What Now?

Good morning. Last week we wrestled with a pretty

big question. One that we often ask whenever

we're feeling like we're being called by God.

And that is, why me? Because sometimes we feel

unqualified. Sometimes we feel like we're not

the right choice or maybe we're not the best

fit. And we go through our brains and we look

at all the things we've done wrong in our life

or the things we haven't done and we say, there's

no way that God could use me, so we disqualify

ourselves. And then we ask the question, why

not now? After looking at stories of people like...

Jeremiah and Moses and Ruth and all those people.

And I shared with you a little bit of my story.

We asked the question, why me? And then I hope

we answered that one. And then we asked, why

not now? Why not do what God is calling us to

do? Why not answer the call now? Because... The

truth we saw was that God doesn't always call

the qualified, but he always qualifies the called.

And I do still believe that that's true. And

today I want us to ask another question. And

it's along the same lines, but it's a little

bit different. And it's what now? Because we

asked, why me? We answered that. We asked why

not now? Hopefully we answered that as well.

And now we're looking at this idea of, well,

what exactly is it that I need to do now? Maybe

it's a where do I need to go now? What do I need

to say now? Who do I need to be now? What now?

What is the call? And what does it actually look

like to say yes to God? And so to answer that,

I want us to look at a man in the Old Testament

who said yes, but he only said yes to God after

being completely floored by the holiness of God.

And so we read in Isaiah chapter 6, verses 1

Isaiah 6:1–8

through 8. We're going to read through this,

and as I try to do every Sunday, we'll pray over

that text and then our handling of it. So let's

read this passage in Isaiah. In the year that

King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon

a throne. high and lifted up, and the train of

His robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the

seraphim, and one called to another and said,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole

earth is full of His glory. And the foundations

of the threshold shook at the voice of Him who

called, and the house was filled with smoke.

And I said, Woe is me. For I am lost, for I am

a man of unclean lips. And my eyes have seen

the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the

seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning

coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar,

and touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has

touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away,

and your sin is atoned for. And I heard the voice

of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who

will go for us? Then I said, here I am, send

me. Let's pray for our understanding and transformation

from this passage today. Father, we thank you

for your word. And we thank you for the way that

the word is able to connect to our minds and

transform our hearts. And so God, we pray this

morning that you would use this word to break

through our hearts. To show us something, to

tell us something that we need to know so that

we can live lives that give you glory, that we

can live those abundant joy and purpose -filled

lives that you want us to have. God, I pray that

as we look through this scripture this morning

and as we have a conversation about what it looks

like to actually say yes to you and what you're

calling us to do, God, I pray that our minds

would see your glory. And that our only response

would be to serve. To say, here I am, God. Send

me. I pray for us as individuals that we would

individually give our personal lives over to

you. I pray for us as a congregation that we

would, as a unit of people striving to do your

will in this earth, that we would give our lives

to you. And God, I pray that in everything we

do, We look at how good you've been and we say,

I have no other choice but to serve. God, here

we are. We pray that you send us today. In Jesus'

name, amen. So Isaiah's calling doesn't start

with a command. It actually starts with a vision.

It starts with this glimpse of God's holiness,

this glimpse of God's majesty. What we see in

verse 1 is, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.

High and lifted up. I want you to imagine that

you walk into this building and all you can see

is just like bright lights and shining and gold

and splendor on this stage. And you look a little

bit closer and you finally adjust your eyesight

to where you can see. And what you see is LeBron

James. And you're like, that's, that. That's

the guy that people call the greatest basketball

player of all time. He's not. But that's him.

He's here in our presence right now. You would

be awestruck. You would probably, some of you

might faint. Some of you would like start to

fangirl and you'd get your phone out. I was at

the Atlanta airport yesterday and I saw this

famous comedian's truck and I only know it was

his truck because... It could only be his truck.

And so I'm like walking and I'm like taking a

video of his truck. Because I'm like, that's,

you get, you know, awestruck. You're captivated.

And that's what happens to Isaiah here. He sees

God in all of his glory. High and lifted up.

