Thank you for listening to the river.
Bend Church podcast Reverb in church exists to lead all people
to know love and live New Life in Jesus Christ.
We hope that you enjoy this message.
We are this week in week, 3 of the series, your will not mind
and this has been a guide through 21 days of fasting and
prayer. And so, today is day, 8 of 21,
so give it up for yourself, if you made it Through the first
week. This week of this, thank you,
Jesus, for your help. There's been a lot of battle
going on this week, right? A lot of you've been feeling
that the battle, and so, if you've not joined yet, but you
considering it, don't let the fact that we're on day 8, stop
you, there still 14 days and so you can jump in.
And, and begin praying, you begin fasting, you can find the
info online. If you want to go to our
website, you'll find a downloadable PDF.
I think we may have run out of the devotional guides because
you guys took those, but that is online.
Now you can grab it. And you can jump right in with
us during this season of fasting and prayer.
But one of the questions I asked myself this week, why am I doing
this? Why do this?
Why do we give up food or social media or things?
We love to seek God. Why are we serious about going
out of our way to spend time with the Lord?
And really, the simple answer is this, it is the most tangible
way to say Jesus. I want more of you and less of
me, more of you, less than me. I want 20:23 to be about more of
you in my life and so it's a way to bring ourselves to full.
Surrender, but only give you a new way to think about fasting
and prayer. It's just how I've been thinking
about it, as I meditated on it this week fasting.
A here's what it says. I want all of you, Jesus, and I
want you to have all of me. I want all of you.
It's not just about getting from God, it's about giving ourselves
to God's. They wouldn't God gets all of
you. That's where you're going to
live your best year yet. It's not when you get all your
prayers answered, I know, that's what we think.
God will answer some prayers and it'll be a great.
Here. When the Lord pours out his
favor and blessing but you know what would be the best year yet?
Is really a line underneath. The surround this idea of God
you have all of me. I'm not holding back.
Anything anymore. 20:23 will be my best year yet.
If I live it under the lordship of Jesus, that's saying Jesus,
you get all of me. I'm not gonna hold anything back
from you. Wherever you tell me, that's
what I'll do. Whatever you lead me to go.
I will wherever you leave me to go.
I'll go what your voice says. I'm gonna I'm gonna go whatever
you want to do in my life in 2023.
Bring it. I'm here for it.
And so it's just joining our hearts with the Heart of Jesus
in that prayer, he prayed the night before he would go to the
Cross. When he said, father, your will
not mine. Why don't we pray that again?
Because God loves us more than we know how to love ourselves.
He knows what's best for us. He does, what's best for us, so
we can trust him when we say God, I don't know, all the
answers. I'm just going to trust you,
your will flow through my life. And so, this season of prayer is
not just about getting what we want.
It's about aligning ourselves with God so that he Can give us
what we need. So as I prayed about this week's
message, God really led me to do something that I have not done
in four years since I've been here.
The lord always asked me to do some first.
Well, here's a first for you today, I've never preached the
message twice, as since I've been here.
The Lord took me back to his same, passage a lot of the same
ideas. Exactly the same ideas that I
preached almost two years ago now.
So some of you are here and you're going to go, that sounds
familiar in this some of your here and you're going to go,
I've never heard that before. But you were here that day, you
just forgot and so I like you. But that's It works right?
But the Lord really impresses. So, my heart several weeks ago
was like, I want you to come back to this message that you
shared because it's somebody needs it.
You know. You know why I'm sharing it
today? It's for somebody that's
struggling with the faster with the prayer season.
Maybe you're not even praying and fasting.
You just find yourself in January 20, 23 wrestling
wrestling with, you know, spiritual attack or battle in
your life or wrestling with, you know, anxieties wrestling with
what does God want me to do in this new year just wrestling.
And so this word has an encouragement and also a
challenge with it today and here is the message I want to share
with you today. I am putting my yes, on the
table, my yes, is on the table, Lord, literally my yes, is on
the table. I've had this little deal here
for a lot of years. I've used it in a lot of
different messages just to come before the Lord and say, God my
yes. Is on the table, The Secret of
fasting and prayer is not a much about getting what getting God
to say, yes to you. It's about getting us.
Us to say yes to him. Take that in for a minute.
It's not as much about twisting God's arm and showing him that
were so sincere that God just going to say yes to everything
we want. He will he tells us, pray, you
seek me, you will find me. You knock the door will be open.
