Here Am I | Isaiah 6

You're listening to the Bridgetown Church Podcast with

Pastor Casey Kendall, where our vision is Jesus, our mission is

people, and our cause is love. Thanks for tuning in.

Let's dive in turn to Isaiah chapter. 6 And our our vision at

our church is that we. Exist to reach people where

they're at and to connect them to everything that God has for

their life in Christ. Jesus.

And we're just going to put it up on the.

Wall for just a second. That we as a church, we exist.

To reach people where they're at and then to connect them to

everything that God has for their life in Jesus.

This is the driving force of our church.

This is the mission that we believe.

That God has called. Us to be on is that we're going

to be a. Church that exists to reach

people where they're at, not where we.

Hoped they would be, not where. We necessarily see.

Them in the future. But where they're at, actually,

right? Now and then we're going to

connect. Them to everything that God has

for their life in Christ. And so if we give someone food,

but we don't give them Jesus, we might have filled their.

Stomach, but we didn't fill their heart.

If we now rescue someone. Out of a.

Certain situation which I. Believe we should all be a part

of. In defending the orphan and the

widow, is it? If we've just done that without

giving them Jesus, I believe we've missed the whole.

Picture. And I believe that Jesus needs

to be in the work of Jesus, the forefront of our minds and our

hearts. And I believe that that that God

is calling for the church to have boldness, to be bold enough

to stand on the word of. God and the.

Convictions that we have in the Bible.

This is not going to be a church that you might be swayed by

culture. We don't want to be a church

that's the cool church. We want to be a church that's

the convicted church, the church that's going to stand upon the

authority of what God has given to us in his word.

So if you have someone sitting next to you, if you would just

look at them and say neighbor, my neighbor, here am I, here am

I, The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 6, if you would jump,

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

jump with me down to verse, verse.

One we'll. Start there.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on

a throne high and lifted up. In the train of his robe filled

the temple, and above it stood Seraphim.

Each one had 6 wings. With two he covered his face,

with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew, and one

cried out to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of

host. The whole earth is full of his

glory. And the post of the door was

shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was

filled with smoke. And then I said, Woe is me, I'm

undone because I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the

midst of people of unclean lips for my eyes.

Guys have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.

And then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his.

Hand a live coal. Which he had taken with the

tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth with it, and

said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is

taken away, and your sin is purged.

And then I heard the voice of the Lord, which I believe he's

even speaking today. Whom shall I send and who will

go for us? And then I said, here am I.

Once again Isaiah said, here am I.

It was about 300 years ago that a visionary by the name of Count

Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf found in something called the

Order of the Mustard Seed. He had gathered a group of men

together. In this time.

It was a an eclectic group that included the King of Denmark,

the Archbishop of Canterbury, Scotland, Secretary of State and

an 84 year old who was the chief of a nation, Tama Cheeky.

They'd all gathered together and each member wore a ring and on

the ring it said these words. None of us lives to himself or

for himself. On the rings there was this

inscription and each member pledged their wealth and their

influence for the cause of Christ.

The Mustard Seed Order had three promises that these men would

keep amongst themselves. Number one rule that they

followed was that they would be true to Jesus Christ no matter

what happened in their land on their culture.

That Jesus was their king and they would follow after him #2

rule is that they would be kind to all people.

The number three rule is that they would take the gospel to

the nations. It was Count Zinzendorf that

began something called the 24/7 hours of prayer.

He founded what they called the Monrovia Society and in that

they prayed every day for 100 years straight.

When you join a prayer meeting, like what happens at 9:00 to

9:30 at our church and you pray for 100 days straight, you begin

to learn what breaks the heart of God will begin to break your

heart also. And so this Monrovian Gospel

correlation group began to form so big, and there were two men

that decided to do something. Radical.

And as they decided to do something radical, these two

members that have no name that you would ever recognize or

know, they joined to their lives to something to abolish slavery.

It was William Wilberforce who in England who would help end

slavery with their Parliament that would go back to the

Monrovian society as an inspiration for his own life.

But these two guys decided that they would join in, and these

two men sold themselves into slavery.

You might never recognize their name, or you might never know

their name at all. Johan Dobert was one man, Daniel

Nichman was the other man. And they sold themselves to be

property that they would go to the land of Saint Thomas as

slaves themselves that they would reach.

Those who were slaves with the. Gospel of Jesus Christ crying

with their families as they joined together and the boat.

The boat would leave the dock. These men shouted out one

statement to their family. May the Lamb who was slain

receive the reward of his suffering.