And before Isaiah ever hears God's voice, he

sees this glory, he's floored by it, and the

word I want you to hold on to this morning is

captivated. He's captivated. I want to tell you

a story that kind of reminded me as I was preparing

this lesson of this captivation. See, this past

week, on Friday, I had the honor of officiating

my high school best friend's wedding in New York.

And as I was preparing what I was going to say

and the thoughts that I was going to give, I

was thinking about the way he's going to look

at his bride as she walks down the aisle. And

it actually, I mean, it transpired. I'm standing

there and he looks at her and just waterworks.

I mean, he can't hold it together. Because that's

a beautiful sight. And married men, you know

what I'm talking about. Or maybe when you have

your first child and you see that baby and you

hold it in your hands for the first time and

all you can think about is, I'm going to protect

and I'm going to love and I'm going to care for

this person. And so I'm preparing for this wedding

and it made me think about the first time I ever

saw my wife, Eliza. Well, actually, I heard her

before I saw her. Because if you've met her.

Is she in here? Okay. She's not in here. If you've

met her, she's pretty loud. And like in a good

way. Like she's got one of those big, bold personalities

that really like brings life and fills a room.

And so we're in the rotunda at Faulkner. And

it's the toga party. And there's like a lot of

people in this small space. And so I shouldn't

be able to hear her. But I can, and I'm like

on the other side of the room, and she's way

over there, and I hear her. And finally, like

I make my way towards this sound, and I see her,

and I was captivated. And I knew that there was

something special about her that I wanted. Now,

in full transparency, I had a girlfriend at the

time. Like the good gentleman I am, I shoved

those feelings of captivation into a locker and

locked it shut for a while. But the first chance

I got, as soon as I could, before waiting, I

mean as soon as I got the opportunity, I made

my move. Because I knew then, and I still know

now, that I want to do everything I can for the

rest of my life to stay in the good graces of

that girl. And that's what I imagine being in

the presence of the glory of God would be like.

You see this glory. You see this majesty. You

see this beauty that's high and lifted up. It's

almost blinding. And for some, maybe even crippling.

And you're so shook by it that all you can think

is, I want to stay near that. I want to be with

this glory. And that's what I see here with Isaiah.

I see Isaiah caught up in the glory of God. And

I love Eliza, but she doesn't compare to God's

glory. And you love your children, you love your

grandbabies, but they don't compare to God's

glory because you know what God's done. For you,

hopefully. And maybe you've experienced the goodness

of God. And so this glory of God is what Isaiah

is caught up in. He's caught up in something

infinitely more glorious than anything he would

have ever seen on this earth. Something more

powerful, far more captivating, far more worthy

than anything else or anyone else. And I don't

think we talk like this enough as Christians.

We don't talk about how God is meant to captivate

us. We don't talk about how God is this presence.

He's this being that is worthy of our awe. That's

worthy of our attention. A preacher named Rick

Ashley, he said this a few weeks ago in a sermon.

Could I suggest that the biggest problem in the

church today is not lawlessness. It's awelessness.

We're not bad, we're just bored. We are losing

our capacity to be overwhelmed by the spectacularness

of Jesus. And when our vision of Jesus' greatness

wanes, so does our courage. Maybe you remember

the first time you saw your spouse. You can think

about that time where you were like, I want him

or I want her because they were just so good

looking or they just had a personality that you

gravitated towards. And in that moment, we call

it the honeymoon phase. All you can think of

is how awesome they are. But then you get home

after the honeymoon and you see the way they

put the toilet paper roll on the thing. You know

what I'm talking about? Eliza does it wrong,

by the way. Love her. Mean it. And all of a sudden,

that awesomeness, it's like, yeah, this is what

I'm in. And over time, you know, you get used

to that person being there and you don't have

to fight for them to be there anymore, you know,

because they're stuck with you. We've got three

kids and a mortgage. They ain't going nowhere.

You know what I'm saying? And so. It becomes

routine and it becomes this thing that's normal.

And you lose that sense of wonder. You lose that

capacity to be amazed by them. And then it becomes

a lot easier to be irritated by them, right?

