Leftovers - Isaiah 66

Happy Monday, we're back in with the ERC Leftovers podcast.

I'm Pastor Matt. Pastor Chris, so quiet.

Pastor Chris so quiet. I'm still here.

Should I? Should I just whisper the entire

episode? I.

Don't know I should not captivate attention, right?

No, I should. Not spring.

Nope, not going to whisper. OK, Try not to yell either.

I'll do my best to make sure you don't.

Find the middle ground, yeah. Make sure you don't have to

adjust your volume back and forth because eventually I've

had to do that on certain like podcasts or whatever, and

eventually I just turn it off. I'm like, I can't take this.

It's not good. It's not.

No, I don't love it. Not a fun problem.

Good weekend, cold weekend back to two services on Sunday and

that was good third week of Advent.

If you're following along in the Bible app with us, which lots of

you are, Kristen got some end of the year metrics reports things

and that's that's good. Encouraging to see that lots of

you are utilizing that and interacting with us on the Bible

app too. But we are working through an

Advent devotional, daily readings and then working

through the the themes of hope, peace, joy and love through

Advent. So this is the week of joy this

week. If you haven't caught up to that

yet. And you were in Isaiah 66 with

our third week of the Coming Home for Christmas Advent in

Isaiah series. We've gotten all the snow and

cold really that we need to have for like all of winter.

We can be done. We can totally be done.

The thing is, in Iowa, I think we've gotten quite used to the

just very mild and tame winters. And then all of a sudden it

decides to show up like it's 1985 and I'm like, no, I lived

through this as a kid and and that was great when I was a kid.

Not so much fun as an adult. Yeah.

Yeah, do Do you think kids worry about the weather?

No, 'cause I never did. Oh, I still kind of don't

you're. Just like whatever it is.

And that's, that maybe seems to those of you that know how like

meticulously detailed I am about a lot.

There's one thing that I don't really care about and it's and

it's the weather like I know I should and we can be informed

about it, but also I can't do anything about it like the one

it's kind of like here. We go.

Here we go. So Jim, Jim Gaffigan has a

sketch about getting a colonoscopy.

Sorry. All right.

As you've come to anticipate. I just spit my water out.

I almost spit my water out when you said that word.

I was not expecting that to come out of your mouth.

Can't imagine right now. Anyone was expecting that word

to come out, but the the punch line is the best case scenario

is that we didn't have to do that right?

Because the best right like like the the best case scenario is

you're totally fine and that procedure was completely

unnecessary, right? So lesser degree with the

weather, but like in the in the activity of checking the

weather, the best case scenario is the weather is fine and it

didn't matter that we checked it right like so.

Different. Different degree of that, but

like in my mind, the only, the only benefit of checking the

weather is when it's really bad news, right?

Like there's I don't I don't check the weather in the month

of July. It's I.

It's hot. I yeah, right.

It's hot. Yeah.

Which it's am I, am I wearing sandals or sneakers Today is

like the Yeah. So anyway, sorry I took a really

roundabout way of getting better, but almost.

I you almost had water all over your office.

Take care. Yeah, you almost had me, man.

And I did turn away because I thought, I mean, I don't want to

spit on Matt or our computers, so.

But that was close. You almost got me there.

Yep. Pretty good.

You're welcome. So seamlessly moving from that

to we're going to talk about Oh my.

Gosh. Holiday movies that you watch

this time of year, if there's any measure of, yeah, tradition

or consistency with that, I will say, and this might be informing

for some of you, again, this is like pastor hats get set aside

for like a couple moments here, which, yeah.

So anyway, not everything we're going to talk about is

completely wholesome and 100% like recommended with the pastor

hats on, but my parents forever, I think.

I think this year was like their 40th watching of planes, trains

and automobiles. They.

Always, they always watch that, like Thanksgiving Eve, they

always watch that. I think, I think they hit 4040

years of doing that together this year.

So. Which I love that movie and I

would absolutely, you know, again, there's some moments in

there that may not be super. Yeah, there's like one or two

moments that may not be super friend family friendly in that

movie, but overall. Generally.

Yeah, overall, like just a fantastic holiday tradition to

to watch that movie. Yeah.

So I mean, that's more Thanksgiving Eve if you can

have. I think I didn't.

I guess I didn't really think about like Thanksgiving movies

necessarily more talking about Christmas movies.

I get Kristen brought up. What free bird?

Yeah, I haven't seen that yet, but she made it sound

interesting enough that I was like, you know what?

Maybe. I yeah, I mean, she roughly said

the plot line is about these turkeys who get a time machine

and they're going to go back in time to take Turkey off the menu

for Thanksgiving, so. That's actually a funny premise.

I'm not like, incredibly captivated by that plot line,

but really, no. Really.