If there was ever a time that we would re engineer mission of

what these men experienced, I believe it would flow back to

Isaiah chapter 6. If we reimagined and God would

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

to reverse engineer all of mission.

I believe it takes us back to Isaiah chapter 6 verse 8 where

Isaiah 6:8

the prophet Isaiah said to the Lord when he heard the call here

am I. I believe it was Isaiah who

would now show to us that if revival wants to happen, that

God would take someone and anyone and give them courage to

do anything at all for His glory.

I believe it was Isaiah who's the prophet of the Lord.

And I know a lot of times we look at the prophets as men in

which they were, who had two functions of their lives as they

answered the call of God. They foretold the future and

they also foretold the word of God.

And here is Isaiah as a person who made himself available to

what God had for his life. Now the number one excuse in

when it comes to mission and being bold for Jesus is I don't

have the ability to do this for the Lord.

But that's really not the question.

The question is, do you have the availability to be used by the

Lord in which after the availability He gives you the

ability to do something great for His name.

And here is Isaiah. You remember our number one rule

is you can't give a golf clap here.

If you really agree on something, you could just say

Amen to that or you could say that was good Pastor.

Listen, Isaiah came to a spot in his life where now he makes

himself available to the Lord. But before that statement, I

just want to back up to what Isaiah was actually experiencing

in this moment. The Bible says in the year that

king Uzziah died all the way in chapter 6, verse one in the year

that king Uzziah died. This was a very sorrowful time

for Isaiah. This was could have been a very

stressful time for Isaiah because Uzziah was a great godly

king and ruler. He stood on the principles of

scripture. He stood for people and for the

glory of God. And now he is dead.

So personal was this to to Isaiah that King Uzziah was

Isaiah's cousin. This was something that was

personal to him. This was something in a moment

of grief, that possibly Isaiah's close relationship with King

Uzziah was a family relationship.

But he lost someone he loved, someone that was ruling

according to the authority of what God wanted.

And here is Isaiah in this moment of grief, sorrow, pain,

and loss. And I don't know if you've ever

been there in a moment of grief, sorrow and pain and loss, when

you lose someone that you loved, when their heart beats for the

last time, when they take their breath on this planet for the

last time. When you hear there, I love you

for the last time, and you wish you could have given them

another, I love you. It's in this moment that Isaiah

finds himself. It's in this place of grief and

pain and loss and agony that the calling of God came to Isaiah.

In his darkest moment, God shines his greatest light upon

in the nation of Israel through the prophet of Israel.

And it's here in the pain that God gives Isaiah his call.

This is the moment. In this moment he said, I saw

the Lord and now mission. When it comes to mission, I'm

not often going. I saw the Lord.

This is what I often say is. I want to do.

For the Lord, but I believe mission begins with vision.

Mission begins with vision, He says, I saw the Lord.

The name of the Lord is the one who has absolute authority,

complete control and sovereign strength.

And notice what he says about the Lord.

Even though King Uzziah died and this is bad, he says, I saw the

Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his

throne. He's not standing and wringing

his hands, wondering what's going to happen to America,

what's going to happen to Europe, What's going to happen

to South America. He is sitting on the throne.

That is a vision of God in the area of mission.

And then he says this high and lifted up, he's above it all.

And the train of his robe filled the temple.

That always baffled me, but the king in this time would often

have a robe and when he conquered another nation he

would attach the. Robe of that other.

Nation of that king who was defeated to his robe.

Every life that Jesus has rescued, every time that Satan

has lost that life, it's attached to the robe of Jesus

Christ and the train of his robe is filling the temple.

Isaiah sees the Lord. I really believe that if we're

going to really have a heart for mission that we're really going

to have to have a big vision of Jesus.

Not Jesus the hippie Jesus who comes alongside in the field and

rubs his hands against the flowers.

No, no, no, not the American blue eyed version of Jesus who

has a trimmed beard and and blue eyes and, and he's posted up on

on our walls back in the 70s. I'm talking about Jesus born to

a Hebrew woman named Mary, Jesus the Carpenter, whose hands are

calloused with the work of wood and stone.

I'm talking about Jesus who carried a hammer.

I'm talking about the perfect Jesus who never sinned.

I'm talking about Jesus who someone of the Roman origin took

another hammer and would nail him to the cross.

I'm talking about Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins

of the world. I'm talking about Jesus the one

who has absolute authority, the one who has supreme strength,

and the one who's in complete control.