And even sometimes to walk out. And that's what

happens with our relationship with God, is it

not? When we're first saved, we're like, man,

God is glorious. God is awesome. God is so good.

He's so merciful. He's so amazing. But then a

couple years go by and all we can think about

is, man, I just really didn't like that song

today at church. And then next week it's, I really

didn't like the sermon, so I'm just going to

stay at home and I'm going to do a live stream

from another church. And then it becomes, well,

I don't really need to read my Bible, do I? And

then it shows up in our actions where instead

of loving our neighbor and seeking to save the

lost, we just try to do our own thing. It's not

that we're bad. We're just bored. We've lost

our sense of amazement at the glory of God. And

that's what Isaiah sees is the glory. And so

right here, he's in the honeymoon phase. He's

excited. He is captivated. And all he can think

about is I'm going to live to serve him. I want

you to think about serving Jesus. We don't just

follow Him because it's logical, although it

is. We follow Him because we have seen and we

have hopefully experienced something glorious.

You can try to live for Him without having seen

His goodness. But it's really hard. Think about

some of the sacrifices and the hardships and

the pain and the struggles and the persecution.

I'm not captivated by the one. If I'm not chasing

the one who is on the throne, who is the reason

that I do have to face these things and that

I do have to endure these things, then what's

the point? To put it in a more maybe relatable

way, do we have any runners in the room? Anybody?

No? Okay, maybe this isn't relatable. Okay. Okay,

let's think about this. Last night, It's like

1 a .m., and I'm driving home from Atlanta, and

I am exhausted. I'm really ready to be in my

own bed. And so I'm driving, and I had to go

to the bathroom. I drank a lot of energy drinks

at this point. And so I needed to pull over.

But the thought was, if I pull over, that puts

me back five minutes or so from getting into

my bed. And my bed. Sounds awesome right now.

And so I'm driving through the dark, through

the winding turns up the mountain. I'm holding

it in, suffering, so that I can get to my bed

a little bit sooner. When I live my life with

Jesus in the forefront, with Jesus as the destination,

as the finish line, that life in the new creation

with God as the finish line, it makes it a little

bit easier to keep on going, right? And so now

Isaiah has seen the glory of God. And I want

you to notice what happens next. Because seeing

the glory of God, experiencing this thing that

not many people have gotten to experience before,

it doesn't inflate Isaiah's ego, it actually

deflates him. And I want you to see what he says

in verse 5. Woe is me, for I'm lost. I'm a man

of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of

a people of unclean lips. Friday, Easton got

to meet his favorite NASCAR driver. I'm not going

to say who it is because I might upset some people

in here. And he didn't go up to this driver and

say, it's Ryan Blaney. He didn't go up to Ryan

Blaney and say, I'm... I'm awful and I don't

deserve to be in front of you and I don't deserve

to get to fist bump you and get an autograph.

Because that's not our normal response. Our normal

response is to fangirl and be like, I'm your

biggest fan. I love you so much. But what Isaiah

does is he says, I'm an awful person. And I don't

deserve to experience your glory. I'm not worthy.

He's so overwhelmed by the glory of God that

he starts confessing his sin. And I want you

to see what God does next. He doesn't look at

Isaiah and say, get your act together. Quit feeling

sorry for yourself. Quit whining. He doesn't

do that. What God does is he cleanses him. He

doesn't say go. get your life right, and then

you can come experience the glory of God. He

doesn't say, hey, all those sins that you just

mentioned, yeah, okay, go back out, drop them

off, and then you can come back in. God's not

waiting. We talked about this last week a little

bit. He's not waiting for you to get it right.

He's not waiting for me to have it all figured

out. He never has. Because if He did, well, we'd

all be out of luck. And I want you to listen

to the words that God says in verse 7. Your guilt

is taken away. And your sin atoned for. Now,

there's two things there. We, a lot of times

in the church, talk about our sin being taken

away. And we're, oh God, we're so grateful that

you've redeemed us and you've forgiven us. But

we still hold on to the guilt. And what God tells

Isaiah here is, not only have I redeemed you,

but you don't have to feel guilty anymore. That's

good news. Because if you've walked through life

carrying all of the feelings of guilt from the

bad things you've done, it gets heavy, right?

