Here I am. Send Me.

Isaiah chapter 6 this morning. It's such a good

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

passage. I hadn't preached from this passage

in a while and I was reminded of it this week

in a text message. Some of you may have got the

same message I got. And I said, you know, that's

a good couple of verses. I think we're going

to talk about that this week. Isaiah. That's

in the Old Testament. Isaiah chapter 6. We're

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

just going to look at the first eight verses.

Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1. Isaiah chapter 6,

Isaiah 6:1 Isaiah 6:1

verse 1. Let's pray, and then we'll get started.

God, we come to you, and I thank you for being

good to us. I thank you for the freedom and the

privilege that we have today to come into your

house. Your love, I thank you for everybody in

this church that we're able to experience your

love and express love to one another, and I just

thank you for all that, dear Lord. It's a blessing,

and I pray that you'd be with us today, that

you'd free us from the distractions, the good

and the bad, all the things of this world, the

worries that we may have, dear Lord, the stresses,

the struggles that are heavy on us this morning,

whatever may be competing for our attention.

and tempting to distract us today, I pray that

for just a few minutes, God, that you just would

protect our minds and help us to see your word.

Dear Lord, you know where we are, and I pray

that there'd be something in your word that your

spirit would just kind of prick something within

our hearts today that you'd work in us in some

way. And I pray, dear Lord, that you just bless

our time together, and I ask these things in

Jesus' name. Amen. The book of Isaiah is the

prophet Isaiah writing to God's people, Judah

and Israel. They were not very good. We see throughout

the Old Testament that God's people, they continually

lived in disobedience and sin, and there were

always some that were faithful, and there were

ups and downs, and they would do good for a while,

and they'd follow the Lord for a while, and then

they would just be... totally disobedient and

seek false gods and living in all kind of sinfulness.

And we see throughout the Old Testament that

God sent lots of prophets to them to say, hey,

you better wake up and pay attention. Here's

what's going to happen. You're not doing right.

You better listen to me. You better seek me.

You better turn to me. If you don't, here's what's

going to happen. And oftentimes it was some hard

times for them. Kind of what Isaiah is doing

through the book of Isaiah. It's kind of a long

book, but God's telling his people, hey, things

are fixing to get really hard for you. And they

did. They got really hard for the northern kingdom

of Israel. They were overtaken, and eventually

they just kind of dissipated. And then sometime

after that, the southern part of Israel was also

overcome. It was called Judah in the Bible. Judah

was ultimately overtaken. And Isaiah's talking

about some of those things that were to come.

And in Isaiah chapter 5, we see some of the problems

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

that the people were dealing with. We see some

of these woe statements. You know, woe unto you

because you're doing some of these things. Some

of the things that are mentioned, woe unto you,

those of you who have many houses and are accumulating

a lot of land for yourself. Woe unto you, those

who are drunkards, essentially is what it says.

Those who like to drink beer early in the morning.

It's a lot of these woe statements that we see

in Isaiah chapter 5. One of them that's pretty

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

popular that we'll look at very briefly is Isaiah

Isaiah 5:20

chapter 5, verse 20. Woe to those who call evil

good and good evil, who substitute darkness for

light and light for darkness. So this just kind

of gives you an idea of what was going on. in

isaiah's day and it really is not so unlike what's

going on in our day as the book of ecclesiastes

says there's nothing new under the sun now you

may not realize this but humanity has always

been pretty rotten there are good seasons in

humanity and bad seasons and there's always some

good people and there's always some evil people

but just in our human nature we just We desire

what is against God, and we really have to try

hard to read God's word and to seek him and to

pray to him and to trust him so we don't go after

our fleshly and worldly desires. And sometimes

we're not so unlike the people of Isaiah's day,

even in our life. Now, we may be tempted to look

at the world and say, oh, those people in the

world are so evil. Sometimes we need to look

at ourself, and that's what we see a little bit

of in this passage we're about to look at. But

we certainly see and can relate to what Isaiah

was experiencing. Woe to those who call evil

good and good evil. We see that all around today.

There are so many evil and sinful things in our

world that people celebrate and cheer as though

they are good. And there are so many good things

in the Word of God and the goodness of God and

the goodness of Jesus Christ that people... Right

off. It's insignificant. So we can understand

what a godly man like Isaiah would have felt

like. We can understand that even in our world

today, trying to live with all the things that

are around us. And we ourselves are trying to

stay on the straight and narrow and to avoid

those temptations. Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1.

