October 27, 1999
LIFE & WORK SERIES:
Open your eyes, heart to
God's plan for your life
___Isaiah 6:1-8
___By Brett Younger
___Lake Shore Baptist Church, Waco
___A young man, the age of a college student, goes to worship looking for a reason to go on. His hero has died. The good King Uzziah, who ruled Judah for more than 40 years, brought peace and prosperity. He is the only king Isaiah has ever known. Isaiah has tears in his eyes as he worships in the temple.
___Suddenly, as if it had always been there, but Isaiah is only now beginning to see it, there is the glory of God. God's throne is high and exalted; God's gown is the incense and candles that fill the temple.
___Instead of throne room guards, God has six-winged seraphs (which may be fiery winged snakes with human faces) in the heavenly court. The winged creatures shout backand forth about the greatness of God: "Holy, holy, holy. ... Everything speaks of God's glory."
___The whole place starts to shake beneath Isaiah's feet like a ride at Six Flags you wish you had skipped. Clouds of smoke fill his lungs and sting his eyes.
___Isaiah may have come hoping to see God, but he is dazed, astounded, astonished and overcome by this glimpse of the God who comes to see him. He cries out: "O God, I'm in trouble. I'm doomed." Isaiah wants his lips cleansed. It's with his lips that he's spoken of the meaninglessness of life and with his lips that he is called to serve.
___One of the winged things touches his mouth with fire and says, "There, there, it will be all right now."
___God asks, "Who will serve?" Isaiah answers with charred lips, "I will." From that day forward, Isaiah had a reason to serve.
___The holiness of God calls us to serve. When we truly worship we stop trying to fit God into our picture and discover the wonder of seeing ourselves in God's picture. Mother Teresa called herself "a pencil in the writing hand of God, writing a love letter to the world."
___Catching a vision of a caring, hopeful and loving God is the first step in giving ourselves to create a more caring, hopeful and loving world. We can live beyond our individual limitations, our finite abilities and even our own time.
___In a sermon at Riverside Church in New York, Ernest Campbell said: "To be young is to study in schools that you did not build. To be mature is to build schools in which you will not study. To be young is to sit under trees you did not plant. To be mature is to plant trees under which you will not sit. To be young is to dance to music you did not write. To be mature is to write music to which you will not dance. To be young is to benefit from a church you did not make. To be mature is to make a church from which you might not benefit."
___God calls us to serve a kingdom holier, older and greater than we are.
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