A Gentle Whisper: Listening for God in Helplessness

Well, just a reminder, if any of these topics you've missed and

are of interest to you, they're available on Spotify and

Amazon.

Podcasts.

And maybe someday in the future you.

Want to come back to them so they'll be available long time.

But before we get started, I just want to ask you one favor.

If there are topics that, that in future semesters you would like

me to address from chapel, I would love to hear your suggestions.

Maybe something that's been meaningful to you, maybe question

you have, maybe a passage that's been significant, maybe whatever

it might be, maybe a theme of several messages.

But if you have ideas, I'd love to hear from you.

Real easy to get a hold of, just send me an email.

It's PresidentElhaven, Eduardo.

You can remember that.

Real simple, PresidentBellhaven edu.

And that comes to me personally.

Nobody else ever reads that email.

That's my personal email.

So I'd love to hear from you if you have suggestions.

Thinking about next year for Chapel.

Well, today we're going to talk about.

Listening for God in helplessness.

It's going to be a story about helplessness turned into hope.

Helplessness when we lose our support structures, those things

in our lives that give us security, that hold us up that we

can count on.

When those things break and we feel.

Helpless, how do we hear from God?

Maybe a parent dies.

Maybe the church that you've loved and grown up in has a conflict

and you don't even recognize it.

Maybe your friend group has moved on and didn't include you or

you don't.

Want to be included with them.

But that structure is gone.

If our plans are built around vehicles of security, our world can

be crushed when those structures change, especially unexpectedly.

Maybe your parents get laid off and you can't pay your school

bill and you had it all planned out and now you can't.

Maybe you applied for medical school and you got rejected and that

was your whole future.

Maybe you're going to get a job that you think is going to be

your perfect career and you're going to get fired from it at some

point.

Maybe you're going to have sickness.

That's overwhelming.

Maybe it's going to be somebody in.

Your family that you love more than yourself and you would do anything

to get well and you can't do anything thing about it and you can't

fix it.

Even when you're a big guy university president and she suffers

and you can't fix it.

But maybe even when the worst doesn't happen, the people of the

Structures around us are not perfect.

They will let us down at times they will disappoint us.

They won't be there maybe when we need them the very most.

And in that helplessness, whatever form it takes, that's when

we need to learn to listen to God.

And it's hard to listen to God during those times.

And so that's why I want to talk to you about a story.

A story that happened 800 years before Jesus was born.

It's the story of the prophet Isaiah.

And prophet is another explanation.

He was a preacher, he was a minister, he was an evangelist, however

you want to define it.

But in those days, they were called a prophet and a king.

A king who ruled the land, a king who controlled, a king who had

been there a long time, 52 years.

He was a good king and he followed after a long line of bad

kings.

And so he was a very welcome king.

And he wasn't perfect.

In fact, he disobeyed God and God was disappointed in him.

But for the most part, he was a king that this prophet Uzziah could

count on.

And excuse me, Isaiah king was Uzziah prophet's Isaiah.

Isaiah had great dreams of what was going to happen.

Isaiah had these dreams of what he and Uzziah the king could

do together.

Because Isaiah felt like the people needed to turn back to God.

They had been following idols again.

It was a very typical thing in ancient times that they would follow

God and then when things got tough, they'd go back to their old

ways and.

They would follow idols.

The people needed to fulfill the best for their land, and they

weren't getting that.

And the people needed to live in God's design that God had laid

out.

And they weren't doing that.

And Isaiah had this plan.

If he could team with this popular king, Uzziah, they could

make stuff happen.

They could change this world.

And so Isaiah had a plan.

He could see it, God gave it to him.

And it was all built around Uzziah giving the prophet the platform

and the credibility to speak to the nation.

It was going to be perfect.

This was the only king that everybody really only knew, and the

only king that Isaiah knew.

And Isaiah was really close with Uzziah.

Uzziah was kind of a mentor to him and an encourager of him.

And Uzziah again, for the most part, was a godly leader.

And Isaiah was focused on following Uzziah.

If Uzziah will push the people, Isaiah could come behind

with the message of God and things would be changed.

And because of Uzziah God would make Isaiah's ministry flourish.

And it was all planned out and it was ready to go.

But then.

It was in the key.

Year that King Uzziah died that it all changed.

And in the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah's dreams died

with the king in his helplessness.

Something remarkable, though, happened when he listened to God.

Because he said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up.

In the year that King Uzziah died, not before Isaiah had been

follower of God.

Before Isaiah had been trying to do the right things, before Isaiah

knew who God was and worshiped him.

But it wasn't until his king died that Isaiah could really see

the Lord.

High and lifted up.

The Lord has already been there.

But until Isaiah was helpless, he never could see the fullness of

who God is.

Until his king died.

I use this scripture as a benchmark in my life.

I always want to make sure the Lord is central and not the kings

of my life, not the structures of my life, not the things that make

me effective in my work and ministry.

But really, the core of who God.

Is is central to everything.

I always ask the campus, quite often with faculty and coaches and

others, if we took away all the structures that made us Christian.

Okay, we take away chapel, we take away Bible studies, we take

away the structures that make us a Christian college.

