The Eviction of Night (Isaiah 6)

Joshua Kehler: Isaiah chapter six.

What?

I'm

gonna do something a little weird here.

Oh, I bet you didn't see that coming.

I just want to start in verse eight.

We'll go through, basically, we're going to focus on the first seven

verses, but I want to open with this.

This is fascinating.

It's a good little intro.

Verse eight, Isaiah chapter six, 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.

And he said, All right, go and say this to the people.

Keep on hearing, but do not understand.

Keep on spit to perceive.

Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes,

lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with

their hearts, and turn and be healed.

Then he said, How long, O Lord?

And he said, Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without

people, and the land is desolate waste, and the Lord removes people far away,

and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land, and though a

tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak

whose stump remains when it is felled.

The holy seed is its stump.

There is still hope.

I just want to open by, here's a man who sees and has unprecedented hope

in the political agenda of his king.

Finally a good king, finally a good reign, and then all that falls to pieces.

His whole world crashes on his expectations, because the king goes

in and thinks, I'm like a priest, too, and gets leprosy and dies.

And in the year that King Uzziah dies, he goes to church.

And I don't think he went to church expecting an experience and an

encounter with God, but he had one.

and he had such an encounter that God says, Who wants to sign up to be

a failure for the rest of your life?

I want Someone to raise their hand to preach my good news

and it will make hearts harder.

You will never have a successful sermon.

You won't have the handshakes at the back door.

You are going to preach and people are going to be offended by everything

you say because it's the truth and it's going to harden them in the

way that I need them to be hardened.

Because the same sun that melts the ice hardens the clay.

And both things are God's will at work.

And Isaiah has such an encounter that he says, me, here I am.

You can hear him.

He's here I am.

Wave my hand.

Send me.

Can I be a part of your great mission?

What happened to make and to commission?

And that's what we'll talk about today.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for, this season.

We thank you that we're reminded to behold the light.

We thank you that we're reminded that,

the darkness has not overcome the light.

It's not a battle.

It's not a tug of war.

It is your steady kingdom invading into this universe.

Where every place the soul of your foot treads, you say mine, and you bring

healing and flourishing and beauty.

So we just say, thank you, Lord.

We thank you for being present amongst us.

We're not a group of drift.

We're not, but you're a very present help and very engaged.

In the day to day of all of our lives.

So we thank you.

We thank you for your church.

We thank you for your church that's gathered all throughout the city.

So good to have brothers and sisters of all shapes and sizes.

All of you take the ones that wound you because at the end of

the day, you're still family.

thank you for those brothers and sisters too, Lord, this morning.

We praise you, we commit this time to you, Lord, may your kingdom come on earth

as it is in heaven, and may your name be hallowed in all of our hearts this

morning, in Jesus mighty name, Amen.

Amen.

so there's the series, don't watch it.

It's called true detective, season one.

Brilliant, but the reason I bring it up is the whole season is there's a

guy, the main protagonist who is a nihilist and he's just nothing matters.

Anything you do doesn't count.

He espouses his, Theology through the show, and, as he takes on detective

cases and deals with like horrible suffering and terrible evil and just

crazy circumstances, that is how he deals with his, is this Nile face that's

like just all through he is consistent with his character in everything.

And they've got another guy who's a flake, who's his partner, and you're like, Oh

gosh, you're a terrible foil for this nihilist, cause he wins every argument.

And you're just like, man, through the whole show.

And then you start to find out he's that way because he Lost his daughter.

And so he set his face and this is how he's dealing with the evil in the world.

And that he can say that, there's no purpose, everything's just random.

And then you get to the end, he gets wounded, he's in a hospital.

And there's this crazy turn in the show.

I did not expect where I literally gasped at the end.

Because I was like, this is HBO.

What are you doing?

you're not supposed to do this.

You're not supposed to write something like this.

So he just gets out of the hospital being wounded and shot.

And this to his partner, Rust is his name.

I tell you, Marty, been up in that.

I'm not going to do justice to the acting, so just remove

that from your expectations.

I'm sure you didn't have them.

I tell you, Marty, I've been up in that room looking out of those

windows every night, here, just thinking it's just one story.

It's the oldest story.

Marty says, what's that?

Russ says the nihilist light versus dark.

And Marty says, and this is how the whole season ends.

Literally, this is the last conversation.

I could not, I was shocked.

I rewound it multiple times.

He says, I know we ain't in Alaska, but it appears to me that the

dark has a lot more territory.

And Russ says, yeah, you're right about that.

And then he says, but you're looking at it wrong, the whole sky thing.

Because he's looking up at the stars.

It's night.

He's out of the hospital.

And they're just sitting there and the whole sky is filled with stars.

And Marty says, how's that?

How do I have it wrong?

And this is the last line of the whole season.

once there was only dark, if you ask me, the light's winning

because the stars are invading.

And I was like, what?

