47, they praised God, enjoyed favor with all the people.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Their tent was not big enough yet.

In Acts 4, they preached, and the message was believed, and the number of men came to about 5,000 every day, 3,000, 5,000.

The tent's not big enough.

Acts 5, 14, believers were added to the Lord in increasing numbers, multitudes, both of men and of women.

The tent is still not big enough.

Pull up your stakes.

The church faces opposition.

Would this mean the end of the growth?

Acts chapter 8.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

Those who were persecuted began to scatter, but when they scattered, they went on their way, preaching the word.

And one of those who was scattered went to the city of Samaria.

And it said that the crowds paid attention to what Philip said.

And as they listened, the gospel grabbed the Samaritans' heart.

The tent was getting bigger.

Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.

And then Philip is called upon to speak to a solitary soul, a proselyte from Ethiopia, who was reading Isaiah 53 and saying, I don't understand what this is.

And Philip preached Christ to him.

And that man went away rejoicing and bringing the life of Jesus into Ethiopia.

And then the tent pegs of mercy surprisingly lifted and landed in Acts chapter 9 on top of a prosecuting, persecuting young man by the name of Saul of Tarsus.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

And God claimed him as his own.

And this man was transformed from a persecutor into a preacher.

And he returned to speak about the Christ as the promised one and began to argue with other Jews that I was wrong about this Jesus.

He is our Savior.

And the scriptures say in Acts chapter 9: so that the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was strengthened, and living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

The tent is not yet big enough.

Then in Acts chapter 10, Peter receives a vision and he's told to go to the house of a Gentile by the name of Cornelius.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

And Peter says, I can't do that.

Go, Peter.

Don't call unclean what I've called clean.

Do what I tell you.

And he goes there and preaches the gospel with sort of a doubting heart.

But God opens up the minds and hearts of those in Cornelius' household and they believe.

And Peter is struck dumb.

And he says, they glorified God, saying, So then God has given repentance, resulting in life even to the Gentiles.

I can't believe this.

And in Acts chapter 11, they come together to learn more about what's happening with Peter's preaching of the gospel.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

And this is what they say.

Life has been given just as we've received the gift.

It's been given to them.

And at the end of chapter 11 and verse 21, it said there were some of the men from Cyprus and Cyrene who came to Antioch and began to speak to the Greeks, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus, and the Lord's hand was on them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.

The tent isn't big enough yet.

In Acts chapter 13, Paul and Barnabas go to preach the gospel in further regions, and they speak first to the Jews, but then they speak to the Gentiles.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

And they quote from Isaiah's servant songs, this time from Isaiah 49.

Paul and Barnabas boldly replied, It is necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, Jewish people.

But since you reject it and judge yourself unworthy of eternal life, we're turning to the Gentiles, for this is what the Lord has commanded I've made you a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

And when the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and honored the word of the Lord, and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed, and the word of the Lord spread around the whole region.

The tent is not big enough.

Reach and keep reaching, because it's going to go further and further and further and further.

Later in a testimony, Paul spoke about his mission in Acts 26.

He said that to this day I've had help from God, and I stand and testify to small and great, saying nothing other than what the prophets and Moses said would take place, that the Messiah would suffer, and that as the first arise from the dead, he would proclaim light to our people and also to the Gentiles.

Then Luke closes off the book of Acts in this open-ended way.

Paul argues the gospel with some Jewish men there in Rome, and they find themselves disagreeing with Paul about the Messiah.

And they begin to leave, and Paul makes this statement to them.

He said, The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah, Go to these people and say, You'll always be listening, but never understanding.

You'll always be looking, but never perceiving.

For the heart of these people has grown callous, and their ears have grown hard of hearing, and they've shut their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.

Do you want the judgments of Isaiah or the promises of Isaiah?

The only way you're going to get the promises of Isaiah is if you believe on the suffering servant that's found in Isaiah.

And if you refuse the suffering servant of Isaiah, all that's left for you is the condemnation that's found in the rest of the book.

Then he makes this comment.

Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, they will listen.

And Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house, and he welcomed all who visited him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus with all boldness and without hindrance.

And thus ends the book of Acts.

Why does it end without a conclusion?

Because the tent's not big enough yet.

Because we are the extension of that tent.

That tent has been growing geographically and it's been growing chronologically.

It's been going around the world and it's been going from generation to generation, and it's still not big enough yet.

It's still growing.

The tent of God's children isn't large enough yet.

And he says, reach, lengthen your ropes, pull up your tent pegs, stretch them out to new territories, plant them in further places.

Because God means to have a people in those places.

Bring them forward.