Like God tells us, I'm going to say yes to you, on some things,
I'm going to answer your prayers, but but more than
anything, the secret to this season, it's about getting us to
say yes to him. And there's no greater place in
scripture outside of Jesus saying yes to the cross.
No greater place than Isaiah. The book of Isaiah in your
Bibles to Isaiah. Chapter 6, is where we're going
to be today. My yes is on the table.
Here's what it says, Bible says this, it was the year King,
Uzziah say Uzziah, it's just fun to say it was I who was like,
kind of like Isaiah. If you were Australian, who's
Lea King, Uzziah died, that died that I saw the Lord.
And so, this is Isaiah speaking. He says, he was sitting on a
lofty, throne. And so this is a vision that the
Prophet Isaiah had in prophet, Isaiah was a spokesperson to
God's people, God would send him messages he would in turn go and
share it with God's people. The Jewish people, he was
sitting on a lofty, throne and the train of his robe, filled
the Temple. And so, in the setting, the
stage here, for what, we're going to look at.
Historically, this event happened in 740 BC, we know that
because King Uzziah who's iodide in 47, 40 BC, the book of first
and second chronicles, and first Second Kings in your Bible, they
actually tell you the story of all the kings will.
You will find whose eye is story in there.
Here's what we know about this Ayah, he started raining at 16
years old, so you can imagine that.
I mean over God's people, he becomes king at 16 years old,
and the deal is, he's one of the rare good Kings.
Most of the guys, you read about that served as kings.
They were terrible. They didn't last long, they were
ungodly. He was a Godly young king.
He reigned in, he reigned over guys who for 52 years, one of
the longest rains in the history of of God's people, and people
prospered under his leadership. But he was a good king with a
tragic ending because near the end of his life, he got
prideful, he went into the temple and in the place of a
priest and he burned incense before the Lord God has
specifically said, only the priest can do this and he got
prideful. He went in God, allowed him to
contract leprosy and he would die separated from his people.
In a basically, a lepers Camp. He would die in isolation.
And so, it caused people to question a lot in the culture.
You got to, you got to They have to say the year King Uzziah
died. It described a year where people
were going God, where are you? Didn't you see the 52 years of
faithfulness or you know, the 50 years of faithfulness?
And you're going to strike this guy down from one little
mistake. God is serious about his
Holiness. But you know what?
People were probably in a little bit of chaos.
If you look at the hit the track record any time a king died.
It was chaotic. Is there going to be a coup?
It's going to be an is the Sun going to take over what's going
to happen and it's always a chaotic and nervous time in.
In society when a king died. And so people were probably
saying God where are you? Why would you allow our leader
to die? Our good leader in his in the
prime of his late years of leading us?
Why would that happen? And so, do you know there's a
lesson for someone here today? I want us to learn from Isaiah's
experience. For here's the first thing I saw
even in this verse verse when the circumstances on Earth calls
us to ask God, where are you? Where are you?
Lord, we can trust that he's on the throne.
Isaiah gives us a picture of this.
It is okay to ask. Where are you God?
It's okay to ask God, are you here in my prayers?
Because it doesn't feel like you are.
It's okay to feel that way, but Isaiah gives us a picture.
There was some chaos going on on the earth and in heaven.
The Lord was still sitting on the throne.
Do you know why that can bring peace to our hearts, a little
bit. Just to know that if God is
allowing some pain in our lives, some pain in our culture, it
doesn't mean that he's out of control, he is sitting on the
throne, the gear is iodide. Isaiah, Isaiah cease cease.
He's the Lord sitting on the throne and you know, sometimes
when God delays, the answer to his prayers, this because the
delay is because his best is actually on the way.
In the case here he was doing a work in Isaiah.
He was doing a work of Deliverance and healing and new
life and that's what it'll do to us sometimes.
Before God answers the prayer, it seems like he's out of
control, he's sitting on the throne.
Where are you, God? But he is actually answering the
prayer. He's actually doing a work in
you before he gives you what you're praying about.
You know. One of the things I've learned
Learned to focus in on when I feel like the moments first,
like, God, where are you? Are you hearing my prayers?
Lord, it, you know, sometimes you may even feel like this, if
there was a God, why would he not be answering by?
Now, I'm not saying I don't have faith and I'm not Amanda tries
to believe the word of God, but I mean sometimes you get to that
point where you're going. God I have prayed, I have
fasted, I have sought you. Where are you Lord?
There's a couple of things that I've learned to do first, I ask
myself the question. Did the sun come up today?
