When God Wrecks Your Plans—in a Good Way | Isaiah 6:1–8

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways. Hey, welcome to the Bible Guys. Everybody.

Are you excited as I am. We're in a good

We're in a good new location.

We are in a new location. For those of you

watching on video, you can tell that because we have

wood behind us. We're actually in the Green Room of Heritage,

which is really cool. And we have Kyle today because

Jeff is off doing great things around the world with

the Timothy Initiative. Yes, and if you don't know what

the Timothy Initiative is, go to t TI dot com.

I think that's the website dot com.

We're just Google of the Timothy Initiative.

Yeah, probably just got dot com.

Seems like too simple.

Okay, all right, that's what it is, all right, Well,

and you know anyway, Yeah, so go ahead and do that.

And it's actually a great organization around the world that

actually plants churches and areas that don't know about Jesus.

Yes, it is something to look into. I mean, I

know you said t t idek or whatever it is.

I know you on a few TTI Vision trips I

have as well. It's an amazing organization and just spreading

the name of Jesus around the world.

So well, hey, Kyle, before we get into the second

week of our Dangerous Prayers series, And by the way,

this week is the prayers of Surrender. Oh, we are

going to have a brand new segment called topic Drop.

How about that topic drop?

It says as we jump into the second week of

our new series, Dangerous Prayers. This week we're talking about

prayers of surrender. So we asked chat gpt some funny

questions about surrender. So here they are, all right, you

want to pose the first?

Sure, all right, so let's hear the first one about surrender.

Chat GBG asked, I'll ask you, Chris, what's harder to

surrender control caffeine or the ox cord during a road trip?

Is a harder to surrender control caffeine or the ox

cord during a road trip?

Well, anybody thirty and under would have a hard time

serning the ox cord, yes, But for me that's no

problem at all. So I just I've learned, you know,

over my life, like just give it to the kids,

So that's not a problem. But uh, controllers caffe mean,

so I would say, my initial reaction is to say caffeine,

but I just don't want to acknowledge the fact that

it's actually control. Yes, so control within.

There you go, trying to control the narrative by saying

it's not caffeine. It's actually Yeah, for me, it'd be caffeine.

I would say the oxcord does not I'm in agree

with you. That does not bother me a ton. But

I do have three girls. Remember we do a road trip.

It ends up being I mean the girliest music everage

where I can only do it for like an hour.

I'm like, all right, like what Disney.

Show, No Taylor Swift, It's I mean, it's like, okay,

enough is enough, So I'll let it. I'll let it

go for a little bit. But eventually I'm like I

or They'll be falling asleep in the back seat with

a car with the music going, and I'm like, all right,

it's time to wrap this up.

Right, that's so funny? All right? Number two? If Surrender

had a theme song, would it be I Surrender All,

which is an old hymn.

By the way, I let you know that?

Do you know that?

Yeah?

Yeah, okay, or let it go. That's a Disney song,

by the way, And be honest, which one slaps one

slaps harder?

I let that GPD asked that which one slaps harder?

Uh, yeah, I guess that's that would be chu GPT.

She said it was chetchy.

I mean, the Christian answer is I surrender all. But

let's be real, let it go.

There's no way any human can say that I surrender

All slaps harder than let it go.

Ah, come on, here we go, come on go. No way, dude, Trey,

this is not gonna happenring this guy on stage for

I Surrender All remix.

Yeah, it's it's just let it go to Oh what

is it all to? Jesus? H dude, what the heck?

It doesn't slap but let it go of course, you know,

like took over the world. Now, we didn't answer the question, though,

which which If Surrender had a theme song, what would

it be?

I would say, I mean, it has to be let

it go, just because it does slap harder.

I think so too, although the obviously spiritually the lyrics

of ICE Render All are the heart of every dissection.

So it's hard to say let it go over that,

so I said, the Christian answer is I surrender all.

But it's so funny.

It's like it's like, if you think about the words

of I Surrender all, it's literally the best ever. It's

like it's like, oh my gosh, it's the heart of

it where every Christian should strive to arrive, right, and

we're saying that it goes Disney.

Yeah, let's go Disney.

