"Faith: Make Room For What God Wants To Do" (Isaiah 54:1-2, Pastor Dan)

Friends, for the next couple of weeks, for the next couple of weeks, we want to dive into what we are all about.

Our vision, our mission that God has given us as the Church of Jesus Christ here in Lackawanna.

And last week we talked about faith.

We're going to continue to talk about faith today.

Faith is a victory that overcomes the world.

Amen.

And without faith, the Bible says it is impossible to please God.

It's impossible to know God.

We come by faith.

We don't come by religious duty.

We don't come by our own self-righteousness.

The Bible says that our righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of God.

Does that encourage you today?

You can't come to God with your own self-righteousness.

You need a new righteousness that God gives you through Christ, and that is awesome.

We come into the fellowship of God, our Heavenly Father, through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the declared righteousness of God.

He who knew no sin became sinned for us so that we might be the righteousness of God.

Aren't you glad that when God looks down on you, he doesn't look at your past, he doesn't look at your sin, he doesn't look at your weakness or your insufficiencies or your inadequacies.

He looks at you as being in Christ.

And if you are in Christ, you are accepted today by God.

And again, a little wahoo or something.

You are accepted.

You belong to Don.

You're a child of Don, you're a son.

And the daughter of Doctor.

In 1792, there was a 31-year-old man named William Carey that gave a message to a bunch of pastors back then at a pastoral conference, and his title of his message was Expect Great Things from God, Attempt Great Things for God.

And they believe that this preaching, this ministry of William Carey, was the beginning of an awesome movement of God, a global mission of God to reach all the nations, every nation, tribe, and tongue with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.

William Carey is known as the father of modern missions.

His most well-known motto, summarizing a bold vision for Christian mission.

And isn't that what we need as the body of Christ today?

Amen?

We need to expect great things from God.

And if we expect great things from God, we have this ability and opportunity to attempt great things for God.

Another quote that he gave is I'm not afraid of failure.

I'm afraid of succeeding at things that don't matter.

Isn't that ever true?

Amen.

Church ministries can get involved in a lot of things that do not have eternal purpose and eternal value.

We as a church of Jesus Christ today, we need to be focused on those things that have eternal value, that change the hearts of men and women.

Amen.

That draw people to Christ, that minister to Christ.

Another saying that he said is the future is as bright as the promises of God.

Can I get another something?

Amen.

Isaiah chapter 54, verse 2.

Isaiah 54:2

It's our theme verse for today.

It says this Enlarge the place of your tent.

Let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out.

Do not hold back.

Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.

This was the theme verse of William Carey's message back in 1792.

Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.

Lord, we love you today.

We give you praise and adoration.

Our hearts are filled with your glory and your goodness today as we look upon the person and work of Jesus Christ, the great Lamb of God that was slain before the foundation of the world, how you laid down your life, took our city so that we might have life, so that we might be transformed, that we might have a relationship with you, Lord, that we will be reconciled back to God.

And we give you praise and adoration.

We pray these words today will be words that change us for all eternity.

Based on your word, we give you praise in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Before Isaiah chapter 54 is the awesome chapter of Isaiah 53, the greatest prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the suffering servant who is Jesus Christ, the one who would bear the sins of many.

Isaiah 54 · chapter mention

Isaiah 54 follows with a message of restoration, a message of renewal, a message of salvation, a message of hope.

The people of Israel had experienced judgment.

They had experienced devastation, barrenness, shame, and what felt like abandonment because of their lack of obedience and trust in their God.

Jerusalem had been destroyed, the nation had been diminished, the future looked uncertain.

And then God speaks to them and says, in verse 54, verse 1 Sing, O barren one, who did not bear, break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor.

Enlarge the place of your tent.

Let the curtains of your habitation be stretched out.

Do not hold back, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your states, for you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations, and it will people the desolate cities.

So we thank God that those that have experienced barrenness or brokenness or have a sense of being abandoned, God is telling them, start singing, because renewal and restoration is coming.

Amen.

Leap out in faith and enlarge the place of your tent.

This enlarge the place of your tent.

Tents were a familiar commodity with Israel.

They lived out of tents, and the tent was made out of goat hair.

And they used the tent.

In this passage of scripture, Isaiah is using the tent as the nature of life, as an example of the nature of life.

My life is like a tent.

Your life is like a tent.

Paul explains in the epistles that our life is but a tent.

It's fragile, it's fleeting, it's momentary.

And we pretend that we will be here forever, don't we?

We pretend that life will be just pass us by, and many people saturate themselves with entertainment.