If so, I can go back to the beginning when God set things in
motion. And also, I'm reminded of this
verse that the mercy of the Lord is new Every Morning.
God's Mercy is new. Another question.
I ask myself, do I have air in my lungs?
Can I breathe right now? God provided that he met up.
He answer my prayer right now, but he is sustaining me.
He sustaining me until he can give me the answer.
Do I have someone that loves me? That's another question.
I asked and I hope you do. There actually is somebody that
loves you and you may not know it, but there are people that
Love you. There's a God, that loves you
but if you have somebody that loves you, then that's a
reflection of the love of God. And that's just a reminder, you
know, I don't have all my prayers answered yet, but it's
sun came up. I have air in my lungs and I
have somebody that loves me. If you have those three things,
that's a picture of God's grace poured out on you.
Even when the circumstances of the world are out of control, we
can be reminded, you know what? God still in control.
So next there is a picture of worship painted in the book of
Isaiah. Now, for some of you guys that
grew up in a, maybe a more traditional church wedding, You
didn't clap and you didn't get loud.
Listen, I'm about to blow your mind Heavens, gonna be crazy for
some of us, some of y'all right now.
You have a hard time singing. Use kind of like you got a
little movement going on when we're worse, when I like it,
some of you singing hands up. But let me show you what Worship
in heaven. Looks like some of us gonna be
like, holy smokes. What did I just walk into?
Look at this picture, he saw the Lord sitting on a throne and it
says the tending him were Mighty seraphim, seraphim each?
Having six wings. And so, this is a beast with six
wings worshipping for the Lord. If we brought one Of those in
today. Everybody would leave you be
like that. Listen, I liked Joe and I liked
Riverbend until they brought the six winged beast in like I'm
out. Can't do it anymore.
It says that the seraphim had six wings two Wings.
They covered their faces with two, they covered their feet and
with two, they flew. So, now you're in the flapping
of wings, they were calling to each other, just like the song
We were singing. You're worthy of it all.
Here's what they were singing. Holy holy.
Holy is the Lord of Heavens armies.
The Earth is filled with his glory.
Now here's the here's the Shocker.
Their voices shook the temple to its foundations.
I don't know if they had subwoofers in microphones.
I don't know if it was just their voices, but they add
something and it was shaking the building.
The worship was shaking the building, the neighbors were
knowing what's going on in there, like, man, they're at it
again over there shaking the foundations and the entire
building was filled with smoke, you may be okay with a loud
speakers but as soon as the smoke came in your like I knew
it, I'm out of here. I'm not taking that.
That it's in this, in this picture of worship in heaven.
Blowing your mind though like this Beast worshipping before
the Lord flapping its wings saying, holy is the Lord.
And as they sing their voices, the music is so loud.
That the ground is shaking the foundation of the temple is
shaking and then smoke starts to fill the room.
They have Hayes machines in heaven, come on, and this Beast
is seraphim. We don't know a lot about them
because we don't have them on Earth.
But here's what we do to, they had six wings and two of them
they took and covered their faces.
As they were in the presence of God Almighty.
As if to say, I can't look on his majesty with two, they
covered their feet as if to say I humble myself before the Lord,
it would be in a sign of humility to cover their feet.
And with two, they flew crying out to the Lord.
So listen, the Earth circumstances were not good at
this time but Heavens worship was not interrupted.
See, here's the lesson that we can learn.
Heavens worship isn't interrupted by our circumstances
and neither You should hires be. Listen no matter what 20:23
brings our way we get to decide if we're going to worship our
king or not. You and I get to decide it.
Nothing can decide it for us. There are some things that
cannot be taken out of the hands of people and one is what we
choose to worship. No matter what 2023 brings
listen. I'm praying that God brings
healing because I know a lot of you have reached out to me via
email, you text me, you've dropped up that prayer cards to
us and said, I'm praying for healing, for myself, for my
family, for others. And so I'm praying.
And listen, when the healing comes, we're going to worship.
I'm praying that God will pour out blessings and listen as he
does. Going to praise him, we're going
to worship. But listen, when God brings
difficult, things to mold us, and perfect, us, and make us the
people of God that he wants us to be.
We're also going to worship Him church.
That's when we're going to need each other to lift our arms up,
when somebody's going through a hard season, you need somebody
to come alongside you and lift up your arms, you know, do you
know who gets how one the way you can decide how you going
worship and what you're going to worship each day?
No matter what circumstances comes?
It's all about. What worship soundtrack?