Come on, If you're a, if you're a walking, talking Turkey,

you're like, you know what? This feels bad.

I mean, the president's going to let one of us go, quote, UN

quote, once a year. Forget that, man.

Yeah, you lost me at walking, talking Turkey, so OK.

That's fair. That's fair.

So what are other? Do you have any Hartley family

Christmas classics? There's so many, in fact, that

it's actually it's it's kind of hard to keep up with them

because we just keep on. Seems like we keep adding more

as. You guys, just last night you

went to Opera House. Yeah, Dwight Opera House there.

You know, here's my plug for local business, Dwight Opera

House, showing Jim Carrey's version of The Grinch, which I

think is the best one, maybe besides the original cartoon.

They're showing that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this week.

And so my family and I went last night and we were the only ones

there. I suspect because it's cold,

it's a Sunday night, people are doing whatever.

But it was great, man. We with the four of us just

laughed our heads off alone in that theater watching the movie.

And it was fantastic. And it's the first time I've

ever gotten to see that movie in the theater, which was a lot of

fun. I like that too.

But the night before, night before we watched the, the

Disney animated one with I think came out in 1983.

It's got Scrooge the Duck and it's got Mickey Mouse.

And you know, it's like 35 minutes.

It's it's short. Is it the Christmas Carol?

Yeah, it's the Christmas Carol. Is that is that literally what

that's called? It's called the Christmas Carol.

OK, well, that's, you know, Yep. With like Ebenezer Scrooge and

the. Ghost of Christmas.

The three ghosts of Christmas. And it's so good.

It's so heartwarming. I love it.

It is. I just, I love it.

I've never seen the Jim Carrey Grinch.

Actually, I'm I'm only I've only seen the original and was like,

yes, I could memorize the original.

I feel like I I could probably walk through all of that from

memory. It's not that long.

That's also only like 30 minutes.

Probably the same, But so the I've never seen the Jim Carrey

like I don't know, I've never seen it.

So I guess I can't judge it. I would just the whole persona

of it just it always seemed like weird and creepy actually for

like younger kids to watch him as the Grinch.

He just, I don't know, seemed seemed like a frightening Grinch

almost. But the newer DreamWorks

Benedict Cumberbatch Grinch, I haven't seen that.

So that's so that's an animated one.

I think it's only like 3 or 4 years old.

I think it's the perfect bridging of it.

It cause it's longer. It's more like feature length.

It's like 80 minutes and they they drag out a little more back

story of Cindy Lou Who and and all the things.

But it's animated in like that Despicable Me sort of animation.

I need to seek this out. It's great.

It's like, I think it's a a really good blending of both

worlds. Benedict Cumberbatch voices the

Grinch and is like, yeah, has some has some personality and

curmudgeoniness and really well done.

So that's my favorite Grinch of the three.

Is this longer DreamWorks one that's that came out recently

but. Wow, I, I definitely need to

seek that out because the Grinch story in general I find

fascinating and kind of fun, similar to A Christmas Carol.

I just, you could do that, you know, you could have any number

of actors or whatever, but as long as you maintain kind of the

the the heart of the story, I think it's a compelling story.

So what else we've we've shown The Polar Express at the past

couple years. We're not doing that this year.

We're doing Oh, holy night. That's this this Friday, doors

open at 6:30, Friday Showtime at 7:00.

We're watching the chosen episode called Oh, holy night.

So that's family fun for all. But I don't really watch The

Polar Express like year after year.

I think my my kids maybe would, but growing up I did not.

And I mean, I think the, I think it's a great story.

I do find we're talking about animation style a little bit.

I find the animation style a little strange.

Yeah, I don't like it. I don't want to use the word

creepy. I think that's overused.

But I just the animation style, there's something about the way

the faces move and stuff that I'm just like, I don't, I don't

love. This it's, yeah, It's the

animation that they tried to make it look as lifelike and

human as possible, but it's still not like you can.

It's like AI Sure, yeah, like you can tell that it's not quite

real and it's a little weird. It's like I'd I'd rather just

have the full on. OK, this is clearly just

Whoville animation. Like, yeah, I think I'd rather

be in that, but you. Know OK, well, we were, we were

prior to getting on the microphones we were talking

about again, some non maybe maybe they're not Christmas

movies. I don't know.

It's been debated, but like Die Hard, some people insist that

yeah, we're just going right for it.

Some people insist that it's a Christmas movie.

Bruce Willis has come out and said no it's not, but it

definitely has Christmas vibes to it.

I mean, and it all, it takes place on Christmas Eve, right?

Christmas Eve into the wee hours of Christmas Day.

So I've always I've always been of the staunch opinion that it

is a Christmas movie while not being around Christmas, like

centered around it being Christmas.

It does happen at a Christmas office holiday party, Christmas

party and it happens on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day.

