February 4th Sermon Worship
Isaiah 6:1-13
Luke 5:1-11

Worship is a very personal AND corporate event. We are here at church, together in a corporate worship. But Jesus defines corporate worship even clearer in Matthew 18 when he says “If two of you who are in my Father’s will agree about anything you ask for, it will be given to you by my Father in heaven. For where 2 or 3 come together in my name, I am there with them.” That can be Sunday School or a bible study or some friends getting together for Christian talk.

Worship is also personal because when you are in worship, “you” are working to communicate with the triune God. Your main desire is to see God, or to see the nail marks in Jesus, or to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit upon you. In this personal worship, it can be in this sanctuary or it can be anywhere you are.

I personally worship God many times when I am out in creation. There is a State Park called Lost Maples just south of San Antonio. Those of you from the Northern part of the country who moan about not having 4 true seasons in Texas because of foliage change and everything else, need to experience this State Park.


October is the best time of year to go (unfortunately the other 200,000 visitors every year know this also). The maple trees and the Texas Red Oaks will change color in fall so you won’t just have green to dead brown, but as you look out across the valley and on the sides of the trails, you will see beautiful golden leaves and they turn a deep crimson red.

I look as I’m walking and see rare species of birds like the Green Kingfisher and the Golden Cheeked Warbler. Wild animals will include the white tailed deer, gray fox, and armadillo. As I look on this beautiful sea of landscape of trees and animals, I can’t help but wonder, and be amazed at the grandeur of God and what he has created before me.

If he would take the time to put some bright yellow spots on the Warbler bird, what else has his majesty created??

Everyone close your eyes for a minute. No peeking. I want you to picture this scene from our scripture reading in Isaiah. I think of how big the Lincoln Memorial is when trying to picture a chair fit for the King of Kings. Think of yourself in a huge throne room with the King. Jesus is on his throne. His robe is spread out all around him.

Just being in his presence is a humbling experience when you realize just how small you are. There is no expression on his face at this time.
As you break eye contact with the King Jesus, you see strange creatures flying around. They are like lions, but with 6 wings. You don’t know what to make of them, but then they start calling out to each other in ear splitting singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty. And the whole earth is full of his glory.”

You know the sound should hurt your ears, but in reality it’s the most beautiful melody you have every heard. Deep in your heart you want to hear it again; you want to sing out with them. “holy, holy, holy.”

You stand before the Lord of Lords. But you realize…I can’t be here. I’m not worthy to come before God. I’m a mere man. He could bring up what I did last year at work. He could bring up how I yelled at the kids last week.

Seeing God is instant death. Isaiah said he could never look upon God. The glory and brilliance of his presence is too much for human eyes.

Then one of those angels or creatures flies down to you with a red hot coal burning, holding it with tongs. He touches your lips. You can feel the burning, but it’s not a burning sensation. It’s a sweet, cleansing feeling like a hot shower on a cold morning.

The creature tells you “this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for.” Oh what a wonderful feeling. You’re free from the clutches of sin and you can go before God now.

And then His voice cries out. “Whom shall I send?” Without thinking, instantly you say “send me, send me. Here I am Lord.” In the back of your mind you hear a voice say “Are you crazy? Why would you do that? Even if you say you speak for God, they will tear you up. They will say they know better than you, because they have been doing this longer. You won’t make it.” But you say (as Jesus said) “get behind me Satan.”

You can open your eyes now. This is a wonderful story of how worship was intended to be. Holy, Holy, Holy the voices cry out. The majesty of God is seen in front of us. His presence is enough to bring us to our knees.

When you read the stories of Jesus, desperate people are always coming to him. Each time they run to him and fall on their knees before him. Out of respect, out of desperation, out of brokenness. Coming before God is intended to show us just how broken we are in comparison.