Isaiah 6:1

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the

Lord seated on a... high and lofty throne, and

his robe filled the temple. Seraphim were standing

above him. Each one had six wings. With two he

covered his face, with two he covered his feet,

and with two he flew, and one called to another,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. His glory

fills the whole earth. Okay, so we kind of get

the scene set for us. I'm not really sure exactly

if Isaiah is seeing all this in a vision. Perhaps

he really is in the temple and God's revealing

these things in the physical temple in some visionary

way. Maybe Isaiah is just out in the middle of

the woods and all of this is a vision. Whatever

the scene is, we're not certain. But regardless,

we see what's going on here. Isaiah is in the

presence of the throne of God. And there by this

throne are these angelic creatures called seraphim.

We see a very similar angelic being mentioned

in Revelation. I don't think they're referred

to as seraphim there, but the six wings, probably

the same angelic beings. And they're saying the

same thing in the book of Revelation. Holy, holy,

holy. It says day and night they stand around

the throne and they continually praise God over

and over, holy, holy, holy. And so Isaiah is

getting a vision of this. He's getting a vision

of being in the presence of God with God seated

on the throne, an angelic being praising God

repeatedly. Let's continue on in verse 4. The

foundations of the doorways shook at the sound

of their voices, and the temple was filled with

smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined,

because I am a man of unclean lips, and live

among a people of unclean lips, and because my

eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. This

had to be a pretty overwhelming experience for

Isaiah. Now, Isaiah was a godly man. But here,

Isaiah is in the presence of the Lord. He sees

these angelic beings. He sees their praise. And

what is the first thing that he says? He says,

woe is me. Woe is me. Now, think about that for

a second. The God who created the heavens and

the earth. He is a God that has more power and

majesty and glory than we could possibly imagine.

There is no way for us to imagine the greatness

of God. No matter how much we may love God or

how much we may understand about the scripture

and how much we may long to stand before God,

I don't believe it is humanly possible for us

to even imagine what that moment is going to

be like. And when Isaiah encountered that moment

that he was in the presence of the Lord, he said,

woe is me. Perhaps you and I will have the same

experience. And one day we will all stand before

the Lord. There's no doubt about that. Whether

Jesus comes back today and takes us to be with

the Lord and stand before him in judgment, whether

we live another 50 years and die, one day every

single one of us in this room will stand before

the presence of the Lord. And I wouldn't be shocked

at all if our response is the same as Isaiah.

In the moment when we see the glory of God in

its fullest and we think back in that moment

to our life, it just reveals to us just how sinful

and rotten we are. That in the presence and the

power of God, what can we do but just shake in

our boots? What can we say to God knowing that

God is God and we're seeing Him and now all of

a sudden... In the most starkest contrast possible,

God is here, and we are way down here, and Isaiah

sees God, and he's in his presence, and he says,

Woe is me, because I'm a man of unclean lips,

and I live among a people of unclean lips. Now,

he had just spent in chapter 5 talking about

woe to these other people around him that's doing

all these evil things, but now even Isaiah. Being

a godly man. He says, woe is me too. Because

I'm a sinner. I'm not worthy to stand in the

presence of God. He says, a man of unclean lips.

That's probably just another way of saying, I'm

a sinful man. I'm a sinful man and I don't know

what I'm going to do standing in the presence

of God. Well, let's read a little further and

see what happens. Verse 6. Then one of the seraphim

flew to me. and his hand was a glowing coal that

he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched

my mouth with it and said, Now that this has

touched your lips, your wickedness is removed,

and your sin is atoned for. That's kind of a

weird scene. This angelic being takes this hot

coal, touches it to his lips. It's symbolic language.

He said, I'm a man of unclean lips. That is,

I'm a sinner. And the angelic being, Atones for

his sin. He says, look, okay, your sin has to

be atoned for. And that's symbolized in this

language of this hot coal being touched to Isaiah's

lips. That he would be forgiven. That he would

be atoned for. Now praise the Lord for that.