So and there's some redeeming qualities to it.

So yeah, to me that's a Christmas movie, but not to the

point where like I watch it on Christmas every year or even

December every year. No, and I mean, I wouldn't, I

wouldn't make that one an annual watch either.

But I think I think it falls in the category.

And when you when you call something a Christmas movie,

then inevitably you're defining what makes it a Christmas movie.

Is it based on the time of year that the film is quote UN quote

being portrayed at? Or is it the theme of Christmas

has to be so overt that you can't deny it's a Christmas

film? Well, if we're making, if we're

making the die hard argument that it is, then we're saying

that despite the fact that it's not pointing at Christmas, as

this is the theme of the movie, since it happens during

Christmas, we're calling it that.

Yep. Yeah, that's, that's the camp

that I'd fall in there. I don't think that has to be as

it is. Like I I also enjoy it's a Jack

Black Jude Law film. It's called The Holiday.

Oh, I don't know if I've seen that one.

They basically like switch lives kind of for, well, actually it's

actually about these two women that basically switched lives,

but they meet, one of them goes over to England, the other one

comes over to California and they basically like house swap

for two weeks or something. They just like both of them want

to get away from their lives and they just, there's this house

swap exchange and they just do that.

But it happens again around the like the week leading up to

Christmas and New Year's and all that.

So it happens around that time. Again, nothing other than it

being around Christmas. Nothing like incredibly

Christmas thematic about it. It just happens around that time

of year. But that's strong enough for it

to be like a Christmas movie in my mind.

Sure. Well, some other, some other,

you know, top choices that I think most people would say are

Christmas movies that what get watched regularly.

It's a Wonderful Life. I've seen that a bunch of times.

I prefer the black and white version.

There was a color version that came out and I don't like it.

Give me the original old school thing you're calling 34th, you

know, and that's been, I think we made it a couple times.

Home Alone. Oh my gosh, the number of people

who I know watch Home Alone every year.

My birth year. Yeah.

That's good. Wait, really?

Yeah. OK, sorry, here we go.

That's cool. I went and saw the in the

theater and I remember going and seeing it.

I was old enough to remember it, so there you go.

And then elf. Yeah, I don't like ELF.

You don't like ELF? I I think it's.

Dumb. I had to hold back from as

Christmas was or as Kristen was announcing the caroling night

during church yesterday morning, I had to hold back from saying

the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to

hear. Like that's, that's the line

from Elf and I, Yeah. You know.

Myself from just like making an extra plug for Christmas

caroling. If you were me, you wouldn't

have held back because I tend not to, right?

So you would have just said it and interrupted her.

So I'm glad it's you on the stage at that point, not me.

Filter happened. I do really enjoy elf.

I think it's, I think it's an entertaining movie, yeah.

Yeah, and and, you know, I'm not a Will Ferrell hater or lover.

I I think, but that movie just does not hit for me at all.

My wife loves it, so I don't know.

She she probably watches it when I'm not there.

So, you know, we don't agree on that one.

Good to know, Good to know. Yeah.

So I think that's about it for me on the Christmas movie front.

Any other classics that you have?

Let us know Text, text in or drop a comment on the Facebook

post here. Or you can drop a comment in the

beneath the episode as well on whatever podcast platform you're

listening to. And I don't want the honestly,

the Hallmark or or now new age Netflix Hallmark Christmas

movies, like I just I have a hard time imagining their their

classics. It's fine, whatever you watch

them. My wife watches them.

I think this year it's the Christmas Prince.

There's it's like a three-part. There's like Christmas Prince,

then there's like Christmas Prince, the royal wedding and

then there's like the Christmas Prince, the royal baby.

No, I. Can't just the titles you just

named? I know I'm I'm shivering with

almost frustration. So no, we're talking like

bonafide classics here. What do you like?

What's part of your family tradition of watching around

this time of year? Let us know.

Love to hear. Isaiah 66, we are going to jump

in. You covered the tail end of the

passage yesterday, verses 18 and on.

And we're going to jump into kind of the the first part of

this is the final chapter in the book of Isaiah and, and kind of

the end of this long line of prophecyical writings.

I don't know if that's a word, but it is now.

It is now. Yeah.

Chapter 66 starting at verse one, Isaiah writes thus says the

Lord, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.

What is the house that you would build for me, and what is my

place of rest? All these things my hand has

made, so that all these things came to be, declares the Lord.

But this is the one to whom I will look, he who is humble and

contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.

Beautiful. Wow.

Yeah, what an what an amazing start to his last bit of writing

as a prophet. And so one, one of the things

that you should set up before anything else is by the time

this is being written, you know, exiles are already going home or

already have been home at this point.

And there's still some leftover. But for the most part, like

they're, they're they've been called back home.

They've been called back to the place that God has given to them

and their people for, you know, long time before that.

