Sermon: Formed to be God's Servant

Julius: The first reading will serve as the sermon text this morning from Isaiah chapter 44. Remember these things, O Jacob, because you are my servant Israel. I am forming you to be my servant. You, Israel, you will never be forgotten by me. I am blowing away your rebellious deeds like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to me, because I am redeeming you. Shout for joy, you heavens, because of what the Lord is doing. Make a joyful shout, you depths of the earth, burst forth with shouts of joy, you mountains, you forest, and every tree in it, because the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and in Israel he will display his beauty. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. A friend of mine spent hours chatting with artificial intelligence, and he thought it was a very productive conversation. They went deep. They talked about his hopes and dreams, analyzed the past, thought about where they would be going, and by the end, he really felt like AI got him. He couldn't help himself. After finishing this chat and coming up with all these long-range plans that seemed to fit so well, he typed, thank you. And the chatbot said, No thank you. This was wonderful. The next day he came back to his computer and he opened it up. And it gave the most generic message that it gives to everyone. Hello, individual username. Nice to see you. And he thought, what? I was expecting it to say, welcome back, boy. Great conversation yesterday, huh? How are those plans going? Nothing. He he was trying to get the feeling back, so he typed Don't you remember what we talked about yesterday? And it responded, What would you like me to recall about our conversations yesterday? No, that's not what I want. I wanted you to get me. I wanted you to remember me, not just regurgitate the things I'm telling you to remember. He felt betrayed. From one day to the next, this thing that had seemed so wonderful and personable and godlike and friendlike completely forgot him. He realized that AI was more like a silver-tongued slot machine, and he had pulled the lever enough times for the right words to come up to make him feel like he had hit the jackpot, but it hadn't really offered him anything good. And he should have seen that coming. Because it was a created thing that he was talking to, a creation that he had put his faith and trust in, not the creator. We can do this too. It's natural. Martin Luther says the first commandment is all about what you look to for the good in life. The thing that you trust and love above all things, thinking if I have this, then my life will be okay. And it's really easy to put our love and trust in created things. It might not be AI, but maybe it could be apple pie. It might be sports or a spouse or yourself. It might be material things like a car or pets, like a cat, all of those wonderful created things that we can love and trust and devote ourselves to, thinking this will give me what's good in life. Sometimes those things have short term memory too. This was the problem in Isaiah's day. In the words that he's giving to us today in Isaiah chapter 44, just before our reading, God is talking to the Israelites, telling them to stop trusting created things. It seems a little silly to us that they were bowing down to little wooden idols, but is it really different? It's something created, and they thought, if I serve this, it will help me. Just a couple verses before our reading, we read this. A person does not take this to heart, he doesn't ask. Should I bow down to a piece of wood? He is like a sheep grazing on ashes. A deceived mind leads him astray. He will not save his life, nor will he say, Isn't what I'm holding in my right hand a fraud? Isn't it a fraud? That's what my friend realized. He was treating AI like a god. And it was a fraud. And weren't these people going to realize? That these little idols that they bowed down to were frauds. But even worse than that, when we bow down to created things, it's not only that we find out those things are frauds, but it makes us frauds too. Isaiah said that the Israelites were becoming like sheep grazing on ashes. Sheep grazing on ashes. Well, what were God's people meant to be? God's people were the sheep of his pasture. Meant to graze in the green pastures of God's good promises, but instead, like silly, fraudulent sheep, they were grazing on ashes without realizing it. And they didn't realize they were frauds. A big problem in Isaiah's day was that they thought they were pretty good believers. Of course they weren't worshiping the creation. Of course they were worshiping the true God. They always took pride in the fact that they could call themselves Israel. Well, we're descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, aren't we? They even took pride in the fact that they had the temple and they would go to the temple. They would go to church and they would give the offerings. They would say, See, we are pretty good sheep, and then they would wander away. And sneak into their shrines and bow down to an idol. And say, now that I've taken care of that part, you, you are the one who really will save me. Just a couple verses before this, they say, Save me to the idol, because you are my God. But what would happen the next day when they returned to that little block of wood? Would it remember them? No. If it could talk, the little block of wood would say, Hello, individual idolater. Please worship and serve me, and I will bless you. And they would