All right, we're gonna go Disney. No, you know what,

Jeff would be disappointed in me. I'm gonna I'm gonna

represent Jeff here. I'm gonna say I surrender all has.

To win, Okay, I agree? All right, all right, sounds good, Jeff?

All right? Third one, last one? We got uh from

chat GBD. If surrender were a camp activity, would it

involved trust falls, glitter or crying in a canoe?

What?

That's ridiculous? If surrender camp activity, would it involve trust falls,

glitter or crying in a canoe? And I gotta be honest,

I don't understand where glitter comes from. Why glitter? Oh

you're just you're trusting it.

I have a theory about glitter. Yeah, I believe glitter

is one of the worst things for in the pits

of hell.

That is a theory.

Yeah, so I mean like if you give me, Oh,

I shouldn't even say this out loud, but if you

give me anything with glitter on it. And by the way,

this is not a joke. So if nobody come up

to me and give me something with glitter on it,

because you don't understand, I would go from a one

to a ten. You want to talk about make this Chris, glitter,

it's glitter, It's funny. Glitter anywhere is the worst invention

in the entire world. It doesn't it doesn't help anything, right,

It just gets everywhere and it's irritating and it just

doesn't go away. So uh so I don't know what

they have to do with trust.

Yeah, I'm trying to figure that out one now too,

But I would say trust falls. That seems fitting.

Crying in a canoe exactly.

Maybe just like just I'm just imaginings wanting a canoe,

crying and surrendering over They're like they're just like having

a moment out there with God. Maybe I don't know.

I was thinking of like taking somebody's oars and taking

them in a canoe and they're crying because they have

nothing because it's like, hey, trust me to come back.

Oh okay, because it kind of which is sort of

a trust fall, yeah right, like put yourself arms way

and trust me.

Yeah, and the glitter makes no sense, so I'm gonna

go with the trust falls.

Well yeah, because it seems to be the only one

that is makes any sense at all. Thanks chat GPT

for trying to be funny with with weirdness. So yeah,

so there it is. I think that surrender is a

topic to it's hard to make surrender fun and that tried.

Yes, do you agree it's hard to make surrender fun,

isn't it?

It depends what kind of surrender you're talking about, because

you know, if we want to slap the hymns, there

you go from the eighteen hundreds, there you go from. Anyway,

it's probably the sixteen hundreds.

I Surrender All. Don't know, Jeff was here.

That's twice we're calling on, Jeff. What year was the

hymn I Surrender All released?

I Surrender All was published in eighteen ninety six?

Well, I did say eighteen hundreds. It's almost nine hundreds. Yeah,

but yeah, four years into that. Uh yeah, so how

about that, all right, Kyle, Well, listen, that was a

that was a difficult segments in some ways, wasn't it.

And uh, And it's fitting because today we're talking about

a difficult topic, difficult topic surrender.

Okay.

In fact, I believe it's all weak. You could have

a chance to be like a heavy week a little bit, right,

because surrender is like one of the hardest things to do,

you know. And yet that's kind of what we're talking about.

We're talking about prayers in the Bible that have to

do with surrender in some sort of way, right, because

when it comes down to it's surrendering says okay, God,

i'm us. A matter of fact, we're sort of talking

about this week, aren't we trust? We're talking about trust, control, surrender,

and they kind of all sit fit the same vein.

But it's the idea of like releasing things from ourselves

and then saying, Okay, I give it to you whoever

it is. So anyway, Yeah, So today we're in Isaiah

chapter number there's only eight verses today.

Yep, starting in verse one, So Isaiah six one through eight.

And I know you guys mentioned this a lotful reading

out of the NLT. This is the Chronological Life Application

Study Bible, but says this. It was in the year

King Uziah died, and I saw the Lord. He was

sitting in a lofty throne, and the train of his

robe filled the temple. Attending him were mighty seraphim, each

having six wings. With two wings, they covered their faces.

With two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.

They were calling out to each other, Holy, Holy, Holy,

is the Lord of Heaven's armies. The whole earth is

filled with his glory. Their voices shook the temple to

its foundations. An entire building was filled with smoke. Then

I said, it's all over. I am doomed, for I

am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I

live among people with filthy lips. Yet I've seen the King,

the Lord of Heaven's armies. Then one of the seraphim

flew to me with a burning hole he had taken

from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched

my lips with it and said, see this call has

touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed and your

sins are forgiven. Then I heard the Lord asking whom

should I send as a messenger to this people who

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

me that? That that's verse eight right there.