Are you kidding me?

that's like the story of this?

That's this He looks up and it's dark has more territory like It's got more land

But the way he says you got it wrong.

You're reading this wrong There's an invasion happening And what's beautiful

about night when the Sun sets is you can see it Because the light's coming

in, the night's evading the darkness, so Amazing, that's what we're talking about.

We're talking about an advent, this idea of the light, the

coming light, the dawn, right?

That things seem dim.

They seem like a dusk.

They seem we talk about the overlap of the ages.

We're in the already and the not yet, the kingdoms come, but it's not fully present.

and so there can be this, where are we in terms of, getting our foothold and

our grasp on, Where we're at in history.

and so we begin in our Christianity in this season, in Advent, in waiting.

We do not begin with our own frantic energy or effort.

We do not begin with the merriment of Christmas or the triumph of Easter.

When we celebrate Advent, what we're doing Waiting.

We do not begin with the work of the church or the mandate

of the Great Commission.

Instead, we begin in a place of yearning.

We wait for our King to come.

And we Christians believe, however, not just in one coming

of Christ, but in three, right?

The coming of Christ in the incarnation, which we're

celebrating in, at Christmas, right?

Theologians have sometimes called this the Adventist redemptious, the

coming of redemption, the coming of Christ in what scripture terms.

The last days of the second one, which is we're yearning for his second coming.

But here's what I want to focus on.

The third way that we yearn for the coming is through the Holy Spirit's

work and through the word and the sacraments of communion, right?

That the Holy Spirit pours himself out into us and that we experience.

A profound encounter of the God who has taken up residence in us.

Because, what I say in, and why I went to Isaiah, is what we need in this

day of age of Like political craziness of, man, it seems like the left is

divided from the right on every issue.

And, people within the church are divided and all this is that what we need in the

advent that I want to yearn for us today.

As we yearn, as we look back on the one that He came in His

incarnation, that promises His future, is that He shows up today.

And the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, as he brings the

glory of God to rest on our hearts, and that might be the fix that fixes

everything, that changes everything.

So much we yearn for God changed the city, or God changed this

person, or God put this person in office, or God take this person.

Great prayers, but so much of what we'll see in this story is that

Isaiah shows up to church, and he encounters God, and God changes him.

And then through him, God changes everything.

to give us, guys, Isaiah 53.

What are you going to do with that?

that's like the greatest book, probably the greatest chapter of the Bible.

Anyways, let's go.

so that's the Advent that I want us to long for.

So as I thought about the Advent, like the longing for the

future, hope, our anchors rooted.

You know our hope in the future and what that's going to be actually changes

how we act and live now I also want us not to forsake That sometimes god

shakes the house and shows up at Pentecost with tongues, cloven tongues

on the head or that he, overwhelms.

there's the story of, D.

L.

Moody who, prayed and prayed and he's God, I just need you to show up in my life.

I just, please Lord, I beg of you.

That's the only thing I long for.

and God shows up and he said, He came so strongly upon me that I

had to ask God to stay his hand.

I could not.

Too much!

Whoa!

Whoa!

it's like where Moses, he glowed from being in the presence of the Lord.

And the best is, they're like, oh, he's losing his glow, let's put a veil on him.

Make him seem like he's got the connection.

we got to maintain that appearance and that's something I want to talk

about to you today is authenticity

Because I Isaiah encounters that It's a funny thing authenticity because it's

the thing our whole culture wants Now more than anything But if you say you

want people to be authentic, that's literally the opposite because then

they're performing to be authentic.

It's this weird category and we've even absorbed that into the church where

we're like, let's just be authentic.

and sometimes you're like, eh, but when you encounter God, like

Isaiah does, you can't help but be, you're like, whoa, whoa is me.

I'm undone.

Like I'm coming apart at the seams.

That's authentic.

That's.

That's reality.

we're gonna see how dark it was, where Isaiah went, who Isaiah saw.

I wonder who he saw.

what happened as a result.

pretty easy outline today.

And actually, I want us all to talk about this.

this is a familiar passage.

This is a sacred, these are sacred stones.

I feel like I'm not the only one who's made a monument here.

But that there's like stories behind these verses and I would

love to hear them and be equipped and built up from you guys as well.

So jump in at any point.

I'll just go.

very few couple points.

I don't have a ton on this.

I'm just going to let it.

a flow and, I want to start with how dark it was.

It starts with the year that King Uzziah died.

I just want to set that up.

Verse 1.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.

Man, there's so much in this one, this first verse.

again, Uzziah was a good king.

there'd been a lot of bad kings.

that brought in Child, Sacrifice.

bring your kids to Moloch, and that will help you be and have a better life.

roll your baby that was alive into the arms of a burning stone idol into the pit.

Like that, there's Moloch, okay?

Ba'al and all these other things that the Israelites had

seen from, people around them.

We want to be like them.

We want to blend in.