You listen to every day. Courtney got me are pods for
Christmas. I never had any more so I'm
like, you know, I'm looking at him like, well, you know, I'm
learning all these noise-canceling.
I don't have to hear anybody. I don't want to hear it too
great. And so I'm learning though, you
know, I've had earbuds before but I've never had any nice with
it. So when I put this in, guess who
gets to decide what I pump into this thing, I do I get to decide
what I pump into this earpod nobody else gets to decide what
I'm going to put into it. Do you know, one of the best
ways you can decide apart from your circumstances, how you
going to worship? What soundtrack?
Are you going to play into your head every day?
What do you listen to? Because whatever you pump in
determines, how easy or not, it is for you to worship you pump,
Jesus, send you pump worshipping.
It's crazy how it changes your day.
Courtney, Austin in the mornings especially with even Kids were
in school, she would get up, go to work really early and she
would turn her phone on in first you'd hear a phone come on in
the bathroom would like some, you know, you are worthy of it
all and you here, you're not, here she goes.
And boy about the second line. She's singing to the top of her
lungs in the whole house is awake now because she is setting
her tone for the day. Instead, he her tone in worship
for the day and I love it. Listen, you get to decide if
circumstances are going to change how you worship or not,
nobody else can. You get to decide it as we move
for listening as we fast and pray.
We're going to learn to set our worship.
Antennas towards the Lord. God, I want to, I want to set my
worship station on you Lord, fill me up today.
And so Isaiah standing here watching this worship service
happen and surely, he's blown away, because they never seen
anything. He'd never seen anything like
this. But look what he says here.
Then he says this, it's all over.
I'm doomed for I am a sinful man in the presence of the Lord, he
recognized it immediately. I have sinned, he says, I have
filthy lips. And I live among people with
filthy lips. I don't know exactly why he
brought out the filthy lip service probably other lip.
Maybe he just said something he really regretted right before he
went into this Vision, you do that before listening.
Come on, I know some of y'all driving to church this morning.
I know some of those conversations in the car yelling
at the kids. You know, I wouldn't get out and
cook a morning Pastor. So good to see you today.
Work so good to be at church. I'm not saying I was riding in
your car. I'm saying listen I got a car
to, I brought my kids to church at one time but I don't know why
he felt convicted but he was like, I've been I've been
cussing. I've been I don't know what he's
been doing. It.
But like here you guys, I have filthy lips and I live among
people of them. Filthy lips yet.
I have seen the king, the Lord of Heavens are, you know, you
know why? One reason I think he said that
because he heard these beasts and you know what they were
using their lips to do, glorify the Lord.
Holy holy, holy is the Lord, the whole earth is full of his
glory. I think it was a conviction
because that wasn't what he was using his words to do.
But he said yet I have seen the king the Lord of Heavens armies.
And so what it means is it's all over for me.
Isaiah was a Jewish young man and so he knew the scripture, If
anybody saw God, they were taught, he would die.
And so he said, you know, I know that God is Holy and I'm seeing
God in this Vision, I'm going to die.
It's all over for me. Admit that I'm a sinner, see, in
the presence of Jesus, he became aware of his sin.
For some of us, do coming back to church for the first time in
a while, or maybe tune in online, maybe Oakwood, you're
coming in for the first time in a while.
The first thing you feel, hopefully is love and in fact
that you matter because we work hard at that, but if you hang, A
long enough, the holy spirit of God is going to start working on
your heart and you're going to start feeling some conviction.
It's not a bad thing. It's not God hating on you, it's
not god pushing you away. It's actually his grace calling
you hire saying there's a new life version of you.
To be lived in 2023, God's got more for you and better for you
than you lived in 2022. And you gotta decide if you're
going to step into it or not. But here's the thing, just like
Isaiah. Here's the lesson for us.
When we enter the presence of Jesus Through worship, it'll
make us aware of our Our sin, but here's what we learned from
Isaiah, don't run from God. Don't run away from God, listen
in the presence of Jesus makes Isaiah hyper aware.
He goes, God, it's all over for me.
I'm a sinner. And I'm doomed and see for us,
here's the beauty. Jesus already took our sin debt
on the cross, and so when you feel conviction, do you know,
all God is doing. He's not trying to push you down
and push you away. He's trying to get you to submit
to Jesus. Who's already paid the cost for
you? He's already paid the price for
you. He's saying submit to him.
You can change and live. New Life in him.