They saturate themselves with the things of the world to cover up this one main thing that will happen, that every everyone in this under this pavilion today will die and will face judgment.

Many people look to their savings account as their God.

Should form what we value and how we live.

Amen.

And all you older folk realize when you look back, time flies even when you're not having fun.

Amen?

Time flies.

So we understand that it's not just a physical state.

Our thoughts, our perspectives are like a tent as well.

Your perspective in life can expand or it can collapse.

Our thoughts are too small to contain the bigness of God.

And that's why every every single moment of every day, we have to have our faith in the promises of God and not our perspective of our situation or our circumstance.

Why don't you flip over to Mark chapter 6 and verse 1?

Mark 6 · chapter mention

How many write your Bible to the pavilion today?

You'll get a$5 gift certificate.

Mark chapter 6.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

And we verse in verse 1.

He went away from there and came to his hometown.

And his disciples followed him, and on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue.

And many who heard him were astonished, saying, Wait a second.

What did this man, where did this man get these things?

What is the wisdom given to him?

How are such mighty works done by his hands?

Is not this the carpenter?

That punk kid that walked the streets, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon?

And are not his sisters here with us?

And they took offense at him.

And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in the hometown and among his relatives and his own household.

And he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them, and he marveled because of their unbelief.

The Bible says here that Jesus wouldn't, but that he couldn't.

And it's a picture of our faith.

That we have to trust God.

Amen?

That we have to look at God and have a perspective of God that's real, that's right, that's truthful, that's just, that's based on the word of God.

And then let's turn over to Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

Colossians chapter 2, verse 6 says this.

Colossians 2:6

Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the hand and the rule of all rule and authority.

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

And you were dead, you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made a liar together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

Aren't you glad for the victory that Christ has won on the cross?

Amen?

Amen.

So God is telling his people that sometimes we we have to have in our minds this thinking of the greatness and the glory and the wonder of who God is rather than our circumstances or our situations.

But we live in this world, don't we?

We see with our eyes.

But the Bible tells us that we walk by faith, not by sight.

We walk in faith in the promises of God.

Faith doesn't deny what you see.

Faith refuses to believe that what you see is all there is.

Amen?

What you see with your eyes today is not what's going on in the kingdom of God around you, amen?

It's not what's happening in your heart, it's not what's happening in your life.

Hebrews 11 says, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

So we see in the Old Testament that it contains promises, pictures, types, and shadows that point toward Christ.

The New Testament reveals their fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

What is concealed in the Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament.

Amen.

And when we come to Christ, we see that God's purpose has always been bigger than one people, one city, one generation.

His mission reaches the nations.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

So Isaiah 54 gives us this powerful principle.

When God speaks about a greater future, faith prepares for it before it becomes visible.

Amen.

So he brings out four things in this passage of scripture.

Enlarge the place of your tent.

Make room for what God wants to do.

Amen?

Amen.

Picture is simple.

You're living in a tent.

Every tent that I've been in, it's been cluttered and it's been crowded.

Amen.

And this is what's happened with the Israelites.

Imagine a family living in a small tent.

They discover that a baby's coming.

The baby hasn't arrived yet.

There's no crib, there's no clothes, there's no toys, there's no visible evidence.

But the parents know that the baby is coming so that they prepare.

They make room before they see the child.

Every one of you parents that have had a child, you've set apart a room, amen.

You've painted it, you've fixed it up, you made adjustments before that child was given.

And God was telling Israel that you might be living in this tent, but you've got to enlarge your tent.

Make room for what I have promised.

Amen.

Make room in your life for what I have promised.

Their preparation was based not on what they could see, but on what God had said.

Faith prepares before it sees.

We talked last week about Abraham.

He went out not knowing where he was going, but his faith did not happen until he stepped out and began to make that journey.

Amen.

Hebrews 11 tells us of Noah.

He acted in response to what God had warned him about.

For 120 years he was building that ark.

Israel stood before the Jordan River.

The river was flowing.

But the priest had to step into the water before the water parted.

Amen.

And we see the same principle in Scripture.

God speaks.

We believe, we obey, and then God reveals what He has promised to us.

But so many of us fall short because we hear God speaking, but we never launch out in faith.

Amen.

Faith is an active thing, isn't it?

Faith moves.

Faith takes the step.

Faith believes and moves in the direction that God is wanting us to take.

We often want it reversed.

Have you ever prayed this prayer of God?

Show me.

And then I'll believe.

Show me the provision and I'll trust it.

Show me that door and I'll start walking.

Show me, show me, show me.

Jesus said, Blessed are those who have never seen.

Amen?

But yet believe in me.