And God is constantly fighting and saying, No, you're my people.

I want to rescue you from your self destruction and from your terrible

Leadership and ability to lead yourselves like we are bad at it You know, it's

so funny because the good king is the person who almost like stumbles into

the Word of God They're like, oh, hey, here's what it says and it's like Things

flourish right at least for the Kings.

I think of the king who I think it was Josiah who like Recovered the Word of God.

They're like, hey, what's this?

You It's the word of God to us.

And they're like, should we do it?

They're like, let's do it.

And all of a sudden, there's all this blessedness and stuff that happens.

And not because it's a cause and effect thing, but because it's a creator.

designer thing.

A creator made the world to function and flourish in a certain way, and if

you follow those instructions, if I take a, hammer to try to fix a window,

that's against the instructions.

It's not going to work.

It's going to lead to brokenness.

If I'm trying to, Get that window flattened out or seated right in the

sill with a hammer, it's gonna, no, the instructions say something else.

Use a suction cup, just guide it, just, something.

And so in the same way, the Creator has also created and designed us

to flourish in a environment, and this is the way that we flourish.

And Josiah finds that and he's and so it's almost like these good kings

stumble into this, but there has been.

bad king after bad king.

and again, I want to remind us, this isn't four years of kings.

It's not eight years of kings.

It's 60 years.

It's your whole life.

The king you got is the environment and the culture that you grew

up and lived and died in.

here's a godly man growing up in a godly ish.

They're not because you read through the prophets and other places.

They became complacent.

They.

became proud.

They became judgmental.

They became, they became Laodicea.

it's so hard to,

in success, not neglect the one who is giving you life and to think that

you're the one who is the life giver.

And You've got this situation where, man, it's got the king and the stuff,

and hey, we've got a right, and you can look back in your history, and you say,

man, 250 years of terribleness, now we're on the right track, we're doing

the Lord's things, it seems like we're winning in the land, there's relative

peace, and all of a sudden, Assyria starts to come up on the scene, Babylon's

becoming this, army in the background, and then, And then your king, you're

like, the one you're like, man, this is the guy, I've campaigned for him.

I've spent my days off, handing out flyers, and telling him about

how good this, king is and stuff.

For some reason, he gets into his mind that he's gonna go in before the Lord and

do something that the priest is gonna do.

He all of a sudden thinks that he can, he's somebody that he's not, and dies.

And Isaiah is a prophet to Jerusalem and they're watching the northern

ten tribes fall to Assyria.

And so it's and now Syria is like gaining in power and strength in their way.

Like it's, we had this guy, he seemed like he had all the political correct,

connections and everything was good and worked out and we're good, we're just

doing our thing and now all that falls to the wayside and in a day and in a

moment it's like, Israel's gone, Israel can be gone and we can feel that way too.

We feel like.

Hey, relatively, we've been this kind of country with these, this kind of

morality and, we've tried to choose good leaders ish and, and this happened

and, and all of a sudden we feel like things are coming apart at the seams.

And that can be like a good explanation of how I think of a majority of

people feel at this Climate right now this cultural climate that things

are coming apart at the scenes that it's There's not the cohesiveness.

It's not like one strand is breaking.

It's like Everything's falling apart however, you want to and everybody has

a different kind of take here, but if your take is like You What's happening

in schools, or what's happening, in, political power and offices, or, what's

happening in, places of, influence, in the country, like, all this, we can

look at it, and I just want us to, get in Isaiah's shoes, if we feel that way,

and be like, it's all coming apart.

It seems and that's the takeaway, that's the, that is, in the year that King Uzziah

died That is his going into the temple.

He's going in and that's on the foremost of his mind, things

are coming apart at the seams.

that is the like, he, that is the context.

Because the first five chapters he's so sure of himself.

He's pronouncing woes to every country.

He feels Israel is in the superior place.

He's woe to you, Bethlehem, woe to you.

And, he's just he's like a gunslinger, fresh out of Bible college, wet behind

the ears, And he's just woe to you, you know, God's bringing his judgment.

We're the shining light.

And then everything comes apart at the seams.

Do you guys know that we've had moments like that?

We've had 9 11.

We've had take your breath away moments where it's oh, like

the foundations are shaken.

Everything that I've known and depended on and counted for, that's gone.

It's new territory.

Everything's different.

What do you do in that circumstance?

And, Isaiah, he, a lover of the Lord

goes into the temple to have a church service.

In the year that King Uzziah died,

I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.

He was high.

He was lifted up.

And the train of his robe filled the temple.

how about that service?

Lord, give us that service today.

that's what we yearn for.

We want you to show up in this place.

I'm going in, I'm going to the temple, and All of a sudden, he

sees a vision of the glory of God.

And you remember, this isn't unusual, this is Solomon's,

when he dedicated his temple.

the priests were, creating it, and they said they were

overwhelmed, they had to stop.

