Blessings of God: Isaiah 6:1-8, Pastor Jason Lockard

The primary desire of human nature is to feel needed, and Christians want to feel like they're doing something for God.

God needs his people to build the kingdom and further the gospel.

Isaiah's experience in Isaiah chapter 6 shows the importance of humility and recognizing one's frailty and weakness.

We must praise God regularly and not just twice a year, and we must recognize our need for God's help and strength.

One of the primary desires of human nature is to feel needed, right? We want to feel needed. We want to feel like we're doing something. And I think even more so in the Christian experience, we want to have that feeling like we're needed, Like people need us. We're something, you know, it's that need, you know, that desire. Well, see, God needs his people. That's the point. If the job is going to get done, if the building of the kingdom of God is going to go forward, if the gospel is going to be furthered, it's got to come through us. God means us I love what Isaiah went through in Isaiah chapter 6 starting in verse 1 you know it's an interesting account the prophet writes and he says in the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple it's interesting now you can imagine how Isaiah must have felt to see the Lord high and lifted up right before his eyes. Interesting. I often wonder what we would feel like if we came into church one day and we saw the Lord sitting on the throne high and lifted up. What would our response be? What would my response be? I would probably be so shocked I'd probably fall on the floor on my face. I probably would. but that's the best thing to do fall on your face in reverence to God but I probably would I'd be so shocked Isaiah walked into the temple and he saw the Lord high and lifted up verse 2 says above it stood the seraphims each one had six wings with twain or two he covered his face with twain two he covered his feet and then with two twain-heated fly. They covered their face and their feet out of humility, not being worthy to be in the presence of the Almighty. Beautiful. And when Isaiah saw this, that these heavenly beings felt so unworthy of being in God's presence, he looked at himself and that's the thing. Sometimes we as Christians, we have to look at ourselves. We have to look inside. We have to look inside and we have to say, am I doing all I need to do? Am I living the type of life that I need to live for Jesus? Isaiah looked inside and in verse 3 it says, this is before we get to the good part, it says, and one cried to another saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with his glory. See, Isaiah sees these amazing beings, these amazing creations of God, crying holy unto God, giving praise to God. And then Isaiah looks inside and he says, wow, am I doing this? And I looked at that and I thought, when was the last time we really praised the Lord? now I'm not talking about just singing a song singing a song is praising God yes I'm not saying that but I mean when's the last time we really really got down and praised the Lord was it Easter was it Christmas now we don't praise the Lord a lot of times that's a lot of times when people will praise the Lord well thank you Lord for sending your son on Christmas oh thank you Lord for sending Jesus to die on Calvary's cross and raise from the dead that's twice a year so basically we praise the Lord twice a year not enough that's not enough not for all the good things God does not for all the blessings that he pours upon us two times a year is not enough Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with His glory. God's glory fills the world. Now there is so much evil in this world. We talked about that today. There's so much evil in this world that Satan is trying to push down the goodness of God. But God cannot be pushed down. God's goodness cannot be extinguished. God's flame of his goodness and grace cannot be blown out. No matter how hard Satan tries, no matter how much he puts against God's people, the goodness of God cannot be extinguished. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Isaiah begins to hear something very interesting. In verse 4, the post of the doors moved in the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Now, not only did Isaiah see the Lord, but he felt the Lord. Hallelujah. He saw the Lord, but he also felt the Lord. Hallelujah. And when he saw the Lord and he felt the Lord and he saw these beings praising the Lord, he looked inside himself in verse 5 and then he said, woe is me for I am undone. See, Isaiah recognized his frailty and his weakness. And that's a hard thing to do sometimes. We don't want to admit our frailty. We don't want to admit our weakness. We don want to admit that we can do this on our own strength Why do you think it so hard for so many people to come to the Lord Because we think we can do it I was there I went for years running away from the Lord thinking I could do it in my own strength And I found myself deeper and deeper in problems and deeper and deeper in depression and deeper and deeper away from the Lord until one day I had no choice but to fall on my face before God and cry out and say, Lord, I can't do this anymore. if I'm going to get help, it's got to come from you. And if it ain't coming from you, then it ain't coming. And in an instant, I began to feel the weight that was pushing me down into depression lift up. My dad was here, he could testify to it. My mom can testify to it. I was the most miserable person that ever walked the face of the earth when I was away from the Lord. The most miserable person probably you had ever met in your life when I was running from God. I think that's why I can feel a kinship, if you will, with Jonah. Because I ran. See, God wanted this for me. God wanted me to be here. with a Bible in one hand, the mic in the other, and preaching the word. And I said, no way. Uh-uh. For years I said, Lord, I'll serve you, but I'll do it in my own way. I'll sing you songs, and I'll do that. What was I trying to do? I was trying to make a deal with the Lord. I like what Paris says. Paris