God says, prepare.

Enlarge your tent.

Don't build your future according to the limitations of your past.

The enemy likes to bring all of our past mistakes, our weaknesses, our inadequacies before us.

And sometimes our perspective and our small tent encourages him and allows him to come in.

And we have this mindset of limitation.

We have this mindset of weakness.

We have this mindset that never, nothing is ever going to change.

We have this mindset that is not of God.

We need the mind of Christ.

Amen.

Let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out.

A tent cannot become larger unless the curtains are stretched.

The curtains is the canvas, is the covering.

And God was telling Israel, your future requires great stretch, a greater capacity for reach.

How many of you can reach down and touch your toes today?

Come on, raise your hands.

Yeah.

Let me see if I can do it.

It's not worth it.

Amen.

When I was uh in athletics, I could basically put my palms down on the floor.

I was stretched.

I could run.

I could tackle.

I could hit.

I could throw.

And now I thank God I can walk.

Amen.

I can walk.

Listen, God wants to stretch us, friends.

He wants to stretch us.

And he stretches us by us launching out in faith.

And saying, God, I believe the promises.

You know what, God, I feel like I can't touch my toes, but I'm going to reach down.

And I'm going to allow you to mold me and shape me.

He wants to stretch us today.

We as Christians often become sedentary, don't we?

I didn't say cemetery, I said sedentary.

Tending to spend much more time seated, somewhat inactive, than active with the things of God.

As we see the day approaching, the Bible says that we need not neglect getting ourselves together.

We need not neglect involving ourselves with the local body that we have right here.

Amen?

As you look around, this is the body of Christ that you've decided.

This is my church.

This is my family.

This is my body.

And with that comes responsibility as a body part.

Amen?

To be involved, to be stretched, and not become inactive.

But be a part of what's happening in Still Single Church.

Join a life group.

Come out to everything that we have going on.

Realize that God wants to stir in you a ministry.

Amen.

Prompted by the Holy Spirit, which you get involved in and you do, because the Holy Spirit said, This is the way, walk in.

The Bible says, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

The gospel keeps moving.

Amen.

From Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the nations.

Isaiah 40, 54, 3 says, For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left.

This passage of scripture is speaking to the Israelites that were broken, that felt barren, that were abandoned, that God is going to bring them back and restore a relationship with God.

But it also speaks to the fact that every nation, tribe, and tongue will come to know Jesus Christ through the light of the gospel of the Lord as it's preached to the Gentiles.

Amen?

This is a beautiful, beautiful revelation.

It will spread abroad to the right and the left.

The gospel is intended to flow through his people, through Gentiles, through you, through me, to every person that we meet in the marketplace, in our job, wherever you go, and when you wake up every day, it can be an appointment of God to reach someone with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is his cry.

This is his call.

Amen.

We might ask ourselves today: who isn't being reached?

Who is outside our normal circles?

Are we missing a generation preaching the gospel?

What neighborhood are we overlooking?

What culture are we failing to understand?

Are we only reaching people who already know how to find us, or are we willing to go where people actually are?

Amen?

This is a cry for every one of you that claim this local body as your family, as your church, as the body of Christ.

Amen?

The church must be willing to stretch, stretch our thinking, stretch our relationships, stretch our commitment to each other as the church.

Stretch our methods, stretch our willingness to serve, stretch our evangelism.

God, stretch us.

Amen?

God, stretch us.

Every ligament and every tendon, oh God, stretch for your glory and for your honor.

We can change our methods without changing our message.

The gospel doesn't change.

It's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Paul said it.

Amen?

To the Jew first.

And all

To the Greek.

Who is God calling us to reach?

Where has our tent stopped expanding?

Have we become comfortable reaching only people who we like or people who are like us?

A church that only cares for the people inside the tent has forgotten why God has given the tent in the first place.

The tent needs expansion.

Amen?

Alright.

The Bible says lengthen your cords.

Increase your capacity.

Increase your capacity.

This is a practical picture.

If the tent gets bigger, the ropes have to get longer.

Amen.

Expansion requires preparation.

I used to be a runner involved in sports.

I had such a great capacity for airflow.

Amen?

Dive into the water, you could hold your breath forever when you're younger, don't you?

I could run five miles at a drop of a hat.

Now I'm crawling to my car across the park a lot, amen.

God wants to increase your capacity for your life to minister to others.

If you're holding a six-ounce cup, God has a 12-ounce cup, amen?

My wife drinks an eight-ounce coffee in the morning.

I don't.

I drink a 14-ounce cuff.

I need greater capacity.

And this is the thing that we must face.

