11-29-20 Grace-Benson & Vail Sermon

November 29, 2020. Sermon Isaiah 63 & 64. Grace-Benson and Grace-Vail When your people-group’s power and influence dwindles, what can you do? When the future holds more uncertainty than certainty, where should you go? When serious questions don’t have answers, where can you find them? Isaiah and the nation of Israel were asking these questions 2700 years ago. Israel as a nation did not seem powerful enough to deal with Assyria, who threatened them. And even if they could deal with Assyria, God through Isaiah had told them that another nation, Babylon, would be waiting for them. They wondered, what about God’s promises of greatness for his people? How could those promises come true?

Today we still have similar questions. It seems the Christian church in our world is losing influence, not gaining. You could have said that already a year ago, but the covid 19 reality gives one more reason for people to stay away from worship and church activities. And we don’t know what future impact the virus will have on church groups like ours. We don’t know the future economic impact, we don’t know what challenges lie ahead in 2021. Like Isaiah and Israel so many years ago, we desire certainty. We look for answers, and the answers given through Isaiah still help us today.

When a child is in trouble, he might look to a father for help. As we consider Isaiah’s words today, I want you to see God as a Father who helps us. I’ve got 4 headings to guide our time. We have: 1. Living Father. 2. Determined Father. 3. Selectively Powerful Father. 4. Restorative Father.

First of all, #1. A living Father. A living father is the opposite of a dead father. Often when a people group faces danger or uncertainty, they respond by thinking about their heroes of the past, their dead fathers. They say, “We dealt with problems in the past very well. And so based on our past record, we’re confident that we can face any difficulty in the future.”

For Israel facing threats in Isaiah’s time, they could have easily looked to their past. Abraham was a hero of the Israelite people. The one God chose to settle into a land that became the real estate of Israel. Specially chosen by God. And Abraham’s grandson Jacob was renamed Israel, which literally means, “wrestles with God.” The nation took his name as their name. We are the people who interact with God, who contend with him, who hold onto him like Jacob wrestling God. We’ve always dealt with danger and difficulty in the past by finding a way through. We’ve been blessed by God, protected by him in the past, and on the basis of that past record, we can face future danger.

Isaiah pointed out, that’s not a solid foundation. Look at v. 16, “Abraham does not know us.

Israel does not acknowledge us.” He points out, Abraham isn’t here to help us anymore. Israel-Jacob has been dead for over a thousand years. Just because they got through some hardship in the past, that doesn’t really help us deal with hardship where we are. They are dead fathers.

Now, does this still happen today? Are there people in the American Christian church who say, “We have a history of being influential in our American culture, and we’ll be influential again in the future.” Are there people who say of our country, “We have a long track record of bouncing back from set-backs in our economy, our stock market has recovered from every recession and depression in the past. And on the basis of our past, we have confidence for the future.” Or, “our military has been the strongest for a long time, and on the basis of the past, we’ll be safe in the future.” We need to recognize that our past achievements as a church as a nation, does not guarantee future ability to respond to challenges. George Washington can’t help us deal with covid 19. Billy Graham cannot help churches gain influence in our culture. Those are dead fathers. What we need is a living father.

Isaiah said, “You, the LORD, are our father. Our redeemer from everlasting is your name.”

God is the living father who is able to provide for us, protect us, guide and help us. He is involved in our lives: present not absent, near not distant, engaged and caring. He is a redeemer. That means he takes what is not valuable and gives it worth and value again. God can take you and I and like a dirty shirt that is stained so much that no one would pay a dime for it; he cleans us up, and makes us worth something again. He’s always been a living Father, and he always will be. God has always been there for you and for all his people in their need. Everything you’ve always needed has been available to you to face any difficulty, because God has made himself available to you. We don’t need to look to the ghosts of the past for hope, we can look to our living father.

This living father is also #2. A determined father. Isaiah asks some honest and challenging questions in v.17. “Why do you cause us to wander from your ways, Lord? Why do you harden our heart so that we do not fear you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your heritage.” First question: does God actually do this? Or is it Isaiah expressing an untrue accusation against God? Does God actually cause people to wander from his ways? Does he harden hearts?