How Christian are we?

Because that's the real measure, not the structures.

So whether we are helpless or we are whole, this concept to me

is a critical barometer of our faith.

In the year our kings die, we see the Lord high and lifted up.

And if we start seeing our kings more than we see the Lord,

we.

Miss God's best for us.

Well, Isaiah at this point was helpless.

Everything was planned and built on this, and it wasn't going

to happen.

And in that moment, three remarkable things happened.

The first is this.

Isaiah saw the Lord like never before.

Now, this is a remarkable picture.

It was read to us in the Scripture today.

And thank you for reading that.

But I want to go through that scripture a little bit more because

I want you to picture what is happening.

Don't just hear the words, okay, but get a mental picture of

what's happening when John, the disciple of Jesus, who was closest

to Jesus, John, talks about Isaiah's moment here 800 years before,

where John says he got a heavenly view of who Christ is.

And so that's what Isaiah was recounting,.

That God opened up a view of who he is to Isaiah that he'd never

seen before.

So look at the Scripture and kind of picture this.

It was in the year that King Uzziah died.

I saw the Lord high and lifted up.

He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe

filled the temple.

Attending him were seraphim, each having six wings.

With two wings, they covered their faces with two, they covered

their feet with two, they flew.

They were calling out to each other, holy, holy, holy is the Lord

God Almighty.

The whole earth is filled with his glory.

Their voices shook the temple to its foundations, and the entire

building was filled with smoke.

And then I said, it's over.

I'm doomed, for I'm a sinful man.

I have filthy lips, and I live among a people of filthy lips.

Yet I have seen the king, the king of heaven's armies.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he'd taken

from the altar.

And with a pair of tongues, he touched my lips and said, see, this.

Coal has touched your lips.

Now your guilt is removed and your sins are forgiven.

Isaiah saw a vision of who God.

Is that he'd never seen before.

But he couldn't see it until his king died.

He couldn't see it until he was helpless.

He couldn't see it until he was only dependent on God and not

dependent.

On everything else in his life that he thought was his structure.

He saw the Lord high and lifted up.

It says he saw God above all rulers, above all nations, above

all powers.

High and lifted up.

There's nobody higher.

And it said the seraphims, which were angels representing purity.

The seraphims were there, and they cried out, holy, holy, holy.

In Jewish literature and in ancient literature, repetition is

always given to say that this is really, really important.

They didn't just say, holy.

There's a holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

Repetition uses that form to emphasize the holiness of God.

Unlike the human rulers, unlike Uzziah, who was a great king

but not a perfect king, unlike that, God was holy.

God is perfect, exalted above all comparison.

And it said the seraphims, they had two sets of.

They had six wings, two wings covering their faces, showing the

humility before God.

So often we see in the scripture.

When Moses saw God and when John.

Sees God on the isle of Patmos, they cover their faces.

They can't even look at God because it's so powerful, so bright.

And the seraphim had two wings covering their faces, and they had

two wings covering their feet, which is a sign of respect.

You know, even in the Middle east now, you don't show the bottom

of your feet, that's a, that's a terribly.

Disrespectful thing for you, covering that.

And then two wings that could fly, indicating their service for

God.

And then that part of that picture, as I said, the train of

his robe filled the temple, symbolizing the overwhelming presence

and majesty of God.

It's a picture of Jesus we often.

Think of that's very different.

You see, the picture of Jesus we think of is him healing the sick

and teaching and saying to the little.

Children, come to me.

You see Christ.

And this is a hard concept, but you've got to understand, Christ

was all human, but he was also all God.

At the same time.

And the picture we see of Jesus where he was teaching and healing

and being with the disciples and the children, that's the man's

side, but he was.

Just as much the God's side.

And so the true picture of who Jesus is, Isaiah saw, and it mirrors

the picture that John saw some 2,000 years later when he was exiled

to the island of Patmos.

And he writes about it in Revelation.

Not the picture of Jesus that we think of sitting around a campfire

with the disciples, but who Jesus really is,.

If we could understand and even grasp his power.

And in Revelation, John gives this picture of Jesus.

I saw seven gold lampstands standing in the middle of the lampstands

with someone like the Son of man.

He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash around his chest.

His head and his hair were white as wool, as white as snow.

And his eyes were like flames of fire.

His feet were polished bronze, refined in a furnace.

And his voice, thunder thundered like a mighty ocean waves.

He held seven stars in his right hand and a sharp two edged

sword came from his mouth.

And his face was like the sun in all its brilliance.

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead.

But he laid his right hand on me and said, don't be afraid.

I am the first and the last.

I am the living one.

I died, but look, I'm alive forever.

And ever and I hold the keys to death and the grave.

John saw this picture of Jesus as purely God.

And he was overwhelmed, just like Uzziah was overwhelmed.

Isaiah saw the full picture of God, and when he did, he had to respond

in the only way he could.

And that's to see himself in comparison.

And that's where the second part of.

This comes in that Isaiah realigned his.

Priorities when he was in his helpless moment and he finally see

God.

See, he was a Follower of God before, this wasn't new.