And so, yeah, so as Isaiah gets going on his very last bit of

writing, he just, he just reminds us all and reminds his

own people of that time frame. What do you think you're doing

for God? Because, you know, they're going

to go back. Well, they're going to go back.

And part of the context of this is they're going to go back and

they're going to rebuild the temple, and they're going to get

all these resources from being exiles.

And, you know, these foreign Pagan kings are going to bless

them with all this stuff. And so that all sounds great on

the surface. And it is.

But Isaiah, well, the Lord reminds his people, OK, fine,

you're going to rebuild the temple.

But do you think that can house me?

Do you actually think that like this is something that can

contain me? The whole world is at my I've.

I heard a commentator and this was so funny.

Or I read it, I think. And he's like, yeah, God's big

toe is more than the earth could encompass.

So even even God saying the earth is my footstool, that's

probably, you know, shorting him by a long shot because the earth

itself is something that he created by a word, you know?

So like, you're going to build a physical temple, a building, and

assume that somehow God in all of his glory could be contained

there within. That's impossible, Sir.

Yeah, and Even so, Steven, in Acts, if you remember from our

from our X series, in Chapter 7, he even quotes these opening

lines as he's kind of rebuking and talking about the building

of the church or even the things that people could potentially do

for God. He reminds them of of God's home

being in heaven and something that we cannot bring to pass

here. Where is this house that you

would build me? But on this one, I will look him

who is poor and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my

word. That's the response here.

That's what God desires. We've, we've said it, we've said

it before, but he wants your heart right like that.

That's, that's the focus of this.

Not, not what we could do or accomplish or be for him.

He's it's, it's relational. He, he, he wants our attention.

He wants our affection, He wants our heart, Those who are

contrite of spirit and who tremble at my word.

Spot on. And even in verse 2, I do like

this. I've heard somebody talk about a

Christian apologist. I believe it was.

They kind of said, OK, well what have you made that God hasn't

already made? And people will talk about,

well, the humans have invented this and this and this.

And it's like, Oh no, no, no, you don't get it.

Every element that you use to put that thing together was made

by God. You didn't make it.

You just took the elements that he had already given you and

slapped them together to make this other thing.

But everything, every, every tiny resource you could ever

mine out of the earth was already done by God's hand.

There's nothing new that you can make that He hasn't already

started the process for you. And I love that.

And it's just, it's so true. Like there's not a thing on this

planet that we can really take credit for.

It's it's all him. It's all made by his hand.

It's all done at his genius and at his will.

Next, it kind of goes on in. In contrast to that, the one who

trembles at my word is how verse 2 ends.

And then Isaiah kind of goes into an exposition of what that

doesn't look like. He who slaughters an ox is like

one who kills a man. He who sacrifices a lamb, like

one who breaks a dog's neck, and he who presents a grain offering

like one who offers pig's blood. Lots of graphic but terrible

things. He makes a memorial offering of

frankincense. Like one who blesses an idol.

These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in

their abominations. I will also choose harsh

treatment for them and bring their fears upon them.

Because when I called, no one answered.

When I spoke, they did not listen, but they did what was

evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.

Wow, the Lord is going hard as he, you know, as as he speaks at

the end of the chapter and does the same thing.

You know, with this, you said it so perfectly just a moment ago

that what does God really desire from us?

He desires our hearts. He desires our our our man.

He he wants us. It's not the things that we

could ever possibly do for him. He just wants us.

Now if I I say that and then a person who's observing the Bible

might say, yeah, but he also said make these sacrifices and

do this. So how could it be both?

Well, in the sense if you go all the way back to Genesis, God had

to spill blood in order to cover up his people's sin, right.

So when we, so it's not a contradiction because when we,

when we see God talk about the sacrifices and all these kinds

of things, it's for sin. And now of course, we know that

that's not ultimately ultimately going to cover sin on a

permanent basis the way that Jesus Christ did with his

perfect righteousness. But it's in place of that for a

time. And so like, yeah, you look at

these and and God and actually even going back to Cain and

Abel. OK, so one offering was accepted

and one wasn't. Well, it wasn't about the

offering. It was about the position of the

heart of the person who is giving it.

So you know, same way here, the position of your heart when you

give to the Lord, that's what matters most.

And so he, as he's going through these illustrations of what, of

what they could give and what they could hope to gain out of,

out of what they've given, Isaiah describes God just as

they've chosen their own ways, so will I choose their

delusions. They, they chose rebellion

against him. So he, he gave them over to that

despite, despite warnings. This is God's kind of judgement

on them of like, OK, this is, this is what you chose.