I’ll say this. It is very possible that we blame God for not being there for us, when in fact he was. But it is also biblical, and I believe what’s going on here: God does reserve the right to hand people over to their own desires and devices in order to teach them how bad life is apart from him so that they might see by contrast how good life is close to him.

This is spelled out clearly in Romans 2, when we’re told, God handed people over to their sinful desires. Throughout Old Testament history, at times God told Israel, “you want to do life without me, I will let you know what that is like. Go ahead.” But all the while, his goal was never permanent abandonment; but refinement and restoration. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. By experiencing what life was like with God distant, some, not all, but some would return and see how

good life is with him close. Now, there is no guarantee of the comeback. Some would grow distant from God, and blame him, and hate him for the terrible life they have, and never come back. There is that danger. But there is also the desire of God that people return to him, closer and more fulfilled in him than ever before.

Samson returned to God after being humbled by the Philistines. David returned to God after being shown his sin with Bathsheba. God constantly called out to a remnant of repentant followers even at the heights of idolatry and wicked living. So for Isaiah to ask: “Why do you cause us to wander from your ways? Why do you harden our hearts?” Is legitimate. God does not desire hardening, or wandering; but he is able to allow them to happen, even cause them to happen; all the while to soften a heart to him, so that people may return to him.

This is challenging, but think of it like a determined father who sees his child struggle to learn a new skill. He knows that if he intervenes too much, the child will stay undeveloped, weak, and over-reliant. But if he lets the child struggle through, he’ll grow stronger, developed, capable. There was a movie called “My Left Foot.” It’s about Christy Brown, a man born with severe cerebral palsy, to the point that the only part of his body he had full control over was his left foot. Born into a family with 12 living siblings, his parents decided to keep him at home. And the father often refused to help him do things. Christy would drag himself up the stairs as the father sat in a chair. It can seem heartless, but through time Christy learned to do what he could. And developed into a successful painter and writer by using his left foot. None of that would have happened unless the father had been so determined to let the by grow and develop his own abilities. Your heavenly father has the same desire, that you would develop abilities and strengths. And so at times he lets you struggle, even lets you wander and harden your heart, all so that you will in the end grow stronger.

He’s a determined father; but he’s also #3. A selectively powerful father. There will be times that you wish your father would just show up, show himself more fully. Give you answers to problems more obviously. Solve your issues more thoroughly. That’s not a bad desire. It’s fitting to say, God I see what you’re up to in the absence of your visible presence, but I do wish I could see more if you. That’s what Isaiah does in v.1. “Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and come down. Mountains then would quake because of your presence. As fire ignites stubble and as fire makes water boil, make your name known to your adversaries. Then nations would quake in your presence.”

At any moment, God could rip open the veil that hides him and out of thin air you show himself in power. If he did, things could not help but change. Mountains would quake in response to

his power. His presence would burn away so much. Anything opposing him would be transformed to ash. Wouldn’t that be good? Like water that boils, God’s presence would change things. His name and works would have to be acknowledged by your adversaries. Wouldn’t that be good?

Here’s where we need to pause and acknowledge - God’s ways are not our ways. We can get over-excited about what his presence would do to burn away the junk in the world; and we can easily forget; there’s a lot of junk in me. What would it be like if he showed up in his full fire and glory?

Would I be perched on a mountain watching all the wicked get burned up? Or would I be stubble for the fire? There are parts of you not up to the heat of his presence. He knows you’re not prepared to meet him, so in mercy he hides himself and interacts with me in ways that you can handle.

And would it be such a good thing if people were forced to acknowledge who God is because of the sheer force of his overwhelming presence? What if he doesn’t want that? What if he wants a relationship of closeness and affection rather tha terror and dominance?

There’s a story of a king and a poor maiden. The king loved the poor maiden, but he knew that if he came with his full power on display, she would feel compelled to respond positively, or else.