But you know our gut reaction is to run when God starts working
in our lives. We start praying and singing and
fasting. We get around other believers
community of people. Sometimes we will feel
conviction in our gut is to run. But listen, when God brings sin
to the surface in our lives and by sin, I mean any wrong thing.
You've done Bible calls that sin when we sin against God, we do
wrong against the person. We do wrong against ourselves or
we do wrong against God himself. When we do wrong, that's called
sin when God brings that sin to the surface of our hearts.
He's not trying to judge you. You, he's trying to cleanse you.
God wants you to walk out free, you know, one of the
frustrations that I have as a pastor, I see people walking
bondage that don't have to There is new life for you.
People give up on themselves because their past is so painful
and the mistakes they've made or so, but they give up on
themselves and they assume God can't heal you anymore or maybe
you just have a personality trait or a tendency and you feel
like God, you can't heal this. How could you forgive it?
Because it's such a struggle for me and yet the crawl says you
are forgiven. There is Grace for you if you
will lean into it. But our gut reaction is to run.
You know what? Sometimes that's the voice of
the enemy trying to shame you when God's trying to cleanse you
he says if you confess it to me I'll cleanse you Isaiah
confessed, it right there in the presence of God, I'm a sinful
man, I have filthy lips, lean in, don't run, you know what I
believe. I believe that this is the
pivotal moment in Isaiah's Ministry, I think if Isaiah In
This Moment, instead of confessing had tried to run away
from God, at that moment, God would have probably raised up
another Prophet that would say, yes to him.
M, how many times do we miss? The blessing of God on our
lives? Because we run when he starts
trying to convict us about something.
You know what you got to do? Maybe, maybe 20 23 in this.
This season is coming back to the Lord and just lay in your
heart out and saying, God, I know there's some things you
were convicted me about it one time and I got numb to you, I
got none to your voice because I wanted to hold on to those
things in my life. And Lord, you were trying to
strip it out so that you could make me the man and the woman
you wanted me to be. And so, as a addicted, not run,
he responded right there with with opening himself up to
Cleansing the presence of Jesus will make us aware of our sin
but we shouldn't run. That's his love and conviction.
Look at this. Then one of the seraphim flew
over to me with a burning coal, he had taken from the altar.
Listen, not just the again, mind blown in worship here.
All of a sudden this heavenly creature starts flying towards
you. At that point, I wouldn't have
blamed to do for running. Just going to say It says a
burning coal, he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs,
he touched my lips with it and he said, see this Cole has
touched your lips. I can't help it.
Say man, why did he have to tell him it touches lift?
He just touched your face with a burning coal from the altar.
He didn't have to say that he knew that, right?
This coal has touched your lips. Now and your guilt is removed in
your sins are forgiven. Can I just say this?
We can clean this up, but in this Vision, it had to be
painful. We don't get that whole pit,
Isaiah didn't go on and on about how much pain he went through.
When the guy put all he gives us gives us as the end result.
But don't you know, if somebody takes a hot coal and they put it
on your lips, you probably want to do that.
You know, my mama probably want to do that.
To me a few times. I'll say that.
But cleanse that mouth boy who, you know, but look at this,
there was pain in the cleansing. I don't like this reality IMA be
real. I do not like this reality when
God starts doing a cleansing work.
Can you guess what? There's Don't be paying, you
know why it's so hard to pray and fast.
Pain discipline we have to choose to overcome our own pride
and our own desires so that God may do a greater work in us but
the Lord sent this messenger and it was painful.
Listen, if you've been in a painful season with the Lord
maybe for a while maybe God hadn't been answering like you
want it. Listen, this word gives us much
hope. God is not hurting you, he's
trying to heal. You God is Not destroying you.
He's preparing you for for a wholeness and renewal and
restoration, let me give you the lesson that we learn here.
Confession leads to Cleansing and it may be painful, but it's
always powerful. I don't know about you but I
want the anointing of God on my life, like, if I'm going to live
as a follower of Christ, if that's my path.
For this life, I want to live under the anointing of God,
meaning I want the spirit of God to be on my life.
I want to everywhere. I step, I want God to use my
life, I don't want him to be with me, but here's the thing
until I'm willing to confess confess and be cleansed.
I can't get to that place. God doesn't want to pour His
anointing on dirty vessels. He'll love us, and it'll take us
to heaven, but if you want to live in the power and the
anointing, God, at some point you got to say God, I am a
sinner. I still have messed up saying,
Lord, I want to confess it to you and I know it's going to be
painful to walk through it. But Lord I know the power comes
to that see the fasting a season will not bring God's best for us
unless we confess. In this season we can't just
ask. We also have to confess.