Yeah, so yeah, what a crazy, crazy passage. Yes, I

was looking at the notes, you know, in my application

study album, and it's interesting. Here it says, only only

here are the seraphim mentioned in the scripture. Isn't that crazy?

I don't think I knew that. Uh. The Hebrew word

seraphim means to burn and relates these creatures to the

holiness of God. This is why they repeat Holy, Holy, Holy,

before the throne of God. Some students think that the

seraphim are the living beings described in Revelation chapter four,

verses six through nine. But it's interesting, isn't Yeah.

Yeah, I did not. I did not realize it as well. Yeah,

that's the only reference.

So whenever I think of this passage, I am, I

can't help but think about in heaven. So this is

in heaven before God. Right.

Yeah.

So here we have you know, cherif Seraphim and Cherifim

floating around the throne of God, you know, continually crying

out holy, holy, Holy, you know, his glory and everything else.

And then they fly over and they give Isaiah, they

touch his lips with a burning coal, And I think

to myself, like did that hurt? Do you think that

at all? Or do you think like, okay, was it

more like symbolic? It did say hot, right, It said

the angel picked it up with tongues, So the angel

didn't pick it up with his you know, wings or

with his hands, picked up with tongs and it said

he touched his lips with it. So if the Bible

describes it as hot and the angel had to use

tongues or chose to use tongues, then then was it

was it? I mean, it couldn't have been white hot

coals that actually burn human flesh like it could be

on this earth because he did say here, am I

sin me?

Yes, he spoke after he spoke, if you.

Touch me with hot, burning white coals, I would be

screaming and I probably wouldn't be able to speak, right.

But I know, I know it's a goofy way to

introduce this that this topic, right, But honestly, honestly, goodness,

that's all I think of. I honestly think of like, okay,

we obviously know the symbolism, right, so if his sins

have been purified. If they've been cleansed, then then that

symbolism is it's a foreshadowing of Jesus, right, It's it's

washing away our sins in other words, in this case,

you know, burning away or sins or purifying in the

same way that like when you hate gold, right, all

all the impurities rise to the top of gold and

then it gets skimmed away and then the gold becomes

pure after that. So there is a way to refine things.

And remember in the Old Testament, they would have known

about that, they would have they would have been they

would have refined metals that way, right, So it's a

it's an appropriate it's some you know symbolism back you know,

whether this was seven hundred and what fifty years or

so before Christ, So it would be a very appropriate,

you know word picture. But I just can't help it

to think whether or not it was just symbolic or

actually it hurt. Yeah, yeah, I.

Think I think it's even there. It says that he

had touched my lips with it. Now your cold touch

your lips. Now your guilt is removed, your sins are forgiven.

So I would hope that I wonder if there was

that pain, that initial pain, but then a healing that

came with it, and we knew that the forgiveness was

not found in the coals. It wasn't the coals that

forgave him. It was it was God obviously who actually

gave him the forgiveness. But I know, for me, one

of the things that comes to mind, because I would

mentioned this to you earlier, A lot of people reference,

which I love the verse eight where he says he

steps up and says yes, go and say to his

oh yeah, no, no, sorry for said he said, here am

I send me? That's part so many people reference. And

then when you backtrack and you look at all the

events let up to this, this is this is kind

of a great story, but it's definitely a little bit

obscure and odd. But the thing is is this progression

he goes through where he sees how unclean he is

and the people he comes from, how unclean. There's this

like brokenness he has. I don't know about you, but

I guess for me, the reason why I love this

is so many people reference this as a moment of

like stepping up, stepping up to what God called you

to do. And I don't know if you experienced this

as well, Chris, I'm sure you have. But I feel

like anybody who I've ever met who's really stepped out

in faith, whether that's like a pastor, a speaker, a

small group leader, a kids worker, a podcast, or whatever

it may be, I feel like this is kind of

the progression of somebody who's truly following Jesus. They go

from that moment of realizing how broken they are and

in need of forgiveness, then there's this cleansing that they

have to have, and then God forgives them, and then

they almost speak out of their like humility to say

like hear my send me, and I love that. I

think it's an encouragement for anybody who is maybe listening

to this right now who doesn't feel adequate, they don't

feel like they're enough. I think the closer you get

to God, the closer you get to Jesus, you actually

realize your brokenness, your humility, you realize how low you

actually are. And it's in that moment that you can

realize like, all right, God, thank you for saving me.