He doesn’t want that, he wants actual affection and love and companionship; not feeling like her response was forced in any way. So he hid himself in the appearance of a peasant on the level as her in order to get to know her so they could interact in a real relationship.

What if that’s what God wants? What if the reason he hasn’t split the heavens and made mountains quake and forced people to admit who he is: he wants real relationships, not forced terror and dominance. He wants friendship with you. If he came now in power, the nations would quake, but no one would be able to relate to God, they’d be too scared, including you and I. Instead of being always fully powerful to our eyes and ears, our Father is selectively powerful.

There are times when he has shown up and made things change by sheer force. Isaiah says, “You did amazing things that we did not expect. You came down. Mountains quaked because of your presence.

From ancient times no one has heard. No ear has understood. No eye has seen any god except you, who goes into action for the one who waits for him.”

God had shown up when Abraham’s descendants were trapped in Egypt, brutally oppressed as slaves. He did things no one imagined could be done to set them free. God showed up through people like Gideon, Samson, David; he made impossible victories happen, all for the sake of his people.

He continues to bless people like Elijah, Jehospahat, Elisha, and others. No one could invent the stuff God did, he just did it when he decided the time was right. He is a selectively powerful father.

So, how do you deal with a father like this? How do you get his presence to be a help and not a hurt in your challenging life? How can you get God on your side? Once we learn about who he is, how do we get to interact with him? “You meet anyone who joyfully practices righteousness, who remembers you by walking in your ways! But you were angry because we sinned. We have remained in our sins for a long time. Can we still be saved?”

It’s as if Isaiah is thinking as he writes. Wow God, you give victory to anyone who seeks you, who joyfully practices righteousness, who remembers you by walking in your ways. That’s great, do what’s right, and God will meet you. But then it hits him like a ton of bricks, we haven’t walked in God’s ways. We’re gone astray to our own ways, we’ve sinned. We haven’t done what is right, we’ve missed his mark. We’ve been living in a settled state of sin for a long time. This is our habitual way of behaving. It’s not good, it’s damaging. It means that this powerful, living, determined father is not available to us. Our sins separate us from him.

That realization led Isaiah to a legitimate question. Can we still be saved? Are we too far gone? Isaiah is not bi-polar in going from an extreme of joy one moment to an extreme of despair in the next. He is honest. He sees our human situation clearly. He sees and expresses that the hope God gives is incredible, but the threat of our human ability to throw it all away is real and serious. Can we even be saved? Are we so damaged that we’re beyond repair. When a vehicle is totalled, it means the cost of repair exceeds the cost of the vehicle. Is that what our sins do to us? Does our owner not want to invest in us anymore? Would he rather move on to a new model without all the fix up required?

Have we angered him so much that he is done with us? Are we so damaged that repair is impossible?

Before we too quickly gloss over these questions and say, no, God still repairs us, we’ll be alright, let the question linger a little with Isaiah. Verse 6, “All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a filthy cloth.” We all are unclean, like a filthy cloth. The language actually describes a menstrual cloth, Again, not just a little stained, and maybe able to be cleaned. No, a cloth that is so dirty that no one in their right mind would even think of trying to wash it. No question, that cloth goes in the garbage to be removed from my presence as soon as possible and burned in a landfill with all the other garbage that is not worth keeping around at all.

And what is like a dirty cloth? Our worst acts? No, our best. All our righteous acts are like a filthy cloth. Did you catch that? The best that humans apart from God can offer, are dirty bathroom tissues. How could that be? Well, here’s how, 2 ways, pride and despair: the first is pride. God should appreciate the effort I give him, and all the good I do, he owes me a good life. He owes me at least an

explanation. And if he doesn;t give it to me, then I’m done serving him. That’s pride making righteous acts into filthy rags before God. Then there’s despair. An attitude that says, “whatever I do is not going to make a difference anyway. I’m just a piece of dirt, I can’t accomplish anything good. I wonder why God even keeps me around. I think the world would be better off if I weren’t here.” With that motivation operating at your core, your “righteous acts” will lack the joy, the freedom, the looseness that God desires. Pride and despair ruin not only our worst acts, but our best as well.