You know, this verse but it's a powerful truth that we need
today. says this, if we confess our sin to him, Now, the next
piece of this could say, once we tell him, he'll never look at us
the same and how we do each other.
Come on. I mean, sometimes that's how it
feels once I tell you how rotten I really am and how messed up?
I really am. You'll never look at me the same
again, it's not really true because all of us have our sins
struggles and if we're all really honest and we would all
go. Oh you're just as bad as me like
you need Jesus just as much as I do but if we confess our sins to
him, look at this. He is faithful and just to do
what forgive us and to cleanse us.
Do you know what this means? Cleanse us from wickedness is
the cleansing of the guilt off your life.
Only the Lord. Can do this, you can't right
your wrongs enough to get cleansed of your guilt people
tried every day. I've done so much wrong.
So I got to do a lot of right to write it in.
The Lord says this, if you'll confess it to me not only will I
forgive you so you can come be with me forever.
I will also cleanse you right where you are.
I'll somehow give your conscience the ability to start
over by the power of my spirit. See what this season of prayer
is really about, is God, finally getting you and me to be real
with him. To be real with him.
We don't have healing because we keep hiding Church.
I'm speaking looking, I can come out here and amen.
Myself this morning, we don't get the healing that we need
because we keep hiding things. We think from God, Oh God, you
saw that. I don't want to talk about that.
Can I just go raise my hands and worship?
Let's just not talk about that. If you want freedom.
Freedom will. Come cleansing will come.
When you finally get to the point where you're going.
God, you got me. I'm going to confess it to you
and say, here's what we talked scripturally forgiveness and
cleansing can come when we confess to God, but James tells
assist, you should also confess the when you're walking through
a difficult, maybe you're trying to get out of a Sim battle
confess it to a trusted brother or Her in Christ and they then
you can actually find Freedom through that.
So, listen, what is the holy spirit?
Trying to free you up from in your life right now?
You automatically know, probably in your mind, you go, there's
something I know God wants to free.
He wants to cut that out, because that's not who I'm
created. That's not the new life version
of me. That's not who the Lord created
me to be. I know there's something needs
to go. Is it pride?
Well, sure, for all of us. Is it porn?
Maybe. Is it secret sin?
Is it bad attitude? Is it hate?
Is that addiction? Is it?
something else rule your life instead of God listen I'm just
telling you we serve a God who can If I didn't believe that he
could rid us of these things and cleanse.
If those he thinks I couldn't stand with the authority and
preach but we have to get down to the root of it.
Healing comes when we stop hiding get to the root.
Pray about your anxiety. But what is the route?
I mean, tell God you want to get rid of it but getting down to
the root of it and confess it to him.
What are you scared of what's driving?
It doesn't mean it'll go all the automatically away, but listen,
he can work on it. What about that section will
send struggle. You have that's holding you
back. Back from the anointing of God
in 2023. It took you out in 2022.
If you're really honest. I'm not saying you weren't a
believer in that. God didn't love you.
I'm just saying, impacted your life, and impacted your mindset,
and how you view people, and it pulled you in.
So closely. What if the Lord says you get
real with me about it, let's get down to the root.
What do you really want? What's driving that I want to
free you up? I want to cleanse you.
I don't want to, I want to crush you.
I crushed my son on the cross. That's what the father says for
that sin. If you Want to change and live
New Life listening to key. Is this get real with God?
My prayer is in Jesus name, over Oakwood over Gainesville over
those tuned in today. May the spirit bring boldness to
say yes to confession because it's hard.
In the moment, we make up our mind.
You know what? God, I'm not going to play games
with you anymore, man. Get real with you.
You just met walk out free. Uncaged from the sin that's been
holding you back. See it was after confession and
cleansing. That Isaiah is ears were open to
hear God. There was never another time
that he heard God here he heard what was happening?
He heard the Sarah from worshiping, he heard the ground
shake. He saw the smoke coming in but
it doesn't say that he heard God until after what the cleansing
after. The cleansing took place after
the confession. The repentance took place.
Saying God you got me. It was at that point, so I
wonder maybe God is waiting today on somebody to say yes.