You chose your own way. You chose rebellion from me and

my ways. I've sought the one who has

respect for my word and my ways and you've kind of kind of what

you said the the two ways we could approach God, either in

contrition and and shame and sorrowfulness, but like

repentance in in in a repenting sort of way, or do we give them

the don't care like I'm I'm gonna Yep, I know, I know I

broke the law. It don't matter.

What are you going to do about it and me?

Yeah. I just can't.

I can't do that. And we see writings in Paul too,

that of God giving them over to the desires of their flesh and,

and, and things like that. So this isn't a foreign way.

There does seem to be. OK.

We have a choice in the matter. And you did a good job of

outlying that yesterday too. We can choose how we view God.

We can even choose how we'd like to follow or not follow God

ultimately. And the one way could end in

destruction if we keep choosing the things that are not of God.

I know, I know, God is so much more than just a parent or a

father to believers. I clearly understand that.

However, I, I cannot help but think about God's heart as a

father, as a creator, as a sustainer.

And so even in this kind of stuff, like I, I know it's

incredibly difficult for parents who have a, you might say a

wayward child or a child who just refuses to listen.

But the breaking point typically for parents is, man, I've been

over backwards trying to get you to do the right thing, trying to

help you make good decisions. And at some point that parent

usually breaks and says, fine, do it your own way.

I can't, I can't protect you from yourself anymore.

You just have to do it your own way and you're going to find

out. And not that you enjoy them

finding out the hard way, but at some point you just run into,

you're just running into a brick wall of stubbornness and you

say, OK, I'm I'm going to let you do it your way.

And, and I guess that's what it's going to be.

And so, and again, not thinking of God in too small of a way,

only as a parent figure, but as a parent figure, you know, he at

some point looks at his people and says, all right, if this is

really what you want, I'm going to let you have it.

And that's that can be scary. Yeah, for sure, Isaiah goes on.

And kind of paints a picture of, of he melds these two sort of

passages together. That one, one is 1 who's

pursuing the ways of God, one that's choosing their own ways.

And he paints his picture in verses 5 and 6 of this kind of

sincere versus insincere faith, vibrant versus a lukewarm faith.

Here in verses 5 and 6, hear the word of the Lord, you who

tremble at his word, your brethren who hated you, who cast

you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified,

that we may see your joy, but they shall be ashamed.

The sound of noise from that city, a voice from the temple,

the voice of the Lord who fully repays his enemies.

Isaiah is painting a picture here of a shallow, empty,

mocking sort of religion that that kind of says these things

half heartedly but doesn't accept that, doesn't have the

genuineness of faith in them and, and, and he even hates them

in opposition to each other. That that empty religion, one

that is not rooted in God's word, hates genuine faith.

Empty religion rejects true faith, and empty religion acts

in the name of the Lord. Like it it it kind of fakes it,

but ultimately mocks spiritual sounding words just to to kind

of have a semblance of Christianese, but without a true

understanding without, without a true like application.

Light bulb sold out discipleship for for God.

And he's kind of painting the picture of how these two things

can they can seem alike. They can seem really close, but

he's offering a warning against a faith that is short of

genuine. So at our Thursday morning Bible

study, food for thought it was brought up last week in writing

and I can't remember who the the writer was, but it was brought

up last week basically that there's a there's a major issue

within Christianity and it kind of sounds like what you're

describing, which is you have people who claim to be

Christians, but then if you bring up faith, if you bring up

Jesus around them, they're like, why do you have to make

everything about Jesus? Why do you have to make

everything about religion? Oh, can't we just get through

one meal without you talking about Jesus?

And so these self-proclaimed Christians in some ways, like

they want to claim it, but they don't want to interact with it.

You know, they don't want it a part of their daily lives.

And so even in our Sunday morning Bible study this last

week as we're studying Daniel Chapter 7, coming to the reality

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

that, you know, even if somebody has great church attendance,

that it seems like they're doing all the right things on the

surface, we don't know their hearts.

And so it is terribly important from, you know, any given church

that every single week, law and gospel is clearly preached

because of the fact that man, the law still needs to do its

work to convict and kill that prideful, selfish person who's

putting on the show. And Lord willing, if the law

does its work, the gospel will come and revitalize them and

heal them and then bring them back or bring them maybe for the

first time into a real meaningful relationship with

Jesus Christ, which is a relationship that has a daily

need and a daily interaction. If you, if you want to talk

about being a Christian, I brought this up before, but you

want to tell me about being a Christian.

But like I asked you the last time you prayed and you can't

tell me maybe you're not what you think you are because the

true Christian is seeking God all of the time, not just when

things go bad, not just, you know, you're seeking him all the

time because you love Him. And that's the heart position

that God wants from us. He wants a position of not what

have you done for me lately or not my life is in shambles.

So now I'm coming back. No, like he wants to be

interactive with us every single day.

Yeah, yeah, it's true. Absolutely true.

Well said. Verses 7 and 8.