Is that the enemy wants to keep you down and say you'll never change.

You'll never be used of God.

You're old or you're young or you don't have the experience.

Or you don't know how to care for people.

You have no ministry whatsoever.

But the Bible clearly states that everyone has been given a gift.

Amen?

A gift to serve and a gift to love.

The gift of the Holy Spirit that reaches out beyond our capacity, beyond the measure of our life, to reach others.

We often pray as a church, God send more people.

But perhaps God is asking, are you prepared, each one of you, to disciple new folks that come in?

Are you prepared to live a life of holiness and obedience to the Lord so that when folks come in from the community and they look at your life and they see the holiness of God, they see that your life is sanctified to the things of God.

Amen?

Set apart from the world and living your life for Jesus Christ.

We pray, Lord, send a revival.

But we need to build a culture of prayer.

Amen?

Lord, give us more leaders.

We need to develop the leaders that we have.

And we need folks all over this congregation today, under this pavilion, to realize that if you've accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are a leader.

Amen?

Discipleship is not just learning about Christ, it's understanding that your life has an effect on people.

Your inertia towards God changes people as they look at how you live.

Lord, increase our influence, we say.

But can we steward greater influence in our community?

And that's the question that we have to answer ourselves.

Amen.

Paul gives Timothy a command.

What you have heard from me, and trust to faithful men.

And trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others.

Amen.

Amen?

A story of God's grace that you can tell others.

If you've been saved today, you've accepted Christ as your Savior.

You've got a story to tell how Christ is safe.

Amen?

What does increased capacity look like for us at Steele Stating Church?

Mature leaders, better discipleship, more prayer, more volunteers, stronger children's ministry, more small groups.

Amen.

Pastoral care, financial stewardship, biblical teaching, spiritual maturity.

We walk this walk together as brothers and sisters as we grab each other's arms and we go to the cross together.

Amen?

And we serve our Lord with everything that we have.

And the fourth thing is we strengthen our stakes.

God doesn't simply say make the tent bigger, he makes the stakes stronger.

And all of us have been in windy weather with a tent that has flown away because it has not been tied down strong.

Amen?

The bigger the tent becomes, the more strength it needs underneath it.

Growth without depth is dangerous.

A church can grow numerically.

We can have 500 people but become spiritually weak if the depths of our preaching and the depths of our teaching and the depths of our discipleship and the depths of our surrender is not great in the eyes of God.

Do you understand, friends?

It can have many activities that keep us busy but don't lead us to Jesus.

It can have influence but lack holiness.

It can have attendance without transformation.

I don't just want to be an attender at church.

I don't want to be a spectator.

I want to be somebody that follows Jesus.

Amen?

Not just for what he gives me, but I want to follow Jesus because I love him with all my heart.

And his love has set me free.

Amen.

Why do you love Christ today?

Because he first loved you.

Amen?

The grace of God is on your heart.

I talk about this steamroller all the time.

It's with James Taylor saying a song.

I'm a steamroller, baby.

And I'm going to roll right over you.

Well, guess what?

God is a great, awesome steamroller, and he rolls over every hindrance that we have, every obstacle that we set up before him, every raised fist that we say, I do not want to serve you.

I want to walk in rebellion.

And all of a sudden, this great steamroller of God's grace and love flattens us.

And we realize the wonderful, awesome grace of God.

Oh man, we thank God for the grace of God.

Amen?

The grace of God.

Paul said, I am what I am because of the grace of God.

It wasn't spinach that moved Paul.

Amen?

It was the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For years he had to set aside himself to get rid of all the self-righteousness and all the religiosity and all the stuff that made him proud, that made him look good in the eyes of people.

Don't we have to do that today, friends?

All of my pride and all of my self-righteousness, I lay down at the feet of Jesus.

I want his grace.

I need his touch in my life.

You need his touch in your life today.

There's pride in all of us, friends.

But we look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who humbled himself with such humility to become the suffering servant that he served us and he loved us and he gave for us.

Amen.

Christ is the foundation.

It's not anybody's personality, it's not popularity, it's not programs, it's not buildings, it's not budgets, it's not social media.

Christ is our foundation.

He is our rock.

Amen.

Oh, when the storms come, your house does not fall.

Amen.

You've been in the in the world, and you built yourself up in the quick sands of this life.

When the storms come, you crumble.

Because the foundation is not affirmed.

The Bible says we're rooted and built up in Him.

Four questions to take home with us today.

And we're going to talk this Wednesday night in our life groups, as you meet in homes.

What should I enlarge?

How is my vision concerning the things of God?