Us to confession. Yes to getting real with God
before he's going to answer and give you the answers that you
want. Look at this point he heard the
Lord saying it says I heard the Lord asking then I heard the
Lord asking whom should I send as a messenger to this people
who will go for us? And this us here is just an
indicator of the Trinity. God the Father God, the son, God
the Holy Spirit, having a conversation in heaven 33 in
one. God he said that Isaiah says he
hears this conversation and Isaiah's pipes up and says here,
am I send me now? Here's the interesting thing
before. Isaiah knew what the assignment
was, he put his yes on the table.
Again, something I'm really uncomfortable with.
I know that I'm preaching. I'm going.
Hey, trust God, he knows what's best for you.
He's going to do what's best for you.
But when it comes down to saying, God, I will say yes to
you, no matter what you say, I'm going to go ahead and put my yes
on the table. That's a difficult task in it
because see what we like to do is pray and fast and God, what
do you want? And then we want to hear it.
And then we want to make up our minds, whether will obey or not.
God, that's too much. You're asking, I don't want to
do that. Okay God, that sounds pretty
good, I'll do that. But what if men and women of God
got so powerful in their faith and in their prayer lives that
we just took our yes with us everywhere.
We went, God, what do you want me to do today?
Here's my yes. How do you want?
What do you want me to give today?
God, who do you want me to love on minister to how do you want
me to treat my family today? God hears, my yes.
What do I need to change out of my selfish life so that I can
see life change come to my Homer or to my friend group or maybe
to my dorm room? Lord, here's my yes.
I don't want to live. Like I've been living anymore.
God, I'm just gonna go ahead and put my yes on the table before
you even say it because I know you love me.
Listen this season of your will not mind.
That's really what it is. I want to put my yes on the
table. Do you want to hear God, though?
Here's the secret. If I want to hear God, I have to
get near God. You don't want to say this.
We often want God to shout at us.
Lord, not. You see me, praying and fasting.
Can't you just shout out to me from Heaven.
Lord, make your message. Clear.
Give me my answers. But throughout scripture, do you
know how God often speaks a whisper?
The calm Whisper of the Holy Spirit.
He doesn't yell. He whispers, he speaks softly.
You know, you know what you have to do, if you want to hear
someone, when they're Whispering, you have to lean
near to him. I'm convinced that God is
speaking. We're just not leaning close
enough to hear the whisper of the spirit of God.
Oh Lord, speak to me. God, I want to hear your word.
Lord, I want to hear what you want me to do for 2023.
I need your answers. What if he's trying to answer,
but we refuse to lean in close enough.
Listen, Isaiah teaches us this, when you repent and you confess
and you lay your heart out before the Lord and you lean in
this at that moment, you can finally begin to hear God
speaking to you. Here's what Jeremiah said.
If you look for me wholeheartedly, you know what
that means? Full surrender to my lordship.
All my heart. God I'm not holding any piece
back. Nothing.
If you look for me wholeheartedly, here's the
promise. You will find me this season of
fasting and prayer. It's not just about giving God
all getting all of God. It's about us giving all of
ourselves to him, but we have to go out at wholeheartedly.
See, look at this, Isaiah said, this again, here I am send me.
You know what he was saying? Here's what he was saying.
Lord my yes is on the table, there it is.
God, what do you want? To do before he knew the
assignment. Now we don't have time to get
into it today but you can go read Isaiah's assignment.
It wasn't a really fun assignment.
But he signed up anyway and he did it for his entire Ministry,
his entire life. He said, yes, Lord, here I am
send me, my yes, is on the table.
I don't know how long he had prayed for this Encounter of
God, encounter with God, maybe he was going God show up in my
life. I just need you guys show up in
my life, but I think he had made up his mind ahead of time when I
get that encounter with God, I'm gonna say yes to what if God is
waiting on your yes, before he shows you the rest of what he
wants for you. See when God sees your yes, he
will show you the rest but often he may be holding back because
he knows that you're not going to do what he says.
Anyway, usually when I talk about yes I'm talking about
serving. Sometimes you may hear a message
like this and it's like who wants to go to the mission
field? Far away and praise the Lord.
There are people that are called to do that and then people here
probably called to do that. There are many they already.
Are you going to go far away and tell people about Jesus and love
people in his name? But I want to shift the
perspective a little bit today, today?
Yes, is not just about like going and doing for God.
It was for Isaiah. Do you know what?
Yes, this is today. It's about God.
Doing a work in me. And you, God, I'm not going to
hold anything back in this season of fasting and prayer
from you. Lord.
I'm letting you deal with my sin.
That I think, I've been holding onto behind the scenes to spend
killing me, literally, killing me behind the scenes.