Moving on here we get some some of this exile people of Israel

sort of language. Isaiah prophecies a day here in

verse 7 before she was in labor, she gave birth talking about the

the deliverance of Jerusalem. Here he's kind of foreshadowing

some writings of Paul in Romans 8, where we will be more than

conquerors through him who loved us.

Great connection. Yeah, looking, looking ahead to

this thing that Jesus will accomplish, it's as as a beacon

of hope already for for the people that have been through

strife and exile who are gradually experiencing

restoration. But he's pointing forward to the

fullness of their restored relationship with God.

So he then he then expounds upon that and and goes into rejoice

with all Jerusalem, all God's people called to share in

Jerusalem's joy. Verses 10 and 11 here this, this

deliverance, this victory, this even you could even use the

word, the word vindication or or or justice Here is is done as

Jesus has. Jesus will be victorious over

death. And so all of God's people are

brought in to this sure and certain more than conquerors

sort of sort of victory here. And he's in some ways he's

foreshadowing what he's going to say later in the chapter, which

is gathering all nations in all tongues.

So universally the believer gets to rejoice, quote UN quote, with

Jerusalem, because out of out of God's chosen Holy Land, out of

God's chosen people comes the Messiah who is for all people,

all races, you know, everything included in that.

And that's a man. That's a promise that like, if

we, if we don't hear that promise and take some time to

think deeply about that and just rejoice in what God has done and

will do again, I think we're missing something even within

our own faith that can bring us comfort and consolation and

peace even when things seem to go terribly wrong in our own

lives, individually or as Christians in the modern world,

we have to continue to lean on the promises of God because he

has yet to fail even one of them.

So let's not hold back on that. We should be excited about that,

Yeah. For sure, verse 12 as we move on

in Isaiah 66 here, behold, I will extend peace to her like a

river, a verse lyric taken out of there from it as well.

If you're, if you're familiar with that peace, like a river

being extended to God's people in the glory of the Gentiles,

like a flowing stream. Interesting.

But that's as, as you already pointed out, we're moving on to

the into that all inclusive language of every people, tribe

and tongue sort sort of thing, extending peace to the people of

God, but the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream

that that being that Messiah that would be savior for both

Jew and Gentile, slave and free all all of that.

Then we get into some interesting.

I was going to say gender language, and it kind of is that

because there's a as one whom his mother comforts.

So I will comfort you. There's a highlight, yes, God

being our our master comforter, but speaking to the relationship

that a that a mother's comfort has to her children more so.

And of course God's again the the perfector of that comfort.

But the writing from Isaiah here is is that idea is that image of

of the comfort that you would receive only from your mother

that you would receive best from your mother.

So God will be their comfort, right?

And. This is why, you know, God has

talked about as God the Father, which of course we give

masculine traits to that. But God encompasses the best of

everything that both genders might traditionally represent,

whether that's comfort, whether that's discernment, whether

that's wisdom, whether that's bringing up and growing and and

training. He represents and fully

encompasses all of those things, which is, again, it's, it's,

it's incredibly helpful for the believer because it's not like

we need multiple sources to find wisdom or comfort of this.

Like God encompasses all of those things in and of

themselves. And even we see Jesus do that to

some extent. We see him be so kind and so

tender, almost like a, a mother would who loves her children.

And then we see him also taking on a more masculine role, which

is, you know, like, like he's leading, he's training up.

He's, he's hard. He, you know, this guy, he

worked with his hands. He was a Carpenter, but he

wasn't a Carpenter of wood. Most scholars think he was a

Carpenter of stone and brick. Like this is a hard man.

And so watching Jesus encompass both of those different aspects

too, is you can, if you pay attention, you can see it

throughout the entire New Testament.

Then we get into a little bit, a little kind of prequel to the

verses that you were preaching through yesterday.

The hand of the Lord and you're talking about this hard hand

shall be known to his servants and his indignation to his

enemies. This gets into the how do you,

how do you view God, right? You're either going to see him

as your judge or as your savior, right.

You didn't get into totally the specifics of guys night this

past week. The the book stand for an act

like men that we're working through.

But it within that there's this great story that Joby Martin

told. I thought about how he kind of

went. He kind of went missing from his

parents as as a kid. He was hiding in this scrap pile

that he and he built himself a Fort in this scrap pile that

they had told him to not go near to not play.

And he built himself this Fort that he ultimately like takes an

afternoon snooze and basically dozes off and naps and they

can't find them. They're not looking in the scrap

pile, obviously, because they told him not to go there.

But eventually he circles around back and kind of just like gets

to a spot that he was just like, hey, guys, I've been I've been

right here the whole time. What's the what's the problem?