I know it's not because of me, and therefore, like

use me wherever you may have. So anyways, I just

love this because I think it's just a reminder that

he wasn't somebody who Isaiah wasn't somebody who necessarily believed

in himself, thinking with himself. He's like, I am unclean,

I am like he didn't believe in himself, but instead

he had the picture of God, and he believed in

what God had for him. I love that.

Yeah, well, I mean it's an acknowledgment of I remember

one time. It reminds it reminds me of the message

that I heard long time ago by lou Gigmiel where

he says God is the great. I am, and so

of God as I am, you know what it makes

you I am not I'm not yet right. And so

that's really what Isaiah's saying here. And so you know,

you have no choice when you stand in front of

your creator to realize you know, you are not worthy,

you are not holy, you are a sinful man, that

you are undone, you are imperfect when you stand in

the presence of God. And so it is a it

is a I just remember hearing by the way side

note his message was so great because he talked about

the stars in the sky in that message, and he said,

you know, it's so interesting. Have you ever seen the

movie Contact with Jody Foster. So one of the tags,

you know, Matthew McConaughey, one of the taglines in that

movie was if there isn't life out on other planets,

then that sure is an awful lot of wasted space. Right,

And they kept on saying it over and over again. Right,

if there's not life another planet planets, and that's an all,

that's a that's an awfully big waste of space. And

and so I remember in this message where he talked

about the great I am and I am not, lou

Giglio said, think about all the stars, the galaxies, the universe,

which he's fascinated with, by the way, and you know

he's like, you know, subscribe to the Hubble telescope, all

that kind of stuff, and and and he studies the

universe and he says, what if God's creation of the

universe was one giant billboard to let him know, let

us know how big he is and how small we are.

Think about that, yeah, right, because if that's the purpose

of it, then it's still not big enough. Right. But so,

no matter how vast the universe is, if we're the

only life, you know, on the in the in the universe,

you know, and in the galaxy, universe whatever. Then you know,

how is that possible? Well, it depends if God is

displaying his majesty, then it's not even big enough. And

so I just remember thinking to myself, man, that is

a phenomenal point, because God could have demonstrate his greatness

and his creation, you know, surrounding us and then uh,

and of course then it reminds us that how small

we are.

And so it's like when you go, i mean go

up to the up or up north, you look in

the stars and you can actually see this guy clearly.

It actually is this really weird thing where you see

that and actually makes you feel you realize how small

you are. Yeah, And the same way you can go

to a big city the exact opposite. We surrounded by

people in New York City and realize how small you are.

It's weird how that can be surrounded by people or

surround about nothing but the stars in the sky and realized, wow,

this is a this is a big God. There's a

big creation. But I love that he yeah, just his

his whole mindset there. Actually Dave Wilson, remember earlier this year.

One of the statements he told me that somebody told

him years ago, and he remembers this, this statement where

he says that, uh, I was just talking about the

ideas of like, you know, leading things and the challenges

that come with that. He goes, so, yeah, somebody told

me years ago this statement says pressure is privilege. And

it made me. It made me think, like I thought

about that. I've said that to myself many times since.

That's just this idea that sometimes the life we live,

if we are feeling pressure, that this is a privilege.

And here we have Isaiah who is not like somebody

again who felt super qualified. He was somebody who was

like realizing his knee need for God, his need for

God's holiness in his life. And here he was stepping

up and saying, here, my send me. And I think

sometimes people they probably look at someone like you, Chris

or me, and they think, oh, man, you must be

so confident all the time, you must totally know God's play,

you must always feel ready to give an ant like

all that, But they probably don't realize that so often

there's a lot of like, man, this pressure is a lot,

this is challenging I think our mindset sometimes looks a

lot more like where Isaiah came from and what he's

going through versus what people maybe see on a stage

or on a podcast.