Because the glory was so strong, it was like a cloud of God's glory.

What is glory?

It's weight, kavod, in Hebrew, right?

It's weighty.

I like to, The explanation, the tangible weightiness of God's divine attributes.

What that means is you can say God loves you, but when you have a moment in your

life and you sense that God grabs you by the collar in the middle of where

you're at with all the distraction and he pulls you to his heart and

you can sense it and then you feel the infinite arms of God wrap around

you and you feel secure invincible, like beloved, like That's glory.

That's the glory of God.

that's what we want when we pray.

God, let your glory come.

God, reveal your glory.

We want other people, our neighbors, experience the tangible weightiness

of God's divine attributes.

His mercy.

His holiness that he's not ah, sin, yeah, it's all good, just breathe a little.

No.

The fire.

that he absorbed into himself to take it from us.

So Isaiah thinking about a throne and who's going to occupy the throne.

And that's the idea, right?

So that's what we go to, especially us who are in, every

four years, our throne changes.

Who's going to occupy the throne and we can obsess over it.

I have spent way too many hours at work watching news.

People say the same exact thing for eight hours a day.

I'm like, I don't have to listen to podcasts.

I'll just listen to news.

I'll expand my education.

Oh my gosh.

and, and they obsess over who's going to occupy the throne.

Guys, there's a lot of God's people right now who are obsessed over who's

going to occupy the throne with hopes.

that is going to bring some kind of salvation that's going to bring some

kind of peace And the thing about a good king, how old are you for a good king?

Nobody hates a good king.

David, man after God's own heart.

They had a lot of baggage, but man after God's own heart, right?

When there's somebody good in leadership, right?

The whole thing.

The place flourishes and there's some flourishing with it, but

the thing is that it's only a human being who always will fail.

You can never ever bank or rest any weight of your hope on an earthly king.

And so when Isaiah shows up at the temple, he sees a vision of

the Lord sitting on the throne.

And the first thing that Isaiah realizes is,

you're the king.

And no matter who sits after Uzziah, you're the king.

And even if it's a terrible, no good king, you're the king.

Every time we look on this earth and there's any turmoil and angst

in our hearts over, there should be some turmoil and angst over, God,

please bring your righteousness.

Please bring somebody who cares about justice because good Kings,

there's a flourishing that's built into humanity, but there has to be a

leaning into you, you are the King.

And you're not waiting for a future throne You're not waiting to occupy it at some

time in the future You're not waiting for the second coming to step into your throne

and to rule and reign in righteousness Jesus the Lord Christ the Lion of the Lamb

of the tribe of Judah he sits ruling right now in all power that would blow Billions

of nuclear, bombs away like Right now on his throne of righteousness ruling and

reigning perfectly so Yes So we come with Isaiah and the year that King Uzziah died

My hopes died in human beings and humanity And all that they could do, and guys,

we do this with pastors, we do this with churches, we do this with, organizations,

we do this with, this is gonna be the thing, this is gonna be the key.

Goodness, God uses these things, they're never the things, because God

is the thing, He's the one, He is it.

All, 100%, complete.

If we get to be a part of that at all, hallelujah.

Never.

ever, and wives, you know this, never put your hope in your husband.

Don't put them on a pedestal.

Don't do that.

That's not good.

that's a lot of, marriage therapy right there.

Boom, done.

that's four, four or five years right there.

Boom, you're done.

Don't put your, don't put your patience on because they are only on their best day.

The best day that I ever loved my wife and serve her unselfishly is a dim shadow

of Christ serving us like he is the king.

We put all our hope in him, never a human being.

If you're ever surprised that a Christian falls, I do this all the time.

I'm like, Oh, I had too much expectations of people.

There I go again.

this person fell up.

There I go again.

I'm expecting to, If, I was I was telling a friend, it's so bad,

okay, let me just tell you, I was like, it just seems like everybody's

falling, is anybody gonna make it?

And they were like, if you're God's work, I think you're gonna make it.

And I was like, oh man, I walked into that one, that's horrible, just like,

but anyways, like that whole Like, guys.

Memorize this.

in the year that my hopes for peace in Stockton because I voted for the

governor or I voted for the mayor or I had this or I'm part of this group

and I'm part of this in that year that all died because it always dies because

human beings die no matter how good they are or they always fall short because

human beings always fall short because there's none righteous but God himself

I saw the Lord sitting on his throne.

Man, that, you see how that just starts to preach.

Such a contrast.

So beautiful.

Okay.

So I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.

It's a good throne.

In fact, he says it was high and lift it up because again, he's

thinking about the earthly throne.

He's The kingly throne and guess what?

The thrones are vying to occupy space.

Assyrian is coming up and it's their throne.

Powerful enough to occupy our throne.

And Babylon's coming up.

Are they gonna occupy like it's a whole tug of War of Thrones and he looks

up above the throne, above thrones.