do it, and they'd bring it bread, and they'd bring it water to feed it. And then life wouldn't get better. And then they'd come back the next day and bow down again, and if it could talk, it would say, Hello, individual idolater. Please bow down and serve me, and I will bless you. Day after day after day, this thing would not remember them and certainly wouldn't bless them. And all they needed to do to realize this was look around. They could look around at Israel in Isaiah's day and see a place that had been invaded by enemies, a place whose crops had been destroyed, and they could look at their lives and see that they had no future. Are the idols really helping? And that's what the Lord is telling them to remember in our reading today. Right at the start, Isaiah 44, verse 21. Remember these things, O Jacob. Remember. Remember that these created things can't help you. Remember how they've let you down before, and they will again. So this is what the Lord is telling us today. Remember. Remember that while God gives us so many wonderful things in creation that are blessings, they make very poor gods. Whether it's AI or apple pie, how long does that apple pie satisfy you? Maybe until the next slice. Think about your spouse or yourself. Even your spouse could forget the conversation you had the day before, or forget the anniversary. Or you would. Sports? Only as satisfying as the last victory? Material things like a car, you realize the car does not care who its owner is. It doesn't care what you call it. It will drive for anybody else. My cat? I don't know. If the cat finds another house down the road with better food and more kids to pet it. Created things make very poor gods with very poor memory. And so the Lord says, Remember these things, O Jacob, but don't just remember that. He goes on to say, Remember these things, O Jacob, because you are my servant, Israel. You, Israel, will never be forgotten by me. God says, Remember this because you are my servant. And the Lord is not saying this like one of those little idols, like a jealous little guy, saying, Hey, don't feed those idols bread and water and bow down to them. I need that. I'm going hungry. No, the Lord does not need our service. He doesn't need anything from us. So why does he say, Serve me instead? Don't bow down to those things. Because the Lord knows he's a much better master. It makes me think of the Gospel of Luke, chapter seven. There's an important man there, a Roman centurion. Centurion implies he's in charge of a hundred soldiers, probably has a bunch of servants too. And what happens in verse two of Luke chapter seven to the centurion and his servant? We read this A centurion servant, whom his master valued highly was sick and about to die. A centurion servant whom his master valued highly. What an amazing thing. This guy, big guy, in charge of everything, lots of power, lots of success. And yet when one of his little servants gets sick, he cares. And what does he do? The centurion goes running off to his master. He sends messengers to the Lord Jesus and he says, My servant is sick and dying. Help! And Jesus, the good master, responds to the pleas of his servant. He says, I'm coming. And before Jesus even makes it to the centurion's house, he sends more messengers who say this: Lord, that is Master, don't trouble yourself to come under my roof. I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but say the word, and my servant will be healed. And that's exactly what happened. Jesus, the master of everything, uses his power for the good of his servants. He says the word, and the servant is healed. That's a good master. He cares about his servants. And what specifically does he care about most from you? What does he want from you, his servants? Well, you can see in what he says about the centurion after that moment. He praises the centurion. And he doesn't say, Wow, centurion, you're such a good Israelite. He wasn't, he was a Gentile. He doesn't say, Wow, Centurion, you've done so much for God. He had. He says this. I tell you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. What does the Lord want from his servants? Only this. Faith. Trust. He says, serve me by trusting me, that I am a good master and I, the Creator, am the source of everything good in your life. That's why the Lord reminds the Israelites and reminds you today, you are my servant. You are my servant. there we might get a little worried. Okay, I'm God's servant. Am I good enough to serve God? And if the Lord r always remembers you and your service, maybe he looks back and he remembers the times where you haven't been such a good servant. Think back on my life, you could think back on yours. Wow. Did I really serve God well when I was a child? I remember that time I was really mean to that person and I tripped that person and I gossiped about that person. Hmm. Don't even get into the teenage years. no. Was I really serving God when I was rebellious to parents and teachers? When I went too far with a with a boyfriend or a girlfriend when I Did all of these things just to test them out and see how far I could go and lost self control? Was that serving God? And then as an adult, you you look back and you think, I thought I put those things behind me, but I do remember when I was doing some of those things forbidden in Ephesians chapter four, just the other day when I was lying about someone or speaking untruthfully, tearing them down with my words and actions. When I did let the sun go down while I was angry, can I really serve