says it sometimes. and God said, this is the deal, right? And that's the point. God, we try to make a deal with the Lord. I did it. I did it for years. Lord, I'll sing you songs. I'll praise you. I'll do that. That's the way I will do my part. And God was saying, no, that's not what I have for you. I want you to go deeper. I want you to do something more. And I was like, no, I don't want to do it. So I ran. And I ran so far away from the Lord that I fell into a deep depression. I went into the belly of the whale, if you will. Jonah was in the belly of the whale. And you couldn't get no more dark than that. You couldn't strike a match and have light. You're in dark, man. And that's where I was. Anybody that has gone through depression will tell you. If you're in a deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, dark depression, Aaron, nothing works in this world. Because you don't feel there's a way out. You literally feel like you're sinking in quicksand and you can't get out. No matter how hard you try, you just keep sinking. And that's where I was. So I know what it is. I know what that was. I tried to make deals with the Lord. I tried to say, this is what I'll do. And God said, no. I know the plans I have for you, saith the Lord. Plans to prosper you. Plans to give you expected enemy. I want to give you a blessing. But I was like, well, now, Lord, I'll do my own thing. And it came to a point where I had to be like Isaiah. Where I realized my frailty. where I realize my weakness and I realize that I can't do this in my own strength. I cannot pull myself up by my own bootstraps. I can't save myself. We want to try. This world right now is filled with people that want to try to save themselves. And sadly, we have a nation of people that are enabling them. What do I mean by that? We are seeing a nation of people that are going farther away from God and saying, well, this is what I want to do. And we've got everybody in the world, not everybody, but a majority of our world, patting them on the back saying, well, good for you. Good for you. You just be you. well you can be you but that don't mean you're going to see heaven that's what it comes down to because we can do what we want to do I could have continued to do what I did but you know where I would be? I'm going to tell you something and I've said this before but this is true if I had continued where I was I wouldn't be here today and I'm not talking about here I'm talking I would not be in this world I would have been long gone out of this world That's how depressed I was. I would have took God's precious gift of life. That's where I was. Now you can do what you want to do, but you're not going to make it. See, and that's where Isaiah looked. Isaiah looked and he saw the Lord and he said, Woe is me, for I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. I'm going to tell you something. When you truly see the king, you can't help but get changed. You cannot help but get changed when you see the king. I always go back to Paul, Saul at the time. Because that's true, seeing the king and true transformation. saw on the Damascus road a light hit him like he'd never seen before knocked him off his high horse and onto the ground and he's on his knees and he he's scared at this point because nobody's done this to him before and all of a sudden he hears the booming voice of God Saul Saul why persecutes thou me Saul not even realizing it God at this point He says, who art thou, Lord? Lord meaning sir. The term Lord there in that term means sir. It's a term of reverence and respect. Because let's be honest, if somebody can knock you off your horse, you better respect them. Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus who thou persecutest. See, at that point Saul met Jesus. And we know the story. Saul was never the same. He was so changed from that experience that he had to change his very name because he knew he couldn't be the same man. I love the term. Saul changes his name to Paul. And the cool thing about that is Saul names mean things, right? Names have meanings. Saul means big, important. Paul means little, insignificant. Because he realized in the grand scheme of things, he was nothing without Jesus. Isn't that awesome? That's what we have to realize. We have to realize our frailty. And that's what Isaiah realized. Isaiah realized that. I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the clean. Now this is interesting. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me having a live coal in his hand. Which he had taken with the tongs off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, lo, this is touch thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We need to be purged by the old man of sin. But sadly we're not. I'm talking to the church today. Okay, I'm not talking to the world, I'm talking to the church today. See, because we sit and we don't talk about a word that used to be talked about. Now I mean this. I want you to be honest with me. Those of you that have listened to preachers and you've heard different sermons and stuff. When is the last time you heard a preacher say the word sanctification? Sanctification. When's the last time you heard that? Probably not in a real story. A few days ago. A few months ago. Probably not in years. Because we don't want to talk about sanctification. Sanctification means purging the old man of sin. That means not living a life of sin. That means coming out from among the world and being a separate person. That means being different than what this world is. And we don't want to talk about that because, oh, it's going to make people upset. That's why we don't talk about entire sanctification. Oh, let's not talk about that because somebody will get offended. Somebody will always be offended. People get offended about the cross because it's a bloody way. But that was the point. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. But we want to take away the blood. We want to stop talking about the blood sacrifice because it's going to scare somebody. It's going to offend somebody. So let's not talk about the blood anymore. But without the blood, there's no remission of sin. See, that's the point. Oh, but let's take it away. And that's why churches will no longer talk about the blood. Oh, we'll just talk about how Jesus loves us. we'll just ignore the fact that Jesus went to a cross and died and shed his blood because someone will be offended. We're living too much of a world where we're trying to not be offensive and what we're doing is we're losing the blessing. We're losing the blessing because we're not going to the cross. We're not going to the blood. The blood is where we are set free. The blood is where remission of sin comes. The blood is how we are healed. But we don't want to talk about it, so let's eliminate it. And then we wonder why we're not blessed. And then we wonder why we're not building and why we're not seeing the world changing. It's because we're polluting and perverting the very word of God. We're taking the things away. It says right in here. woe unto him to ads or takes away. And what are we doing? We're taking away the things. We do that so much. Oh, well, this is going to offend. Well, we'll just skip over it. Oh, well, this, this, well, someone will be offended. We just won't talk about that. Oh, well, you know what? Someone might be offended about that. We won't talk about that. Let me tell you something today. And I mean this. If we took out everything that's going to be offensive in this book, you know what we're going to do? We're going to do this. That's what we'll do. We'll just close it up. Because there is something offensive to somebody in every single word in this book. You'll find something offensive in every part of that book. someone will be offended by everything in this book so we would have to just close it up and say then we just won't open it no more and if we don't open the book and we don't talk about Jesus' sacrifice and we don't talk about the fact that we have to be sanctified holy and we don't do that then we will never be blessed we will never see the blessing of God if we don't live the way of the cross the way of the cross what? leave whole That the only way we making it home We not going to make it by any other way When we lived up in New Canaan Virginia it was amazing There was this big, huge antipas. I've talked about it. We've talked about it before, but it's true. Big, huge antipas. That was built. And people would make pilgrimage to this place. And there was a swami that lived there. He had followers. I'm not talking about, I'm talking about big name people. I'm talking about people in the town and in the county that were like doctors and lawyers. And you know what these people did? I'm not kidding you. They went out to work. They got their paychecks. They came in. They signed them over to him. because they thought he was going to get them to heaven. It was interesting because we thought, this is kind of interesting, so we took a little pilgrimage ourselves and just kind of looked at the edifice. Just a look. It was a beautiful place. I have to give them that. As far as the estate, it was gorgeous. Beautiful. but the thing that I will never forget was at the gate right on top of the gate there's a big word big sentence it said all roads lead to heaven uh uh sorry wrong it's not true only one road leads to heaven. No man comes unto the Father but by Him, but by Jesus. All roads don't lead to heaven. Only one is through Jesus. Interesting. See, we're seeing a time where preachers I didn't forget where I was. I took a big tour, but I know where I'm at. we're seeing preachers that are not preaching entire sanctification because they are afraid they're going to lose members that's what they are they're afraid oh well my paycheck will go down well I'm preaching to somebody I'm preaching to somebody today maybe there's a preacher listening to this one but this is true this is true this is why many of our preachers will not preach entire sanctification because they're afraid they'll lose members and then their paychecks will go down and that they won't have no money. Well, what does the Bible talk about? It talks about how the birds, they don't put away all their food and all this, but yet what? The Father, what? Feeds them. He provides for them. Where are they reading? Because it says right in this book, it says, But my God shall supply all my need according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. So where is their faith? Their faith is in man, not in God. And that's why they don't preach entire sanctification, because they're afraid that their churches will diminish and their attendance will go down and their paychecks will go down and that they won't have enough money. Bless their hearts. They don't have no faith in God. That's the point. see Isaiah knew he had to be purged he was purged and then Isaiah in verse 8 said also I heard the voice of the Lord saying who shall I send and who will go for us and these are the words that God is saying right now today right here in the church of the living God in 2023 today right now He's saying it to us. He's saying it to churches all around. Who will I send? Who will go for me? Who's going to be willing to preach the word? Who's going to be willing to share the gospel? Who's going to be willing to tell their friends, their family, even if it hurts? Even if it maybe hurts a little bit. Be willing to be bold and say, you need to have Jesus in your life. That's the only way you're going to make heaven. Who is willing to be bold and stand up for Jesus? Who will be willing to go? God says this. And Isaiah's response is what all our response should be. He said, here am I. Send me. Here am I. Send me. I say this today, if you've given your all to the service of God and to the church, is that your focal point? Is your mindset God first and family and friends and self after that? Do we have a desire to see souls saved? Are we willing to give up our time and our energy to build the kingdom of God? See that's the only way we're going to be blessed That's entire sanctification God's first Above everything else In life Amen. you

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