That's why we're here today, this morning, about to do what we're going to do.

Because from our midst is a family that is going to pull up the tent pegs of New High Park Baptist Church and stretch them out over a new place.

And God is going to have a people there.

He is going to have his name glorified there, where those who have not heard of him will listen, and those who have not glorified him will believe on him.

That's why.

This is why William Carey said, the future is as bright as the promises of God.

We need to reach and to keep reaching.

And this is why the apostle speaks about the message of Jew first and also to the Gentile, because this is exactly what Isaiah is prophesying.

Enlarge the side of your tent.

Let your tent curtains be stretched out.

Do not hold back.

Lengthen your ropes and drive your pegs deep, for you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will dispossess nations and inhabit the desolate cities.

We're sending out a family to a desolate city, to peoples that have not heard the name Jesus.

We're sending them out so that the Lord might possess those lands for his name's sake.

So William Carey said, Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.

That is our mission.

This is why we're here today.

This is why we're about to do what we're going to do.

Missionaries have been taking the gospel to the most distant reaches of the earth.

And the church of Jesus Christ over the years and around the world has numbered into the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions.

So much so that the Apostle John says, when he sees the image of it in heaven, he said, It's like a sea of glass, a myriad of people without number, saying, Glory and honor and power and blessing be to God and to the Lamb who was slain.

Enlarge our tent.

Stretch it out.

It's not big enough yet.

Today, as a church, we're sending out a family into those desolate places that they might be occupied by a people who call upon the name of the Lord.

We're joining the command of the prophecy of Isaiah, one given to that early Jewish church that discovered in the proclamation of the gospel an ever-expanding tent.

And to their shock and to their surprise and to their wonder, it also included the Gentiles.

And as they saw that, they began to send out people like Paul and Barnabas to preach the message to those peoples.

And when Paul would say to the Romans, I want to go beyond you, even into Spain, into those reaches where no name of Christ has been named, to keep reaching forward.

And the last thing, very quickly, is the source of our reward.

This passage of scripture makes it very clear that the reward is not because of us, it's because of the promises of God.

There are two ways to serve the Lord.

One way is to draw upon your own energies and your own good intentions.

But I will tell you that you and we and I would utterly fail if we attempted to serve the God that way.

The other way is to do exactly what this passage of scripture is talking about: serving him in light of his power, serving him in light of his promises, serving him in light of his purposes, to rely on him to act in the midst of our weakness.

The confidence of success here for this barren woman wasn't because she had a fruitful womb and just needed a man.

She was barren, she was desolate.

She was designated for nothing but emptiness and solitary loss through the end of her days left to herself.

Because she had abandoned her husband and rejected her God.

But she would be fruitful because of the power of God to reverse her suffering, the power of God to bring renewal and life where there was none, to bring a dead womb to life, and to give her a household full of pattering, cheering, laughing people, and one that would be larger and larger and larger and larger and larger and larger beyond imagination.

Not based on her own ability, not based on her own power, but in recognition of God Himself who's come with the power of grace.

To come with fullness, to bless and not to curse, to redeem and not to judge.

And so we send out a family from our church today, with our heads thrown back and laughter and delight in our hearts as we rejoice in the news that God is bringing salvation.

We laugh and joy and delight and cheer because a great reversal has happened to the human race.

God has not looked upon us to judge us all, but to save and to bring his name to bear in undeserving hearts.

We're here today because we are to reach into those places where his name is not yet named.

And we do so because our reward is in him, not in the power of our own flesh.

We look with honesty at ourselves and we see just how weak we are, but we look away with cheerfulness to the power of God, to his greater glory, and our richer joy to bring salvation to the nations.

Because we're part of something that is improbably impossible to ourselves.

What we're doing today will look and feel small.

It will look and feel like there's nothing to it.

We're taking a young couple from this small church, sending it to a place where people have do not know and do not care to know the name of Jesus.

But we don't do it in the strength of our power.

We do it in the understanding of God's promises, and that he intends to have a people for his name all over this world.

And we rest in that.

And we will say, All glory and honor and power and might and dominion be yours.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this wonderful promise that has brought life out of death, that has brought salvation out of destruction, that's brought hope out of despair.

And we thank you, Father, that it's a message that reaches not just to this nation of Israel that you had chosen, but to a people that in Christ, the chosen one, would find hope and life.

And Lord, this day we do so.

What we're about to do in alignment with this great promise, that you plan to expand the glory of your name around this world and to reach even into the darkest, deepest places of ignorance, and there to bring the light to the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Father, we pray that you would be pleased to bless and to motivate and to move with your power us as we do so.

And we ask this in Christ's name.

Amen.