Yet even in our brokenness, we are whole. Jeremy Riddle has a wonderful song called Sweetly Broken. It goes like this:
At the cross You beckon meYou draw me gently to my knees, and I amLost for words, so lost in love,I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrenderedWhat a priceless gift, undeserved lifeHave I been givenThrough Christ crucifiedYou’ve called me out of deathYou’ve called me into lifeAnd I was under Your wrathNow through the cross I’m reconciled

Lost for Words, so lost in love, I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered. We could create a new Master Card commercial.
* Yelling at your wife – a night on the couch.
* Leaving a cheesy tip at the restaurant, but leaving an invite to church – the waitress dropping your food next time before serving you.
* Cutting off the guy in traffic – realize after work he is the policeman stopping you.
*being broken by the love of God and surrendering before him down on my knees – Priceless. There’s ONE thing money can’t buy. You have to go the Master for it.


We are before God and those angels are crying out “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty and the earth is full of his glory.” The whole room shakes. I’m sure you’ve been in church or at a concert where the whole room shakes when the singing begins. Music to God when it comes from the heart is sweet to Him.

But then standing before the one God, makes us realize we are not worthy. To look upon the face of God is bad. In Exodus 33, God says “You can’t see my face. No one can see my face and live.”

How about God, G – O – D, or better yet G_D. You see the name of God is spelled out that way in many places. Instead of typing out G O D, some Jews type G_D out of respect. To take it one step further, some Jews will write (or type) G_D because the name of God is so sacred, for them to spell it all out would make the document as holy as the bible itself and the pages with God’s name written on them could not be destroyed or trashed.

Before we go on, let’s review worship so far. 1. We come before God. 2. With heartfelt praise we sing his unending hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord”. 3. We realize our sinfulness and turn away from God and his glory because we are not perfect.

Then an angel flew down and put a burning coal to Isaiah’s lips and took away his sin. In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost the disciples were all together in one place. A violent wind from heaven fill the whole house and they saw what seemed to be tongues of FIRE separate over each of them, and then come to rest on them.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. The fire, the Holy Spirit came upon them and filled them with the holiness they had been waiting for. That is the same fire Isaiah was cleansed with. The Holy Spirit dwelled within him and his sins were taken away.

We come before God, not because we are perfect, but we want to see his perfection. We want to taste his glory. We want to be part of him and for him to be part of us.

So…. 1. we come before God. 2. We praise him. 3. We realize our sinfulness. And 4. we accept and are filled with his Holy Spirit to be cleansed.

Then the Lord calls out “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” He expects all of us to jump up and down “Oh, Oh, Oh. Pick me. Pick me. I’ll go.” He didn’t say, “whom shall I bring in.” He said “whom shall I send”. He is calling you and me to go out into the stormy world beyond those doors and not preach fire and brimstone, but show love and compassion. God is love. That’s what he wants us to share.
The great Methodist theologian Leonard Sweet calls the current atmosphere in the world, the Perfect Storm. He says that in your life you are either going into a storm, coming out of storm, or are in the middle of a storm.

What do we do? That is the sending part and where we come to our Luke passage. Jesus got into the boat with Simon Peter and taught the people who were on the shore. Then he turned to Simon and said “Let your nets down into the deep water”. So many fish were caught that time, the nets started to break.

Leonard Sweet tells us that for this Perfect Storm we must lift anchor and launch into the deep. If we hug the harbor, our boat will be torn to bits. We must steer into the storm in society because we cannot escape it. We must lash ourselves to the Word who is Jesus. He is our Master and leader.

In the movie the fishermen go into the deep where the best catch is. In Isaiah, God sends us out to deliver the message. Just like Simon letting down his nets into the deep, the only reason we go into the storm is for the great catch. That is where we go today. So I tell you. Do not fear. Enjoy the ride. Because Jesus is in the boat with you in the storm.

Communion
Page 12
Isaiah 6: 1-8 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.
5And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”
Luke 5: 1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
5Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” 6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

9For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” 11When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.