Ooh, that's gotta go into our hearts too, like the throne above throne.

We're not tug of waring.

The church is never at tug of war, never a tug of war.

We literally.

are established and live and breathe in the victory of the risen son of God.

Every step that you take with your foot in the city, wherever you go

is given to you by God because he is the Lord and the authority of the

world and the universe right now.

Like you have a boldness.

He says, go make disciples be bold.

He's like snakes.

Yeah, whatever this, whatever, like everything that you're afraid of.

It's gone banished to the furthest realm boom.

You are my ambassador empowered with my like who I am and who My character

is to take you have you know what an ambassador does he goes in and he makes

negotiations with places and has the like full weight of the Power of the

kingdom out of this world like this is so off topic, but it's hey Yeah,

like this throne is the throne above thrones You're not in competition with

the other thrones as the people of God.

You are establishing an alterative kingdom, an upside down kingdom.

It looks different.

You're going to serve as you go high.

You might lose your life to see thousands of lives saved,

like it's totally different in its economy.

You're to be very greedy about your generosity.

I don't know if that makes sense to you, but you're supposed to

just splurge, be just out and out.

but then you care a lot about who you are as a temple.

As the very presence of God living inside of you.

Anyways, in the year that King Uzziah died all hope's gone, I saw the

Lord sitting on a throne, not just any throne, but the throne above

thrones, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

One of the amazing things is King Jesus loves being King Jesus.

Like he loves being celebrated as king.

he loves us praising him as king and because that is where security is.

Is that there actually is another kingdom.

That there actually is, he did secure and conquer Satan, sin, and death.

And I love, he lets his train fly.

He's just Every bit of your doubt, every bit of your fear, every bit of your

stress, every bit of your worry, every bit of every person of who you are as

my temple, my train is going to invade.

My glory is going to invade.

I'm going to fill it.

I'm going to wipe out every bit that isn't of me.

Like I want my royalty to invade that you would know that

you know who you are in me.

You are not just, There was a guy who was a prophet, and he was

good, and he sacrificed for us, and now our lives are hidden in him.

cool, okay, that's great.

Human being 2, 000 years ago.

No, from the eternal, uncaused cause, the very, Impetus of creation, the

word that became flesh, you are in him wrapped in the royal robe and the royal

garments, like every bit of you is in him.

I heard a story about the Rolls Royce when they first came out, their whole

thing was like, our cars don't break down.

And, there was a guy who bought one, he was wealthy and he's he broke down.

So he called them and he's Hey.

Hey, my car's broken down.

They flew a helicopter full of mechanics to his location, and

they had it fixed under an hour.

And then those mechanics flew back.

So him being a businessman, because he could buy Rolls Royce or whatever, A

week went by and he didn't hear anything.

And two weeks went by and he didn't hear anything.

And three weeks And finally he called them and he's Hey, I want to settle my debts.

How much do I owe you?

It costs a lot to fly.

Mechanics buy helicopter to come fix my vehicle.

And they said, I'm sorry, sir.

We have no It's the full recollection of anything wrong with your vehicle.

Yeah.

But beyond that for a Christian!

It's not just no recollection!

It's the full recollection that your royalty, that your beloved, that

your adored, that your cherished, your, his precious treasure, like

his I don't know, I just hope we read this passage, like I hope we read it

this week and we're just like, man, each word preaches to us, right?

The train of his robe, the kingliness of Jesus, that he comes

back on a white horse, right?

With his, the name tattooed on his side, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

That he is, man, and we're his.

Okay, The train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him stood the seraphim.

Each 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 and said, Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

And so you have this picture and you have these beings that are created

to be in the presence of the Lord.

They don't worship because that's just all they have to do, but because they're in

the presence of the Lord, they worship.

And in Hebrew, that idea of holy, that is a way to emphasize.

And so there's places where it says pure gold.

In the literal Hebrew, it's gold gold.

They don't say pure gold.

They just say gold gold.

when it says like they fell into pits or like great pits, it says pit pits.

They literally went into pit pits.

because the repetition is what expounds the importance or the, the beauty

and the significance of something.

You remember when David, when he lost Absalom, he says, Absalom, Absalom.

That repetition means his heart is broken.

It's that, it shows the significance of his suffering, and of his

longing, and of his pain.

That repetition.

So anywhere in Hebrew where you see any kind of repetition, and then

when we translate it in English like that's amazing, you think of Jesus.

Now that's not Hebrew, but Jesus as he grew up and he looked

at Jerusalem, what did he say?

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I long to gather you as a hen gathers her

chicks, but you would not, you miss this day that you've been created for.

And so, holy, holy, holy is translating, this is a new, fantastic, Eternal

revelation that I've never seen before and I'm going to sit for

the next thousand years to think about except now I've gone one.

Holy, this is a fantastic, eternal, amazing revelation as I

even glimpse into the face of God through the wings, covered face.