And that journey home gets a little bit harder.

When you're shouldering that load of guilt. And

so not only does God redeem him, but he removes

the burden from his shoulders as well. If you

weren't here last week, I want to try to sum

up the message for you in one phrase. You don't

have to be perfect before God can use you. And

I do fully believe that's true. If it weren't,

I would not be here. And neither would you. But

you do have to be convicted by God's glory. That

is something that has to happen. You've got to

be captivated and convicted, brought to your

knees by the goodness of God. You have to see

God for who He is, mighty, worthy, awesome, and

confess your sins. You do have to receive the

atonement for those sins. And that's what we

see happen here in Isaiah's case. And everyone

else who God uses for his good works. Isaiah

had to deal with his sin honestly before God

could use him powerfully. And now that the sin

has been dealt with, we come to the key moment

in this passage. And one that you may have heard

before. Where God says, whom shall I send? Who's

it going to be? Who's up for the task? Who's

worthy? Whom shall I send? And Isaiah's response

is, here I am, send me. There's something really

huge happening here. Isaiah says yes before even

knowing what it is that God is trying to send

him to do or where God's sending him to go. He

doesn't ask, well, where is it, God, again? He

doesn't say, well, how long do you need me to

go there? How hard's it going to be? Is it going

to be cold or warm? Are there beaches? Is there

a target? And I will not lie to you. I'm picking

on Eliza. She's going to be so mad at me. Eliza

asked me when we talked about moving here. She's

like, how far away is the nearest target? I genuinely

have no clue, honey. Go to Ingalls. Isaiah doesn't

ask those questions. He doesn't say, how hard

is it going to be? How much do I have to give?

How long am I going to have to be there? He doesn't

even ask why. And I do believe the reason why

is this. Once you have seen the holiness of God,

once you've experienced the grace and the goodness

of God, obedience becomes the only reasonable

response. It's the only way to respond. When

you experience greatness, you want to do everything

you can to stay in the presence of greatness.

If you put Drew Brees, who is the greatest quarterback

of all time, you can quote me on that, right

here on this stage, I'm going to get as close

to him as possible and I'm going to tell him

every reason why I should be his best friend.

Everybody needs a personal pastor. I will be

your personal pastor, Drew, because you want

to do everything you can to stay in the presence

of greatness. And so when I see the goodness

of God, when I experience this awesomeness, I

want to do what I can to stay with Him. Paul

says it this way in Romans 12, verse 1, I appeal

Romans 12:1

to you, therefore, well, oh, I didn't have this

one in the slides. That's why. I appeal to you,

therefore, brethren, to present your bodies as

a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,

which is your spiritual worship. When we witness

or experience something amazing, our instinct

is to worship. You go to the concert and you

take the videos that you're never going to watch

again. You see your favorite ball team win and

you jump up and down and you throw your drink

in the air and you shout and you scream and you

holler. You know, the high school team, they

win the state championship and so we throw a

big parade. Your kid that you thought may never

get through high school graduates college. Your

son that you thought was just going to be playing

video games in your basement forever gets married.

You see these things and you throw these big

celebrations. So when we see the glory of God,

we experience that redemption. When we receive

that atonement. And when He says, the burden

of your sin doesn't have to weigh you down anymore.

Why would we not celebrate that? Why would we

not throw parties for that? Why would we not

throw the parade, take the videos, rave about

it on Facebook? That is the response. What Isaiah

does and what Paul teaches is that we don't just

worship with words. We worship with our lives.

Every day, every step, every word, every task

is meant to be worshiped to God. It's meant to

proclaim the goodness of God. Present your bodies

as a living sacrifice. My life in service to

God. is worship. And that's my natural response

for all that He's done. Not just in my life,

but all around me. I've seen God's goodness,

and I have no choice but to live a life that

glorifies Him. And Jesus puts it like this in

Luke 9 .23, and this was our scripture reading.