I'm talking about Jesus who, though he was dead, was made

alive. You see, the Pharisees couldn't

stop him, but the grave couldn't even hold him.

I'm talking about that Jesus. I'm talking about a Jesus who is

in complete control of your life, Jesus who is the Lord of

all. I think sometimes what happens

is we place our circumstance over our God, and our God

becomes small and our circumstances become big.

That's what Isaiah could have done in this moment.

But he says, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and the train of

his robe was filling the temple. And this vision leads to this

revelation. He says above it stood Seraphim.

Each one had 6 wings. Can you imagine that you thought

Jurassic Park was strange? With two he covered his face,

with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew, and one

cried out to another. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.

If you ever see someone named three times in the Bible, pay

attention to it. He is holy.

He is even holy. He is holy is the Lord.

Notice he doesn't say majesty, majesty, majesty.

He doesn't say glory, glory, glory.

Why? Because what represents the Lord

is holy. He's holy, and I think we need a

bigger view of the holiness of God.

He's called the Lord of hosts, not just for any unknown reason,

but he's the Lord of the angels armies and he fights on the

behalf of what's happening in Cambodia and what's happening in

your life today. I need a bigger version of

Jesus. The whole earth is full of his

glory. I need a bigger version of

Jesus. If you just watch the news,

you're going to be very negative.

But if you really get the news, you could be very positive.

You might look at it and say, no, no, I don't see the whole

earth being filled with the glory of God.

I see problem after problem after problem.

This is the vision that Jesus is in control.

And because he's in control, yes, bad things have happened

and are happening, but he's ultimately in control.

His Holiness reveals his glory. And in this moment, this vision

of Jesus, the post of the door was shaken, and the voice of him

who cried out in the house was filled with smoke.

In the temple. It would fill up with smoke and

it would be representing of the kabod, the presence of God,

which meant the weightiness of God.

Oh, that we would experience the weight in the presence of the

Lord. And I think when we really

experience. The presence of the Lord,

there's something about that moves that, that moves us to

what he's called us to. Notice, if you would, the wow of

God. Led to the woe of Isaiah do.

You see that he says, woe is me, for I'm undone because I'm a man

of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean

lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the.

Lord of Hosts notice. That he that the wow of God led

to the woe of Isaiah. We live in a time where we're

preaching very positive things. But maybe, maybe we shouldn't

just say positive things. Maybe we should say that we are

sinners separated from a holy God.

Maybe we should say that we need to repent.

Maybe we should be willing to say turn to Jesus Christ.

Maybe we should be preaching that Heaven is.

Real hell is real. I think sometimes we want to

preach to people. Just look in your look in the

mirror and say I'm OK, I'm OK, I'm OK.

Maybe you're not OK. Maybe you need the presence of

God to come into a such a place in your life to change what's

not OK. Maybe it's God working in

certain area. I think sometimes we're getting

away from what scripture is actually teaching and that is is

that you're a good person and you're going to be OK.

No, I'm sinful, I'm separated from God and it's only through

Jesus Christ that I could be saved.

And I think we want the wow of God without the woe of man.

And I think sometimes we want to be wowed, but but we don't

really want the woe. We don't want what God is

revealing about ourselves that desperately needs to be changed.

And it's in this vision that Isaiah first gets of God that

actually changes him. He says, I'm a man of unclean

lips. I don't know what that I don't

know. What did he have?

Like a cussing problem. He had unclean lips.

But the Bible does say this. Out of the abundance of your

heart, your mouth speaks. So whatever is coming from here

is normally tucked in here. And here is Isaiah.

He says, I'm a man of unclean lips.

I wonder in your life today, don't shout it out.

That'd be kind of weird at church.

But what's unclean in your life? What is the thing that's

unclean? Are you lying?

Are you into? Pornography.

Are you doing drugs? You're getting drunk all the

time to. Escape from the pain.

And the reality of your own life.

What's unclean? Isaiah dealt with the specific

thing that was unclean in his life.

What? Why did he say I'm a man of.

Unclean lips, that was his. First response.

To the revelation of God, I'm a man of.

Unclean lips. What he was saying was I can't

go any further Lord, until you work on this area of my life and

I truly believe this about mission is we can't go forward

without confessing our sin and turning from our sin and.

Being broken and repentant, leaning into Jesus and saying

you're right and I'm wrong and I ask for your forgiveness.

It's here in this spot that he has this vision of himself.

And then one of the Seraphim notices flew to me having in

his. Hand a live.