I can't even look at him directly.

I have to look at the face of God.

the shadow or just the light or the glory.

I can't face.

Oh, there's another, there is a new revelation.

And so sometimes we think like wrongly that when we get to eternity, it's

going to be like this, we saw Jesus.

What's next?

Now, can you imagine how, the greatest moment you've ever had your

mind Blown like where you're like, whether it's the sixth sense and

you're sitting in the theater and you're like, Oh my gosh, he's dead.

Or you're like, Kaiser Soze, or whatever it is like your mind just, or whether it's

something with the, Now, take that moment where you just had this, tiny tickle in

your brain and you were like, Brrrrrrrr!

Magnify that, and I can't say a billion, because we can't even

compliment, a hundred times.

And have that happen every second.

Have The best thing you've ever tasted in life Have you ever been

somewhere and you're like, I could die!

I could die!

Right here!

Wow, that is generous.

You are kind.

But you're like

You're like, I'm good.

I'm good with life.

Like every, could you imagine that a hundred times that every

second, like encountering the face of Christ in the glory.

that is what these angels are just like, they're like, I can't get too

much otherwise it's going to consume me.

I will be obliterated in goodness.

I, I just, I'm just going to look and peek through the feathers.

I'm going to see and I'm going to shout with all of my heart and all my being

because God is not going to put up with something that is not with all of

his heart and being in his presence.

It's got to be pure and full of faith.

Fury and passion and they say holy your holy your other there's no one

like you There's nothing in all of creation that's ever existed the

greatest star that's ever hung in the sky Doesn't even hold a candle to you.

There's none other like your goodness You're so moral and good and

everything you do from the beginning to the end every choice you've ever

made is Oh, I see another glimpse.

Your beauty is spectacular that's Before the person we get to do that and that's

why when we encounter that in this human frail flesh Are we like John dies?

The beloved he's like the one who's leaned on Jesus's chest when Jesus

unzips His humanity and revelation and he stands before him John's like Boom!

And it's amazing and he's Oh, no, I got a book for you to write.

Come on, get back up.

we'll give you some life here.

like, when Jesus zips his glory in front of the Mount of Transfiguration to, to

Peter, James, and John, they also fall.

Boom!

And they wake up later, and they're like, Hey, should we should do

something to commemorate this.

We should make a temple, a little tabernacle altar for, for

Moses, and Elijah, and Jesus.

And God's Boom!

I've got a PSA I'm gonna put out.

Here, Jesus.

So these angels, guys, so this is why Isaiah, what's amazing is sometimes

we go to church to come back together.

And what we learned from this story is Isaiah goes to church and he falls apart.

he sees circumstances as coming apart at the seams.

And what God knew he needed was for him to come apart at the seams.

I feel like we could speak on this all day.

I'm just going to end.

Holy, holy is the Lord God.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

Can we just write that down?

Can we tattoo that on our eyelids?

I know that's a horrible idea, but like guys,

Antarctica with its massive amounts of ice, it's desolate

silence, it's long, dark winters.

are bursting with the glory of God.

The desert,

with its long, terrible summers, are bursting with the glory of God.

To the depths of the ocean, to the, our solar system beyond,

we just talked about the stars.

The earth is full.

of his weightiness.

And he's not hard to find.

He's destined the times and the places for you to live.

Act 17.

He's not far from any.

Which we'll come to because he actually sends us to let people know.

the whole earth is full of his glory.

Your house.

When you're having a hard time with your wife, and there's stress, and your

kids know it, and you feel like, I can't get peace, and I wish there was peace,

I made the wrong decision, I said the wrong thing, I stepped into this, your

house is filled with the glory of God.

When you pull up to that place, and you're like, Man, I do not have peace about it.

I should not be here.

At this time of night, at this location, and I'm here.

It is filled with the glory of God.

God goes before you.

The earth is filled with the glory of God.

And And the foundations and the thresholds shook, and 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 I dwell amidst the people of

unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the lord of hosts.

here it is.

he's he gets this vision.

He sees the king on the throne, the king that matters, and what happens?

He's undone.

And to get to the rescue God so often undoes us from everything we've depended

on what does he say I'm a man of unclean lips Why does he point out his

lips because he's a preacher and he's been preaching and he's been talking

and he's been saying woe to you woe to you this country and woe to you

over here and woe to you and realizes.

Oh wait Woe is me!

Wait!

Oh!

I'm not the one to stand in judgment.

I'm the one who needs to be rescued.

As good as I think I am.

Which is amazing because he literally, he's looks at all of Israel.

I love it.

And he's just oh, we're all looking at everybody else.

Every other country and blaming them.

I love it.

Oh, it's because of these people coming in, or it's because of your wickedness,

or it's because of you bringing this in, or it's because of, we're

literally a people of unclean lips.

We literally sit and we stand in judgment and we pronounce woes to others when we

should say woe is us and he's undone and God heals them because what does he do?