If anyone would come after me, if anybody wants

to be near me, if they want to live in my presence,

if they want to be my follower, then let them

deny themselves. And take up their cross daily.

And follow me. Do what I do. Say the things that

I say. Go the places I go. Be like Jesus. Just

like I did when I was captivated by Eliza. When

you encounter something glorious. You want to

do everything you can to stay close to it. I

don't know about you guys, but I want to stay

close to Jesus. Because I know where my salvation

lies. Not only that, but I know where my hope

lies. I know where my joy lies. When life makes

zero sense, it makes sense when I know who's

leading it. So I want to stay close to Him. I

want to see and experience the full glory of

God for eternity. And I've experienced that grace

and goodness and I hope you have. My response

from that experience is to live in service to

Him. That's my worship. And the Christians in

the room that have been Christians for a long

time can tell you it won't always be easy. In

fact, most days it's not. You won't always get

it right. I'll fail. In fact, I fail every day.

Just ask Eliza how many times she wishes I would

have kept those feelings shoved in the locker.

But you live this life in pursuit because you

want to be in the presence of glory. And we keep

going because God is worthy. Because we have

seen. And we have experienced His glory. And

because of that, we have no other response but

to be captivated and pursue. So what now? What

do we do with that? God's calling us all to something.

Every one of us has a different thing. But what

do you do with that calling? What's your response

going to be? If your response isn't yes, if it's

not here am I, send me, then I need to ask myself,

have I experienced the glory of God? Because

if I have, then I'm going to do it. If I have

experienced the amazing nature, glory, goodness,

worthiness, awesomeness of God, then I'm going

to want to follow Him. No matter where you are

in your faith journey. Whether you're a new believer

or you've been a Christian for 80 years, the

question is the same. What has God put in front

of you right now, today, that you're supposed

to say yes to? Is He calling me to serve in a

new ministry? Is He prompting you to reconcile

with someone? Is He putting someone on your heart

that you need to tell about Jesus? Is he asking

you to mentor a young parent or disciple a new

believer? Is he calling you to lead, to give,

or to go? You don't have to have all the answers.

In fact, I have found that the less details I

know, the better, because I'm an overthinker.

You just have to say, here am I. Send me. To

the believers in the room, maybe you've already

asked the question, why me? And now you are asking,

what now? You've been asking yourself, what is

it that God wants me to do? Where is it that

he wants me to go? Who is it that he wants me

to be? The answer that I'm going to give you,

it's simple. It's surrender, trust, and act.

Surrender your life to the will of God. Surrender

your life to his awesomeness. Trust. that He

does have your best intentions in mind. Trust

that He is the provider of life, of joy, of peace.

Trust that He is faithful to His promise to redeem

His people and act on that. Don't wait to feel

more ready. Don't wait to know every step. God

is simply asking for your yes, for your here

I am, send me. If there's something specific

that God is placing on your heart today, whether

that's a person, a ministry, a decision, today

is the day to respond. And now to the non -believers

in the room. To the skeptics. To the seekers.

You might be feeling kind of like Isaiah did.

When he says, woe is me. I'm not good enough.

I'm not worthy. My life's a mess. Good. You are

in the perfect position to receive and experience

the grace and goodness of God. Jesus came to

atone for our sins. Just like God atoned Isaiah's

sins. Jesus came to cleanse us. He came to forgive

us. He came to give us a new purpose and abundant

filled life. You're not disqualified. You're

not too late. You're never too far gone. Whether

you need to take a first step toward Jesus or

you need to make that next step in obedience,

we want you to hear this question. What now?

What are you going to do? Are you going to take

the steps? Are you going to answer the call?

And God is waiting for the answer. Here I am.

Send me. If there's anything that you need, if

you would like to understand more about surrendering,

if you want prayers so that you can trust God

a little bit more, if you need the encouragement

of the church to know how to act on what God

is calling you to do, I'll be up here in the

front. We've got shepherds in the room, people

that want to love and encourage and pray with

you. If you need to give your life to Jesus,

And bury that old self and come up clean in the

watery graves of baptism. We invite you to do

that now as we stand and as we sing.