And he, he said his dad, who was a a disciplinarian, sort of kind

of hard, hard man, says to him, boy, I don't, I don't know what,

whether to spank you or hug you. And and Joby and his childish

wisdom says, says all if those are the choices, I'll take the

hug like right. Yeah, But but those are like, we

can, those are the only ways we can approach God, right?

I, I think like we can either see God as the executor of

discipline on our lives or, or the one that has that sort of

prodigal son embrace that that welcoming, comforting, forgiving

hug. And those are the two ways we

can choose to approach God, right?

Or have him painted as this Father authoritative justice

figure, right? So I would be curious, maybe I'm

going to put you on the spot for a second.

I'd be curious, like people make decisions about faith and what

they believe and stuff and some what do you think causes?

Maybe what are some of the causes?

Maybe that would make a person maybe even believe that there is

a God. But also look at that God and

say I don't want you. And if you have some form of

wrath, either you're not going to do that to me or I don't

care. I mean, certainly there are

things that happen in our life that would push a person in a

direction of not caring or just whatever.

Well, I think as as much as I would say, like the Bible is

objective truth, right, There are aspects of it that are

subjective. OK, so, so like people can get

to a conclusion of, OK, well, if, if this God will be willing

to send people to hell and punish them for all eternity, I

don't want any part of that. I don't I don't want to believe

in a God that does. I don't think a God would punish

people that he created for all of eternity.

OK, sure. And so we're saying in in a

vacuum, I'm against punishment for a creation that you say

you're you've loved. OK, sure.

Subjectively, the part of that creation that is damned to hell.

What have they done? Well, they've acted like verses

3 and 4 at the beginning of this passage.

They, they've chosen their own way.

They've rejected the way of God. They've decided they can figure

it out from themselves or indulge in selfish, earthly,

fleshly, worldly passions. And then that that's going to be

their idol and that's going to be their God and that's going to

be their way. So in that light, subjective,

that punishment is justified, in fact, right?

Like it is a righteous judgment for violating God's law.

Now bring that back to bring that back to your question.

I I think we people who, who don't want a part of God or or

decide, no, that's not that's not the God that I would I would

think of or or don't want to think of him that way.

Well, I think we're we're painting with maybe too broad a

brush stroke there that we do need to get into the nuance of.

OK, yeah, Even Jesus flipping tables and throwing whips in the

temple with those violating his, his father's house.

Yeah, that's a objectively, that's a picture of rage.

But subjectively, for the perfect one whose law was being

violated, he's the only one. Who can righteously act in anger

against rebellion for his laws, right?

Very. Good, yeah.

So as far as as far as that goes personally, and I just think we

get wrapped up in into that too much.

We do need to be a little more new nuanced with the no OK, this

God's God's action here, while seeming harsh and and judge

mental and and yeah, very authoritarian is is justified.

Now if we have a father figure or a mother figure or even some

authoritarian figure in our life that is a little is is a lot

heavier on the law than gospel in their interaction with us.

I think that then can paint a picture, especially if it's a

person who is a churchgoer, purports to be a a Christian, a

Christ follower. But that's how they act with

those in their care. That could be communicated then

that they see God as this authoritarian punishment only

figure for stepping out of line. And then that's how the next

generation comes to believe that God is.

They don't see that subjective aspect.

So that was maybe a long no. No, that's all actually short

drink of water. Actually, no, you, you

highlighted 2 things. I was, I was kind of thinking

about #1 that we give people too much power to influence how we

think about a holy God. So, you know, I've certainly met

Christians who had I not already believed, I would have looked at

them and said, oh, you're a Christian.

I don't want any part of that because you're kind of a jerk.

But the other thing that you highlighted really, really well

was the OK, so let me say it this way.

I can't remember who the person was, but they had lived in and

through like a terribly war-torn country and their people had

just been abused by the invading country.

And he used his real personal experience to say, oh, I

absolutely believe in the judgement of God because if I

didn't, I would have become a mass murderer.

Here's what he meant. He meant that the atrocities,

the evil things that he saw his family and friends go through.

If there was not a God who judges and punishes permanently,

he wouldn't know how to live because you know the OK, so

let's just take, we'll just take the big example right away.

You know, the evils that, like somebody like Adolf Hitler

perpetrated against thousands and thousands and thousands of

people that affected the rest of human history.

Do we, do we think that somehow he is not worthy of eternal

punishment if in fact his heart was not changed before he died?

You know, I can never assume, but assuming his heart was not

changed for Christ before he died, would a man who did that

much evil not be subject to God's eternal punishment?

Of course he would. And again, this person who came

from this war-torn country, they're, they're just clarifying

what I would feel, I think, if I was in that situation too.

No, I need this God to be a God of judgment and punishment.

Because if not, there's nothing left in the world for me to live

for. Because the evil that is

sometimes done in this world is so heavy and it's so severe that

this is the only appropriate response.