the Lord? But the Lord is not making demands here, saying you need to do all of these things so that you can be my servant. No, what does he say? It's very specific. He says, Remember, Israel, you are my servant. You are my servant. It's already done. How did that happen? Well, it happened in baptism. You think about the only perfect servant who ever lived, it's Jesus. The perfect servant in Israel's place in our place. And at his baptism heavens opened and the Lord looked down and he said, You are my son with whom I am well pleased. But when we were baptized, that happened to us. Heavens opened and the Lord said, You are now my servant in whom I am well pleased. But not only that, not only are you my servant because of baptism, but he does go on to say, and I am forming you to be my servant. Informing you to be my servant. It's the two realities, the big church words, justification, sanctification, justification, you are God's perfect servant in his eyes, you will be in heaven through faith in him. Sanctification, you are getting better, becoming more and more a servant of God. But the cool thing in this reading is that the Lord uses the very same tool, not only to make you his servant, but also to make you serve him better and better in your life. He does it not by remembering, but by forgetting. We read I am blowing away your rebellious deeds like a cloud and your sins like a mist. Return to me because I am redeeming you. Blowing your rebellious deeds like a cloud and your sins like a mist. In Bible study, we're going through Ecclesiastes. And a big word in Ecclesiastes is meaningless, meaningless, meaningless. But that word can also be translated vapor, vapor, or mist. It's the kind of thing, the breath that comes out and then vanishes right away. And the Lord says, that, that is what your sins are like to me. Here one second, go on the next. Your sins blown away like a mist. When we look back on our lives, sometimes it's like looking at some of those. Haunted houses, cabins, things that you can go through now getting closer to Halloween. You look at it and you think, man, there's blood everywhere, there's screams, there's smoke. It's terrifying. And what the Lord says He does with your life is he walks in and he turns the lights on and the sun rises and the mist dissipates and you go, I I guess it wasn't that scary. Or it's like this if if you have a nice big lawn, the leaves are starting to fall. And you know, you know how beautiful your lawn is. There it is. looks so good for one second until a leaf falls on it, and then another, and then another, and then another, and then it all gets covered up and you think, man, I knew there was a nice lawn in there somewhere, but then someone comes with a leaf blower. And all the leaves get blown away, hopefully onto your neighbor's yard, and they're all blown away. And there it is, the nice, beautiful lawn that you knew was there the whole time. That's what the Lord says he does for you. When you come to church every week, you come kind of like a lawn covered with leaves. The sins, the mistakes, the rebellious deeds from the past week, and you come into the Lord's presence and you come to the right place because then the Lord, the only God, the true God, gives you exactly what you need. Did you hear it this morning? When you confessed your sins, and I stood up here as a called servant of Christ, I said, I your sins in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I forgive your sins in the name of the Father and of Son and of the Holy Spirit. It's like a giant divine leaf blower blowing it all away and leaving the beautiful lawn that God knew was there the whole time. That is not only how the Lord makes you his servant, but that's how the Lord keeps forming you as his servant more and more in this life. And so you d do look back on life, but when you look with God's eyes, it looks a little different. You look at your childhood, and the Lord doesn't see all those horrible things you did as a kid. The Lord sees all those wonderful moments that he forgave you and formed you to serve him. To learn, yes, not to be so mean to the other kids, not to trip them, but to be kind to them and help them up. You look back to your teenage years, and we could look back and go, I don't like that. But the Lord doesn't remember that. He's blown all of those sins away. And when he looks back, he sees all those moments where he showed you his grace and his patience and his forgiveness. And you learned the Lord will always be there for me, and I will learn to have self-control and help others to have that too. Every week, when you come into this place and you look back on a week of mistakes and sins. That's not what the Lord sees. He blows that all away, and he sees a week that was covered by his grace. And then you look forward to a week with God's grace, doing better than the week before. You are formed to be God's servant. And he'll never forget that. Yes, if you go to AI, if you go to any other earthly thing, it's going to let you down. It's going to forget you. It won't be there forever. It can't give you what you need. But when you go to the Lord, he says, Aha, I remember you. Yes, I remember the grace I gave you the day before. I know the grace I'm going to give you tomorrow, and I know the grace I'm giving you today. I remember you because I have formed you, yes, you, to be my servant. So serve God this week by trusting in him and serving those around you. Amen.

Isaiah 44 · chapter mention Isaiah 44 · chapter mention Isaiah 44:21