He takes a coal off the altar.

And what does he touch?

He touches his lips.

Because so often what you repent of is where God meets you with his healing.

for me, I know, My story, you guys know it, but, I literally, for years

struggled, with that sense of approval.

And because something happened in my life that I felt dirty and disgusting,

I found that religion was the best way to get that sense of approval where I

felt like I wasn't dirty and disgusting.

so I became good at religion.

Really good.

I would, I.

Not really good, because, my marriage suffered, and the only time my

wife has ever said, yeah, I was a little sketchy, a little shaky.

I was, what?

Cause, we've said from the beginning, we joke about a divorce, what's that?

I don't understand that word, We'll literally murder each

other before we divorce.

But, not sure if that's a better solution, but.

I don't know.

It's a Billy Graham thing.

All right.

Um, but the time it was because I was trying with all my heart, I was working

80 hours a week with chronic migraines as a youth pastor, sleeping in the

office, throwing up in the office.

Passing out and off like I've got to do this.

I've got a show.

I've got you know, And anybody who would get close to my idol would I'd be raw, and

I'd be relentless with and so I Counseled I'm a pastor I counseled kids who were

like I struggle with this I do this and I just want to say You too What do we do?

Let's cry out to God together.

But I didn't.

I said, here's some scriptures.

Read this.

Pray this.

Until God met me one night.

Sometimes we think repentance looks like, God, I'm sorry for No, I think

repentance is coming back home.

When you finally hit the brick at the end of the road, you're like, for me, it was.

Okay.

The only thing I'm consistent at is failure.

That's all I got.

That's it.

That's in my life.

It's the only, because I prided my life on what I'm good at.

I'm good at preaching and I'm good at teaching and I'm good at this.

I'm good at leading and I'm good at discipleship.

I'm good at all being a Christian.

I've got so many categories, 30 of them filled.

I'm good at being a husband.

When I failed that, any category you fail if you need that to be your identity,

holy moly, it's like apocalypse now.

I'm good at all these things, and then finally it was like, it's so freeing

to say, actually the only thing I'm good at is not being good at anything.

And God met me that night.

Like Isaiah, my room shook.

I don't think it shook.

Cause I was with a, I had somebody else stay in there and I asked him, I'm like,

did you experience anything last night?

but he like verbally, like I probably wasn't verbal cause my friend

didn't hear it, but like he said, if you fail every day, I love you.

And the train of his robe filled the temple with glory.

And I saw the king, I lifted up

and my foundation shook

and everything changed.

And I saw, like, how beloved I was and cherished because of Christ,

I wish I could package that and get a pill, but that's just,

we're saying that's the gospel.

I, language changed for me, color changed for me, beauty changed for me.

every thing changed because of the throne and the train of his robe.

And that he took the coal off the altar.

And it was an altar.

It means there's a sacrifice.

It means I don't just get this for free.

I don't slide in because of my good personality and my earned behavior.

There was something dying on that altar so that I could be purified.

that was so full and in front of me.

I've had things impact me from the outside, but then something This, like

Isaiah, like you, changes everything.

Color is different.

The universe is different.

Like

everything's different.

And and it's because of the, it's because of the sacrifice.

Like I'm approved

because Jesus won that righteousness for me.

Because he lived so perfectly, so right, so great, so beautifully.

We should read the Gospels and we should like, we should do the Arsenio Hall.

I know it's a loud callback, but or an old one, but like we should just

be fist, like, who, who, who, do you ever read the Gospels like that?

Some people, Christians read the Gospels and they're like, feel burdened.

What?

Jesus is like doing it.

He's showing you how to live and he's creating this beautiful,

artwork for you to live into.

And I just, I can't not read the gospels that way.

And so here, boom, the coal, from the altar and, touches his lips.

And I think, when you encounter.

God, in such a way, and I think he wants to encounter us in this way.

One final thing, let's be done, we've, we're, we need to be done, is, I just,

his response, okay, verse 7, And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this

has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

Now that word atoned means paid.

Isaiah's I don't think he really understands what's

happening at that point.

But he, maybe gets some grasp, he starts to write Isaiah, Isaiah 53.

He's getting some glimpse at this, messianic figure who's going to come

and rescue the suffering Savior.

amazing.

But I love this.

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us?

And I said, here I am, send me.

Go and say this to these people.

And I just,

we really wrestle with, at this point in our lives, Are

we still called to Stockton?

Should we be here?

this city's terrible.

It's not beautiful.

we could be anywhere.

I've lived by the two, a mile from the beach.

That was amazing.

I used to drive and the sun would rise as I drove next to the ocean.

And birds would come and follow my vehicle.

And it was, I can't.

This was Ventura, driving to like Carpinteria.

So he would drive right along the coast every morning as the sun rose.

I, for your mental health, like the smell of the trees and the like,

it, you're just like, I'm happy.