Concerning the bigness of God?

Is my eyes on the smallness of my life and my inadequacies or the bigness of the promises of God and the testimony of God's grace in your heart and life?

My vision.

Oh, to see Christ more clearly.

Amen?

And let him stir you and move you.

Am I thinking only about surviving?

Getting to that pearly gates to finally turn in my ticket and say, I made it.

No, we're not supposed to survive, friends, as believers and followers of Christ.

We are to thrive.

Amen?

We're to thrive today.

What should I stretch?

My reach.

Who needs to hear about Jesus?

Amen.

Thirdly, what should I lengthen?

My capacity.

What do I need to develop so I can faithfully carry greater responsibility, greater ministry, greater servanthood, greater love for the body of Christ and our community at large?

What must I lengthen for my capacity to serve and to love?

And then fourthly, what should I strengthen?

Strengthen your foundation today.

Amen.

You're not living your life on sinking sand, you're living your life on the rock who is Christ.

And the Bible says that our lives are hidden with Christ in God, protected and provided for.

And the promises of God for us is that God wants to use each and every individual here under the pavilion for the glory of God and ministering the grace of God, firstly to the household of God, but then to our community and preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen?

How are you ministering to one another?

So many one another verses in the Bible.

Amen?

You're gifted, you're graced by God to serve and to love and to be an example of God's grace.

Get out of the smallness of your small tent.

Amen.

Enlarge.

Strengthen.

Stretch.

Lengthen.

Don't allow yesterday's limitations to determine tomorrow's obedience.

Amen.

You might have failed last night, you might have failed last week, but guess what?

The grace of God is here to pick you up and to cause you to be cleansed by his wonderful blood.

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.

He's taken away the penalty of our sin and then to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so we feel the wonder and the favor and the blessing of forgiveness today that he accepts us, friends.

We are sons and daughters of God.

Make room for Jesus.

Amen?

Stretch yourself.

Why don't you go home and reach your toes today, okay?

Get the palms down on the floor.

Stretch your life.

God has and is expecting so much more of us because of the great grace that He has within each of us.

Don't let your past dictate your faith.

Don't let disappointment determine your expectation.

Don't let fear determine the signs of your obedience today.

God told Israel to sing before they saw the fruit.

And God is telling us today, worship God with everything that we are, and launch out in faith, knowing that the promises of God are real and they're true and they're right.

If you really believe God is going to do something, how would you prepare for it?

If you believe the harvest was coming, what changes would you make?

If you believe people were going to come to our church in greater measure, how would you prepare for their coming?

The us for and no more mentality is not what Christ desires.

Amen?

The Bible says, Whosoever will may come.

Of all shapes and sizes, of all ethnicities, of every culture, of every demographic, Jesus wants to save today.

And we're going to be a great part of it.

Amen?

Alright, church, enlarge.

Enlarge.

Enlarge your vision.

Stretch your reach, lengthen your capacity, strengthen your foundation in God.

And God will give you this greater vision that we're talking about today.

This is our final declaration.

I will not let my present circumstances determine my future faith.

I will enlarge my vision.

I will stretch my reach.

I will lengthen my capacity.

I will strengthen my foundation.

I will make room for what God wants to do in my life in this church and in our community.

I will trust God before I see the evidence.

And I will believe that my God is still able to bring fruitfulness out of barrenness, hope out of this disappointment, expansion out of my limitation and your limitation.

The expansion of God's kingdom is not based on your ability or talents.

It's based on your availability before God.

Amen?

And that's the beauty of our walk with Christ.

He brings hope out of disappointment.

Enlarge our tent today, strengthen our states, lengthen our cords, stretch us, oh well.

In Jesus' wonderful name we pray.

Amen.

Lord, we love you today.

We thank you.

That you would take a 31-year-old minister of the gospel to preach a message entitled Expect Great Things from God and Attempt Great Things for God.

And it changed the course of missions throughout the entire world for centuries.

We give you praise for this calling that you've given each of us to live our lives for the grace and the glory of God.

We know that you've gifted everyone in this place with a gift to minister to the body of Christ, to be an example.

And we pray, O God, as we look upon each other today, that we'll be encouraged to love one another.

We'll be encouraged to honor one another.

We'll be encouraged to prefer one another, greater and better than ourselves.

We'll be encouraged, oh God, to humble ourselves as you have humbled yourself, to be a servant.

You said in your word, O God, that as I have loved you, so love one another.

We pray for our church and Still City Church that we can love one another with the love of Christ deeply, richly, greatly, enlarging ourselves, expanding ourselves with the grace of God, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.