Coal which he had taken with the tongs, and it says these words

from the altar. And he touched my mouth and with

it. And he said, behold, this has

touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away and your sin is

purged. Look at he saw the problem.

God dealt with his problem out of the confession of his

problem. There is no healing when you're

hiding. What you're doing in the sight

of God. And then the Lord touches his

lips, oh, that God would touch our lips in these areas of our

lives. And then he heard another voice,

not just holy, holy, holy. He heard another voice.

Whom shall I send and who will go for us?

Now, a lot of times when it comes to this vision, it leads

to the mission that God wants to send you on.

God poses a question. Why did God pose the question?

He is the one who has absolute authority.

He's the one in complete control, and He has supreme

strength. Why is God, the one who is all

fishing sufficient asking this question so we could realize

where we're at? And what God wants us to do.

Why did God ask? Adam in the garden.

Where are you? I think Adam's like hiding in

the the fig bushes, like God doesn't see me right here.

You think like God's like, oh, I wonder where he is.

I created the garden. I made every plant.

He's named them. And I named and numbered the

stars and I've formed these planets and rivers and seas.

And I wonder where Adam is. No, no, no.

God wasn't like questioning where.

Adam. What?

It was a Revelation question. The revelation question was for

Adam to realize where he was. Then listen to this question in

that light. Whom shall I send?

Who? Am I going to?

Send God. Is a missionary God.

The Father sent the Son, the Son sent the Spirit, and the Spirit

sends the Church. God is a missionary God.

He sends people to reach. People now some of you are

wondering now. I'm saved in Jesus.

Why didn't God just Take Me Home?

That would have been a lot easier, right?

To live with Saints. Above that would be glory to

dwell with the Saints. Below, that's a whole nother

story. Why didn't God just Take Me

Home? He saved me.

Why? Because He saved you for a

purpose. And on purpose.

People reach people. Through the Spirit of God and.

This is where the mission sends us is it sends us to people.

Now I know you're thinking. Man, I love my dog.

I don't like people. I don't like what happens on the

California highways, byways and freeways.

I don't want to be a part of this.

Listen, God. Uses people to reach.

People you might. I don't know.

No. God wants to use you.

I was just at Stacks in Glendora.

You ever been to Stacks? Thank you.

Thank you. Stacks is a breakfast restaurant

right over here and in Glendora. And I go there with my wife on a

date every Monday because that's hard time to have date day.

And we get away and we go work out together and then we go have

oatmeal together because we're getting older and we can't eat

other foods. And so now because of that,

we've gotten to know a lot of the servers, the owner, the

manager of the restaurant, and there's this girl she's serving

us. Her name's Hannah and I'm just

thinking, OK, Lord, can you give me an opportunity to reach

people? I had the opportunity at the, on

that morning to, I saw some Highway Patrol officers eating

breakfast in the corner. And, and I just, I, I, I went

and bought their breakfast and I gave them a no strings attached

card. And I just said, I want you to

know I support law enforcement and we support you and we're

praying for your safety in the name of Jesus.

And Jesus loves you. And these three women were like,

what, three officers? Wow, thank you.

So I'm like, OK, Lord, who's the next?

So I'm telling this is our server about one of our girls

here at church named Lindsay, how she just met this great guy

and she has a great relationship.

And we're just so excited for her because she asked how

Lindsay was doing and she said, I wish I had a boyfriend.

And my wife and I just kind of like.

What? And then she says to us, she

said, yeah, my boyfriend died. Like, really?

I said, how old is was he said 35?

What did he die of? He died of sepsis from a tooth

infection. And I said to her when she came

back because she went on break, I said, can you go track down

Hannah for me? I asked one of the guys.

I said please, let's pray for her and we're seated right by

the kitchen and right by the restroom.

It's like it's super popular area, the restroom.

And my wife says right here, so right here, right now, right

right now, we need to do this right now.

Hannah comes up just like a little tentative and like, can I

pray for you? We lay our hands on her and we

just weep with her. We just wept with her and we

prayed in the name of Jesus for the glory of Jesus and the honor

of Jesus. And I think sometimes it doesn't

take boldness to reach people. It takes our obedience to reach

people. Some of us are looking like at

evangelism, like that's radical. No, that's not radical.

That's normal. That's normal Christianity.

Read the book of Acts. It's just normal Christianity

and it's what God moves. You to he moves.

You to people because the Bible says.

That, that, that. Isaiah said.