Like I'm happy.

I don't want to play video games.

I want to be outside and ride a bike.

you know, yeah.

An encounter like this, though,

he is the treasure and he's what you want.

And it doesn't matter where you are.

It doesn't matter how hard it is or how much sacrifice is involved.

When you meet the Lord on his throne and you get wrapped up in his train.

You're like a giddy kid.

Isaiah here, like the language can't really capture it for us in English.

He's here I am, me, send me.

He's like, yeah, you're the only one in here, Isaiah, you but he's so excited.

He's like, here I, and he's like, well, do you want to hear your assignment?

You're going to be a failure the rest of your life, but you'll be with me.

Yeah, I'm going to be with you Isaiah.

I'll do it.

I think too, one of the main things God is communicating is he is not safe.

He is a polarizing power in your life.

You either crown him as king of kings and lord of lords, or you

crucify him as a crazy person.

He is not neutral.

And like people hear me, And the same sun that melts the ice, some will be

melted and drawn into my kingdom and rescued and saved, will harden them

and they'll become angrier because of the message that you've communicated.

But what can't happen is nothing.

Because I am not a neutral being.

I am not a neutral being.

I am not an independent running for president.

Like I'm not just somebody you're like, Oh, you might get some votes.

I am the Lord of glory and what you choose now in this moment that you've heard about

me as implications for all of eternity, all of your eternity and possibly others.

yeah, Isaiah, it says me and I just, I think sometimes in the church, we

like co opt this idea of mission and we're like, come on guys, we got to,

this Saturday we're going to, we're going to do mission, we're do mission.

I think we need to spend more time encountering the glory of God because

I think more of us would say me, send me, I'm here, I'm available.

I think we need more of that and less of the arm bendy twisty and like.

signed up on this and maybe those are good impetus to actually get

involved and to see a bigger thing.

But I think the thing at the heart of it.

is to see the glory of God who rescues and seeks and saves sinners of whom we are

chief, like Isaiah said, I'll woe is me.

I'm undone.

I'm the one who's professing and preaching.

And I'm the one who's unclean.

And then God says, yeah, but I'm going to purify that and make that something

in a strength that although you're going to fail all along the way, from man's

perspective, I am with you and I'll never leave and I'll never forsake you.

And you will write scripture.

That will cause people to get such a surge of courage before they're licked

up by the flames and consumed as they're martyred for the name of Christ.

is that a failure if nobody ever, downloads your podcast?

If you encourage thousands of people to see what the true treasure is at

the moment that it matters the most?

And Isaiah, just because that one moment, I'm in.

And I love his story because he's just I'm in, I'm good.

Where else do we see the temple trembling?

and somewhere in the Gospels.

There was an earthquake.

It was at Christ's crucifixion.

Because of the altar.

And all the other altars with all the other coals, they

pointed forward to that one.

And that was the one where even it says the dead walked because

that was like such a huge ordeal.

There was so much turmoil.

but the temple was shook and What did God do in that moment?

He didn't just

Get to one man.

He used one man to get to all people because he shook the temple so hard.

It ripped the veil, the separation from the top down.

And he said, now I, you can have me.

I am available.

I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man comes to the father, except through me, Jesus came and he saved.

So that's what we celebrate today.

His body broken guys.

The only way we're whole.

Any semblance of wholeness, any leaning into that wholeness,

is because the eternal beloved savior, who is the uncaused cause.

who sits on his eternal throne bearing his scars was wounded severely so that

you could be rescued was broken to pieces so that you could be made whole was

distanced so that you could be brought in he was torn so he put back together

so that where we feel like we're coming apart he brings us back praise jesus

that is our hope those are the pinpricks in the darkness and we say like rust

from true detective i think you've got this right I think the light's winning

and that must be our hopeful posture who regularly Get our marching orders

At the throne of the king of kings and the lord of lords and not the thrones

of other men They will always disappoint You'll always be sad But if we see jesus

high and lifted up and we wrap ourselves regularly in his train The world's ours

and light is invading the darkness.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for this passage.

Thank you for Isaiah.

Thank you for, man, just your story, your brilliance and seeking and rescuing

and your concern and your care for,

every detail of our lives.

And so Lord, we just, we praise you.

We thank you.

We pray right now, Lord, show us your glory.

We say like Moses, that's what Moses did.

He's Okay, Lord, show me your glory.

And so Lord, we pray that the tangible weightiness right now of

your divine attributes would wrap us like that robe that train would

fill us and wrap us and that we would know that we know that we are yours.

God, I pray And I thank you that you gave us the symbol of communion.

And I just pray you to even take up the symbol in our lives, as we partake of

it, as we ingest it, Lord, like that you would invade our lives, Lord, with

that reality broken to be whole, a new covenant in your blood, invincible,

not something you're going to retract.

And Lord, we praise you today, and we worship you, in Jesus name, amen.