He was a follower of God.

He wanted to follow God.

But he had moved from dependency on his earthly stability

to understanding the eternal kingship of God.

He was no longer just a citizen of Judah.

He was sent to call the people of Judah to repentance because he

saw.

The holiness of God like never before.

Too often, we build our Christian life on our structures.

We build our Christian life on our.

Work and our calling.

We build a Christian life on the good things we do for God, and

those are important.

But in doing all that, too often we can miss the majesty of

God.

And sometimes we have to let our kings die, or at least put them

aside so we could see who God really is.

But more than that, Isaiah didn't just see the sin of the people.

He needed to point out, because he'd been doing that.

This wasn't new.

He'd been pointing out the sins of the people.

All of a sudden, when he saw the real holiness of God, his thoughts.

Weren't to the people sin.

It was to his own.

It was to his own.

His own sin.

He said, look at me.

I'm broken.

You know, so often in the Christian life, we want to focus

on everybody else's sin.

So we want to talk about this.

Sin and that sin and how that's a terrible thing.

That's a terrible thing.

We talk about everybody else's sin.

Why do we do that?

Because if we're grading on the curve,.

We look pretty good.

That's why.

If we can talk about their sins, then mine don't seem so bad

and I'm doing okay.

God is the only standard.

And for Isaiah, who had, I'm sure, compared himself to Uzziah

the king, and Isaiah thought, well, I'm doing a lot.

Better in my walk with God than.

Even the king is.

So I'm doing pretty good.

No.

When all that went away and only he could see the holiness of

God,.

Isaiah said, I am lost.

I am absolutely lost.

Because the contrast was so enormous.

And so the seraphim took a coal.

From the altar and touched his lips.

With it, which is a symbol of.

Purification, and said, you're forgiven.

Now, you know, I think there's a.

Lesson here that's awfully important, because so often we're

trying to change everybody around us.

We're trying to push to their sins will be better.

They would address this, or why don't they do this?

And we're trying to change everybody around us.

Last week, when I told you about conflicts, you can't change

anybody but yourself.

And that's so true in our faith.

We can't change anybody but ourselves.

And until you see yourself in contrast to the holiness of God,

you won't change.

But when Isaiah said that he was lost and he knew it was about

him, it wasn't about what he was trying to get others to do.

You know, as a side note, it's.

Not our responsibility to convert anybody.

You know that we were never called.

To convert people to Christ.

We were called to live for Christ.

We were called to honor Christ.

We were called to lift him up.

We were called to tell the truth.

We were called to be people of grace and live out Christian faith

before people.

But whether or not they come to God is between them and God.

It's not about you.

And once you realize the Holy Spirit is just as active in the world

as Jesus was in the world when.

He lived for those years, remember he.

Said, I have to leave so the.

Holy Spirit can come.

Whom we realize.

That it's the Holy Spirit's responsibility to convey.

Living a Christian life gets a whole lot easier because we're not

trying to carry the weight to convert everybody.

How about we just focus on us in comparison to the holiness of

God?

Well, Isaiah went on to tell the story.

He said, then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning

coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongues.

He touched my lips, said, see, this coal has touched your lips.

Now your guilt is removed and your sins are forgiven.

Then I heard the Lord asking, whom shall I send as a messenger

to the people who will go for us?

I said, here am I.

Send me.

You see, Isaiah saw God in his hopelessness.

He saw God like never before.

When his king died, he realigned his priorities.

And then he responded to God's call.

Whoops, let me get the right slide there.

There we go.

He responded to God's call.

This is where his prophetic mission began.

When he got rid of the structures in his life that he never

would have gotten rid of if he hadn't.

Been in a place of hopelessness.

He called Judah to come back from judgment.

And he began to tell the story of of the Messiah that was yet to

come.

800 years in the future.

It was tough duty to go into this culture and to speak God's truth.

But Isaiah said, here am I.

Send me.

I'll do it.

Because now I've seen the power of God and I'm not helpless

because God is with me.

He went from helpless to hero, giving people the Hope of a Messiah

that was yet to come.

And we see that him telling that story 800 years before that.

And let's see what Isaiah said about Jesus.

It's pretty remarkable.

Now remember, this is 800 years before it actually happened.

Isaiah said Isaiah 9, 6.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.

And the government shall be upon his shoulders.

And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Scripture that we quote often during Christmastime.

Isaiah said in chapter 53, I was despised and rejected by men.

A man of sorrows acquainted by grief.

He was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

And with his wounds we are healed.

800 years before it ever happened.

And then Isaiah said, this.

Jesus read this one in the synagogue, talking about himself.

Jesus read Isaiah 60:1.

Isaiah 60:1

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed

me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up.

The brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives.

Your helplessness is not your breaking point.

Listen, in those moments of helplessness, whenever.

They come, if your kings are dying, that is what it may take for

you to see Jesus like never before.

And when we listen to God in.

Our helplessness, he will turn it into hope.

He promises that, and that's the promise of our benediction.

And say it with me.

No eye has seen, no ear is heard, no mind is conceived.

What God has prepared for those who love him.

God bless.

Have a good day.