Isaiah goes on in v.6-7, “All of us have withered like a leaf, and our guilt carries us away like the wind. There is no one who calls on your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you. So you hid your face from us. You made us melt by the power of our guilt.” Our sinfulness makes us like a withered leaf. We have no life in us on our own, no connection to the branch, no stability. Instead guilt carries us away like wind.

Just think of how guilt can move people into so many directions apart from God: getting into addiction as well as getting out of addiction both can be motivated by guilt. Being a bad child or being a good child both can be motivated by guilt. Getting married as well as getting divorced, guilt can be at the bottom of both. I’m escaping my guilt by getting into a marriage or getting out of one.

We need something to stabilize us when the wind of guilt comes blowing, and it will blow.

By ourselves none of us will find stability. No one, on their own, seeks God. No one calls on his name rightly, rouses himself to take hold of God. No one on his own treats God as he desires, not as vending machine, but as friend.

So, what does God reserve the right to do? Hide his face from us, allow us to melt in the guilt when we try to handle it on our own. Again, the overall goal here from God to us is not that we melt away completely, but that we melt away in our self confidence enough to seek him on his terms not our own. To seek his face the way it is, not the way we want it to be. To seek a God who defines himself, not a God we define. That’s where Isaiah ends up.

“But now, Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. All of us are the work of your hand.” Isaiah got to this point where he said, “God, whatever you want to do, whatever you want to be, just be yourself. I accept you the way you are, however you are. Don’t let my biases get in the way, just be you, and make me content to be clay in the hand of the potter. Do with me what you will. Do in the world what you will. Mold me and use me anyway you want. I’m yours.

Whatever you determine is better than what I could determine. I trust you God. I want you to be just the way you are and nothing else. I want to be whatever you make me, and nothing else.”

Now, it’s amazing that Isaiah got there. At his time in history, there was so much uncertainty around powerful threatening nations that could easily fight and destroy Israel. And he could have said, “Ok, God, I just need an indication, what’s going to happen to us? Just tell me and then I can trust you.” But instead Isaiah dropped his conditions, and said: whatever happens Lord, you are God. Now, how can you say, no matter what happens, God, just let me know that you are in charge and that’s enough? How can you get to the point where you can say, even if our national prosperity falls apart, I’ll be ok with it since you are God? Even if this holiday season brings more family conflict and not less, I can trust that you are still God, and that’s good. How can you get to the point where even if your goals fall flat, your health has illness, where undesirable restrictions and requirements are made of you, and you still can say, Lord, you are the potter, I am the clay?

Isaiah got there somehow. Here’s a way you can: God is not asking anything of you that he didn’t do himself in Jesus. Even if I live my whole life with your companionship, and then end up at a place where it’s removed, I can be ok. Even if all the filth of the world is put on me, and I am treated like the dirty clothes, thrown out into the dump, hung up to die and be thrown into a grave, even when all that happened, Jesus still trusted, I am the clay, my father is a potter, and he is molding through my death, a resurrection to life that can be given away for free. He is molding through my anguish the renewal of people as friends of God. Even if I go through the fire of God the Father’s treatment of sin, he will mold me into a living person who is able to bring many other people into life with him again. Bring them back on the right path, give them a way to love truth, a way to live motivated by a desire to be who God made them and nothing else.

Jesus on the cross, Jesus resurrected, Jesus alive right now, he is your reason to trust, even when God is silent, and seems absent. He is your reason to trust. He will make every promise come true, everything bad will be undone, everything good will be brought to startling reality and permanence. He just has some more people he wants to include in it all, and he may use you to be clay in the hands of the potter, to bring more people to a joyful awareness and acceptance of him. So go forward into the uncertain future with the certainty that you have a father. Your father is living, he’s determined, he’s powerful, and he will restore you. He is your confidence, no matter what may come.

Amen.