And God is willing to do that. He's willing to make the hard

call despite the fact that He doesn't want that for anybody.

The Bible is incredibly clear about the fact that God doesn't

want anybody to suffer this way. But we choose to reject Him.

Therefore, we choose a life in it or in existence without Him

forever. Yeah, and he lays out the the

beginning of this passage lays out the groundwork for that the

people that that God is seeking, that he'll shelter and protect

and gather and ultimately bring home coming, coming home for

Christmas. The last part of this chapter is

the Lord gathers and restores his people.

Well, how do you do that? The first couple verses, those

that are contrite in heart, those that are that that their

joy is the law of the Lord is is the word of God.

That's that's how you follow God that that's how you those those

are the people that are his people.

How do you not get gathered by the Lord by by those acts of

rebellion by choosing your own things, but by those old.

So it's here the the prescription is here our job,

our discernment, our faith walk is is to to understand and

either accept or reject that. But I mean, ultimately the

blueprints here, the the the it's binary really.

There's a simplicity to faith that Jesus talks about, you

know, the, the faith like a child and those are the ones who

will inherit the Kingdom of God and so on and so forth.

But you know, I just, it's just not that complicated.

Do I feel an honest sadness when I, when I mess up, when I hurt

people? Like do I, do I have the empathy

to feel, Oh man, I really wish I wouldn't have done that because

look at how it affected this person in this terrible way.

And, and I'm, I'm really, I'm really a bit sad about it, you

know, and, and it's more than just being sad, though.

It is looking at God and and saying not only like David says

you against you, O Lord, have I sinned, you know, with the whole

deal with Bathsheba. You and you alone.

Yeah, So like, whose law did he break?

He broke God's law. Sure, there are obviously

terrible things that were done to humans who have to feel the

effects of that. But he's recognizing in that

moment that Lord, I'm. I am so sorry I broke your law

and I have offended you. I have, I have hurt you with my

actions. And that is the first and

foremost apology we need to make.

So yeah, if, if I offend somebody or hurt somebody, I, I

should go make amends with them. I should apologize.

I should own my stuff. But even before I do that, I

ought to go to the Lord 1st and confess because that's actually

going to a, in my confession, God says he forgives my sins,

but B, it's going to set up my heart and humility.

So then I can go to that person who I've hurt and I can make an

authentic confession, an apology to them.

I don't know if I, I don't know if it can be totally authentic.

That might be a stretch. I don't know if it can be

totally authentic though until I go to the Lord first because

it's his lie broke. Yeah, absolutely.

No, I think, I think you're right on with that.

I didn't know if I was stretching that too far, because

I certainly think that there are secular atheist people who they

when they make an apology, it's not totally inauthentic, but

they don't realize that the greater law, the greater thing

that they've heard is not even that person.

It's the Lord who established these things.

Right. Yeah.

And it and in a way there is a bit of ignorance in that, but

ultimately it is it is wrong against the creator, the

sovereign Lord over everything. So whether we acknowledge that

or not, that's I think that's how the reality works.

I agree. Yeah.

So yeah, that's that's all the verses leading up to what you

covered in the sermon yesterday. That's right before this episode

in the feed. If you haven't gotten a chance

to catch up on Pastor Chris's sermon from Isaiah 66.

But yeah, that's a little just a bit of the context leading us up

to that. And I hope you enjoyed a little

further conversation on on that leading up.

We have a couple weeks left two more, two more messages in

coming home for Christmas here this Advent in Isaiah.

Let us know if you have any traditional or or favorite

Christmas movies that are a part of your family tradition or your

yearly watchings. And in two weeks on the 29th,

that's the week between Christmas and New Year's.

We're going to haven't asked me anything episode.

So if you would like to submit any questions or maybe resubmit

any quite if if you submitted one of the past that we haven't

gotten to, you can certainly send it afresh to us.

Sorry about remind us to. Well, we just got, we got

several on the piles still, like we, we still have some that we

just haven't had time to get to. So if there's, if there's one

that's particularly pressing or you'd like to hear answered,

feel free to resend it in even if you haven't.

You can text the the church number back 563-659-9444.

You can text in your questions to that and we both get them.

You can drop questions in the in the comments section of this the

podcast app that you're listening to this on or the

faith the church Facebook post that this episode comes on and

or you can private message, whatever any of the ways.

So many ways communicate with us to get to get those ask me

anything questions in. We will record that episode and

drop it on December 29th. Couple things coming up.

We have, we have the O Holy Night chosen episode this

Friday, December 19th, doors at 6:30 and that starts at 7:00.

It's about an hour long. We have Christmas caroling on

the 21st and then Christmas Eve services are 3/30, 5:00 and

11:00 on December the 24th. That's what's going on.

Thanks for hanging out with us church.

Have a blessed week.