I'm tired of holding on to the Lord.
Here's my yes. Deal with me, Jesus.
I'm ready to be cleansed. Lord, will you deal with my
addiction listening? Are some good people that God
loves and you know what the enemy keeps trying to come back
over you with this addiction. And circumstances.
Keep trying to push. You back in that direction.
Can I just say? Just keep saying yes to him
again. Let him take it again.
Let him work on it again. Let him cleanse you again.
Yes, Lord change. How I treat my family.
Yes, Lord deal with my hate in my anger and my pride Lord deal
with any racism and me deal with any unforgiveness in me, deal
with any Brokenness in Me. God, I'm tired of trying to hide
it and make sure everybody else thinks I'm fine when I got all
these struggles going on. Lord my yesterday is about you
bringing healing see maybe yesterday is about you.
Finally surrendering your life to Christ.
There are some that hope for whatever reason, they know the
love of God, and they hear a message like this, but they hold
back on God, they refused to let him have everything.
So, maybe, yes, today, for you is saying, Jesus.
I'm ready to let you be the Lord of my life.
I'm ready for the first time to surrender under your lordship.
See, here's the question. Is it time for you today?
To put your yes, on the table? Freedom is on the other side of
surrender. So here's what I want to do.
Right here in Gainesville and in Oakwood, I want you to bow with
me all over the house. Stay with me, Oakwood, just bow.
Listen, if you, if you lose attention when you close your
eyes because I don't want you disconnect and yet we're not
done, you can look at me, that's fine, but I want you to stay
with me for just a moment and think about this, if freedom is
on the other side of surrender, just like Isaiah said, yes,
maybe it's time to say yes, to let God do the work in you, so
then he can do the work through you.
So here's what I want to ask you today.
Both here and at Oakwood, if you would go, Joe, I know that I
need to put my yes on the table before the Lord.
Today, I want you to stand up right where you are.
You everybody else? Just keep your head down.
If you go Joe, I know there's a work in my life.
I know this will work through my life.
I want you to stand right? Where you are.
Oakwood you to thank you, come on, stand up right, where you
are? That shoe.
I won't pray for you this morning.
That's all we're going to do. I'm going to pray that the Lord
will put because of your boldness.
Thank you. Anybody else?
If you go Joe I'm putting my need to put my yes on the table
before the Lord today. Thank you.
Come on. Do you 20 quid?
Would stand up right there where you are because I want to pray
for you and then we're going to worship as we close this place
out today. Maybe you standing today is used
to signify and I Surrender my life to Jesus Christ today.
I'm not holding back anything anymore.
I'm not holding it back. I'm ready for the Lord to deal
with my sin. I'm ready for the Lord to deal
with these things that are trying to press me down right
there where you are listing. Many of us standing here in
Gainesville and Oakwood. I want to pray over you this
morning if that's you. So father, I thank you for those
that are bold to stand and say my yeah.
Is on the table today and got on to praise you, that they had the
courage to do. So right here where we are in
order to ask you. Now in Jesus name God will use
you hear their? Yes, Lord.
They stood up with their feet in front of everybody.
They just stood in the room and said, Here I Am Lord, here's my
yes. So God whether it's a Sim battle
whether to surrender to you whether its submission to your
will, whatever it may be. God, I pray that you would see
it and you would accept it and Lord.
Now, you would pour out your You're cleansing.
Lord that they would continue to follow through, continue the
conversation of cleansing and healing and repentance and
confession with you. And God, we're going to look for
great things. You can do across your church
through this. So father, pour out your grace
on everyone. Thank you that you don't convict
Us in order to push us away, you can victis to pull his clothes
so that we can lean in and we can accept that love of Jesus
poured out. So God today I'm going to give
you glory for what you're going to do here and Oakwood and all
those tuned in today, God we're going to give you the glory.
Here is our yes Father as a church.
I'll just say is as the pastor of this church that I get
privileged to be Lord. Our yes, is on the table.
Lord Riverbend churches. Yes.
Is on the table. What do you want God?
When you want it, where you want it, how you want, it load, it is
your church. Lord, we are stewards and we
were blessed to get to do what we do.
So God, with all my brothers and sisters standing across the
room. Now I say, Jesus.
Thank you. We go. 2023 bless this year with
your presence. God, have all of us in.
Jesus name. Thank you for listening to the
river. Bend Church podcast.
Learn more about who we are as a church and how to connect you
can head over to our website Riverbend Church dot life.