Here's a sinner in the presence of God. And how

can a sinner stand in the presence of God unless

they are atoned for? Now the same is true for

you and I. The same is true for you and I. We

can read through the scripture and we can see

enough about the power and the glory of God that

there should be some fear that's within us. Like

holy smokes, like I'm going to stand before this

God one day. And how will I be able to stand

in his presence? If I stand before God and I

think back at all the things that I've done and

said, all the thoughts that have run through

my mind, and God knows those things, and one

day I'm going to stand right in front of him,

where is my hope? Well, our hope is similar to

that of Isaiah. Our hope is that through God

we can be atoned for. Now, we're not atoned for

by a burning coal touching our lips. We're atoned

for through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the

way that we can be atoned for so that when one

day we stand before the Lord, as scary and as

overwhelming as that may be, there will be a

certain excitement there and a certain joy there

to know that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, He

was nailed to a cross. He became a sacrifice

for us so that all of our sins could be forgiven.

And praise the Lord for that. Because apart from

Jesus Christ, apart from Jesus Christ, if we

stand before God and we have not trusted in Jesus

and we have not repented of our sins and we have

not asked to be forgiven, One day you're going

to stand in the presence of God and you're going

to have to answer for everything that you've

done. And what can you say to God? I wish I would

have done better. God, please just give me another

chance. God, let me make it up to you. Let me

work it out to you, God. Look at all the... The

good things I did on the earth. Look at how much

money I had. Look at how famous I was. Look at

all this. God, was any of this good enough? But

all you're going to have before you is all of

your sin. It far outweighs any bit of good that

you can do because there's no amount of good

that we can do to earn forgiveness. It is only

earned by the goodness of God. And just as...

God allowed this angelic being to touch Isaiah

to bring atonement. So God sends one in Jesus

Christ to be our atonement. Yeah, our sins are

heavy and they're rotten and they make us feel

guilty and ashamed, but I want to tell you today

that when the day comes that you stand before

God, you can stand before Him with hope if you

put your trust in Jesus Christ and would ask

God to forgive you today and just follow Jesus.

And live for him. You can be atoned for today.

And that's the only way. That we will be able

to stand. In the presence of God. With any hope

at all. For all of eternity. That if we experience

that atonement today. That perhaps we'll stand

around the throne. With the seraphim. Repeating

those same words. Holy, holy, holy. But if we

reject. Jesus Christ today and stand before God

that day, perhaps the words we'll be saying are,

help me, help me, help me. Continue on. Verse

8. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,

who should I send? Who will go for us? I said,

here I am, send me. Now look at Isaiah's willingness

to serve the Lord right here. He had just stood

before the Lord and he said, woe is me in the

presence of God. But then after he experiences

his atonement, God said, who can I send? Who's

going to serve me? Who's going to do the work

that I need to be done? Who's willing to follow

me and listen to me and tell the people and do

what I need them to do? And Isaiah said, here

I am, send me. He experienced the power of God.

He experienced the atonement of God. And now

there's a willingness in him to serve. That he

says, woe is me, but he says, God, I've been

atoned for and here I am. I'm ready to serve

you. Send me wherever you want me to go, God.

Send me. That's a beautiful verse. That's a beautiful

heart. And that should be the heart of every

person who has been atoned of their sins by Jesus

Christ. That once we recognize our sinfulness

and we say, whoa, God is... is God and He is

good and He is powerful and one day I'll stand

before Him and I'm not deserving of His grace,

but God, would you please give it to me? I trust

in Jesus Christ. And once we experience that

forgiveness, there is peace and there is joy

and there should be some excitement for us. That

we should say, God, here I am, send me. I'm ready

to go and I'm ready to serve you, Lord. So is

that our response today? Is that your response

today? How many times do we say that to the Lord?

Here I am, God, send me. I can say this morning,

don't do this, if I ask. If God were to say,

who can I send to church on Sunday mornings?

We'd all raise our hand. Here I am, Lord, send

me. I know that because you're here this morning,

praise the Lord. What if I were to ask? Who's

willing to go to Sunday school this morning?

Well, be a few less hands. What if I was to ask,

if God were to say, who can I send to the nursing

home to visit the people out there? Be a few

less hands. What if God were to ask, who can

I send into the remote places of Africa to minister

to those people? Few less hands. Who can I send

to the... Streets of the big city to help the

homeless and the poor. A few less hands. How

many can I send to the prisons to minister? You

see, there are some things. Here I am. Send me,

God. Send me to the padded pew with the air conditioning

and the good people and a good feast to eat sometimes

after church. Here I am, God. Send me. But the

things that God really calls us to, sometimes

are really hard. And maybe we're not so eager

to say, God, send me. But maybe we should be.