Yeah, yeah, for sure it is. Hey, So I was

looking at these notes and here's the thing. We don't

have adequate light above me because it's a new studio.

So I want you to read it because you have

better eyes than me. I actually believe or not, I

think this is worthy of reading.

Yeah.

It's a note about Isaiah sixth the passage, and it

says for observations about Isaiah. It says, number one, he

saw the Lord. Number two he saw himself, and you

know verses one through four, five or seven, Verse eighty

saw the need and then and then in the nation

he could not see nine through thirteen. Just sure to

read through that.

Yeah, okay, gotcha, I just want to hear it. Yeah. So,

first one is he saw the Lord. As you mentioned

verses forty. We assumed that Isaiah was in the temple

when this marvelous event occurred, but we cannot be sure

the temple referred to in verse one as the Heavenly

Temple rather than Solomon's Temple. King Ziah died in seven

forty BC and was one of Judah's greatest leaders, even

though in his latter years he was disciplined for disobeying God.

A great king may have left his throne on earth,

but the greatest king was still seated on the throne

of heaven. According to John twelve forty one, this was

the Lord Jesus Christ. So yeah, he saw the Lord.

Then he saw himself.

By the way, isn't that great information? That's great him great?

Then he saw himself. This is Verses five through seven.

The sight of a holy God and the sound of

the holy hymns of worship brought great conviction to Isaiah's heart,

and he confessed that he was a sinner. Unclean lips

are caused by an unclean heart. Isaiah cried out to

be cleansed inwardly, and God met his need. If this

scene had been on earth, the coals could have been

from the bronze altar where sacrificial blood had been shed,

or perhaps from the censor of the high priest in

the day of Atonement. Isaiah's cleansing came by blood and fire,

and it was verified by the word of the Lord.

And then the last part here verses eight. As he

saw the need the nation needed the Lord, and the

Lord wanted a servant to minister to the people. Isaiah

volunteered to be that servant. He did not discuss his

call with God as haid Moses and Jeremiah, but accepted

the appointment and made himself available to his master. Never

underestimate what God can do with one willing worker. We

have an even greater need for laborers today, and we

have tremendous opportunities for sharing the Gospel with a lost world.

And then it says this, are you one of God's

willing volunteers? That's great? Yeah, pretty good stuff.

Yeah, isn't that great? Yeah? And so Isaiah obviously concludes

with the statement and says, here am I send me?

Or here I am send me?

Right?

Yeah? And that is the model prayer for any of us. So,

you know, whenever God wants us to do anything, you know,

when it comes to anyone of God's commands, and sometimes

God will give us nudges in life. And sometimes the

nudges aren't necessarily you know, attached to a black and

white command of the Bible, Like if God says, hey,

go encourage that friend or Hey, Kyle, I want I

want to impress upon your heart to call this person

and just encourage them or something. Right, So it's it's

it's it's more specific. These nudges that God leads us

to do sometimes, to the power of the Holy Spirit,

can be just you know, personalized kind of things that

God wants us to do to make a difference in

this kingdom. So so whenever he gives us a command,

whatever he gives us a nudge, whenever he asks us

to do something or go somewhere. You know, the whole

goal of life is to say, Okay, God, I'll do

it here, I am send me right, whatever the need is,

whatever you want me to do, whatever, whatever your plan is,

How can I be used in this world? You know,

just whatever you want me to do. I was meeting

with a guy last week and he was saying something

about retiring and he said that, you know, he felt

pretty unfulfilled playing golf, you know, so many times a

week and everything else. And he said, oh, it's fun,

don't get me wrong, but it's a little unfulfilling. It's

a little not satisfying. But it's that idea of like, Okay, God,

what do you want me to do in the season

of my life? You know, how are you going to

use me for significance? And that's a challenge. It's a

challenge to always have that mindset to say, God, whatever

it is you want me to do, I surrender not

to what I want, but to what do you want?

So that's the prayer for the day. That's the kind

of the summary, then, is the dangerous prayer of surrender?

Is here my God, hear my send me. That's great,

that's really good.

All right, well, hey, that looks about our time. So

we are to go ahead and bid you farewell and

invite you tomorrow on the Bible, guys,