Here am I. And then God said, I want you to

go and I want you to go to this people that keep on hearing and

do not understand, keep on seeing but do not perceive I

put. This over my kids.

Bedroom. No, I'm just kidding.

That would be funny. Sometimes I'm.

Parenting it feels. Like you're Isaiah, make their

heart of this people dull in their ears heavy, and shut their

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

and understand with their heart. And return to be healed.

God sent Isaiah to people and like God sent Letty to Cambodia,

Isabel to Africa. He sends you to Mexico.

He sends you to the city streets of Glendora, Virginia.

Linda, Ron, Rachel, Yolanda last night reached over 400 people

with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Can you just?

Remember this? Can you remember this?

The faithfulness of the church is not measured by how many

people fill these seats, but how many people are sent from these

seats to reach people with the gospel of Jesus.

It's about people. My daughter went to the hospital

to deliver a baby. She went to a hospital there.

At the hospital, they serve people.

I've been into good hospitals and not so good hospitals.

I've been around good doctors and not so good doctors.

I've been around some joyful nurses and not so joyful nurses.

I've been around people that work sometimes in the medical

field and some are excited. About what they do.

Some are not so excited about what they do because it's

another person and they become another statistic.

And that's what happens even in pastoral work, even in you who

are called to the ministry. It just becomes about the

statistic rather than one person who is lost where Jesus would

leave the 99 and run after that one person.

I'm sure Jesus is not stupid sheep, that lamb.

Why don't he go? No, no, no, he's.

I'm sure he's weeping and expectant and finding the one

and bringing that one back to himself.

It's about people and that. People lead us to notice.

This a motivation. What is the motivation of all of

this? Why are we saying this and

sharing what Letty's doing? What is the motivation?

The motivation is love, the apostle Paul said in the book of

Corinthians. He said it's the love of Christ

that constrains me. It is the love of Christ.

Notice this. The vision leads to the.

Mission The mission lead to the motivation.

So what does that all that mean for me?

How do I live this out? How do I live this out in my

junior high school? How do I live this out?

I'm sorry, middle school? How do I live this out in my

high school? How do I live this out in my

college? How do I live this out in my?

Neighborhood this is this. Is how I live it out.

If you want to write something down, now is your time to write

down. All right.

This is what I should be doing write this.

Down. I should have a love for the

lost. I should have a love for the

lost. I should begin to pray for the

people around me that don't know.

Jesus Matthew 28 Jesus told his disciples to go into.

All the earth. And make disciples.

It starts with a love for those who are lost.

They're not the problem. My heart about them is the

problem. Notice this if you're taking

note intentionality and. Purpose is the way that God

calls you to live. Intentionality and purpose is

the way that God calls. You to live.

And just remember that everything that happens in your

life is not just an accident. They didn't just arrive you at a

certain spot by accident. God's at work.

And then remember this. We need to have reliance on the

Holy Spirit. We have to have reliance on the

Holy Spirit. You want to read about this,

read in Acts chapter 13 when they fasted and prayed and they

Acts 13 · chapter mention

sent Paul and Barnabas out into the fields and then write this

down because this is so important.

You need to have flexibility and adaptability, flexibility and

adaptability, flexibility and adaptability.

I was in Mexico as a 17 year old and we were serving.

We'd driven about 3 hours South of the border and I was with a

missionary by the name of Jeannie Sue, and she was

disciple in young people to Jesus in Mexico.

And these Mexican citizens had come into this church and they

were on fire. They were singing at the top of

their lungs, they were lifting their hands, they were praising

the Lord. And it was quite different than

what I experienced in San Bernardino, CA.

Now, if you've ever been to San Bernardino, it's.

You probably should. Take a trip there.

It's one of the four known best places in California.

That's where I grew up. It's a good spot, but it was

different. There was more excitement and

expectation in the room and I asked Jeannie, because she also

came from that area. I asked her, I said what is the

difference? She told me these words.

She said here we have nothing, so Jesus is everything.

She said in America we have everything, so Jesus is nothing.

And I believe when it comes to the mission of God, some of us

have settled for the crumbs falling from the table.

So we're not really hungry for the real meal when it comes our

way. And I want to challenge you

today to take some cards with no strings attached.

Just hand it to him. Pay for someone's coffee, pray

over them, reach people for the glory of God.

Amen. We hope you enjoyed this message

and we'd love for you to join us in person every Sunday at 10:30

AM. For more information and

updates, visit wearebridgetown.com.

Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next week.