Maybe you should be. And I suspect that for everybody

in this room, that there are some times that

maybe not in a booming, audible voice from heaven

that God says, I want you to go here. But there

are times in our spirit, in our heart, that we

feel like, I think I need to do this. I think

I need to do this thing. But instead of saying,

here I am, send me, we talk ourself out of it.

I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow. I'll

do that tomorrow. Because I'm really busy today.

And I want to do it, God. I'm going to do it.

I just need to build up the courage. And I'm

ashamed to say in my life that there are so many

things that I have put off to tomorrow for years.

And tomorrow has never come. And maybe we need

to stop saying, God, I'll do it tomorrow, I'll

do it next week. And maybe today you just need

to look at the words of Isaiah and you need to

say, God, here I am, send me. God, this is really

scary, this is really hard, this is out of my

comfort zone. God, this is going to cost me my

time, this is going to cost me my money, this

is going to cost me my patience to go and...

see somebody that's an old curmudgeon that just

is so negative and I don't want to go see them

and I don't want to love on them, but God, I

know somebody's got to do it, so here I am, send

me. You might be surprised that there are so

many blessings in this world when we do the things

that we don't want to do. God knows our heart.

We're not pretending. You don't have to just

pretend like, okay, God, I'm ready to go and

do this thing. We can say, God, I'm struggling

with this thing. God, I really don't want to

do this. God, this is hard. This is scary. God,

I know I should want to do it, and I want you

to change my heart, Lord. But after Isaiah experienced

the grace of God, the atonement of his sins,

the first opportunity he had, When God said,

who can I send to do my work? Isaiah said, here

I am, send me. What about you today? Have your

sins been atoned for? You read through the scripture,

you see God. Not in the same way that Isaiah

did, but you can see enough of the power of God

and who God is and the character of God to know

that. It's going to be pretty intense when we

stand before Him one day. Woe are us and our

sinfulness. But praise the Lord for Jesus Christ

that our sins may be atoned for. Have your sins

been atoned for today? If they haven't, all you

have to do is pray. If you just pray to the Lord,

just ask Jesus Christ to forgive your sins, to

be your Lord and Savior, to just follow Him and

live for Him and to seek to... Follow His example.

Just ask Him to forgive you today. He'll do it.

He died on the cross to do it. I guarantee you,

He wants to do it. If you don't know Jesus today,

that's the only source of atonement for us. If

you don't know Him, you need to know Him. And

if you've experienced that grace today, are you

willing to go? I don't know what God wants you

to do. I don't know where He wants to send you.

It might be something so simple. It might be

something just crazy. I don't know how God wants

to use you, but I know that sometimes there are

things that God puts on our heart and things

that God calls us to and opportunities to serve

that we miss because we say, not I. But Isaiah

showed us the proper response. When God calls

you to do something, When you feel the Lord working

on you, may we be those who are faithful in the

days to come to say, Here I am, Lord. Send me.

Let's pray. God, we come to you. We thank you

for your good word. Dear Lord, there's a lot

for us to learn. We are not really any better

off than the people that Isaiah was around, dear

Lord. We see the same type of evils in our world.

And if we're honest, dear Lord, we're guilty

of some of the same evils, God. It's not good.

It's not okay. We don't just want to turn a blind

eye to it, dear Lord. But in these few moments,

God, I pray that you would help us to address

our sinfulness. That we would not keep living

in darkness and pretending like we're in light,

dear Lord. But that we would repent. That we

would seek you today, God. If there are some

in this room that do not know Jesus Christ, I

pray that right now in this moment, that they

would just ask you to forgive them. That they

would put their faith in Jesus Christ to know

that he died on the cross so that their sins

could be forgiven. I pray that they would just

pray right now, dear Lord, and ask him to forgive

them. I pray, dear Lord, that they would just

experience your peace and mercy and know that

their sins are atoned for, God. And that when

we follow Jesus, that we no longer live for ourself.

We no longer desire to live for the world, but

we desire to live for him. And I pray, God, that

if there is any that have done that today, that...

We can just rejoice with them, dear Lord, in

just a moment. God, maybe there are some in here

today and they're yours and maybe they've squandered

some opportunities, some things that you really

put on their heart, ways that you wanted them

to serve, things that you call them to. God,

they didn't respond right. But I pray, dear Lord,

that you help us to clearly see ways in which

we can serve. That when we feel you prompting

and guiding and calling us, dear Lord, that we

would be faithful to say, here I am, send me.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name.