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Arise in Holiness
Have you ever wondered if Chirch is only for those who have it all together? Have you avoided talking about God's holiness because you feel unsure if you can live up to it or worry about what God might expect from you?
Pastor Jonathan leans in, reminding us that it can be humbling and even a bit scary to see how far we are from God’s expectations. But he doesn't stop at the discomfort.
From Isaiah to Peter to Moses, he gives a hopeful message: God doesn’t bring you near to hurt you, but to heal you. What feels like being cut down could actually be God clearing space for something new and whole to grow. Even our seasons of pride or running away from God or running on borrowed faith aren't the end. The are invitations to see God, surrender, and be transformed.
Scriptures Referenced
Exodus 3:1-6; 2 Chronicles 26:1-23; Isaiah 6:1-13; Ezekiel 1:26-28; Luke 5:7-8; Galatians 5:19-26; Philippians 3:8; 1 Peter 1:14-15
Key Insights
- God's holiness is present in His mercy and grace.
- When we see God's holiness, we are undone, but there is life in surrender and transformation.
- Approaching faith casually can lead to spiritual drift or pride.
- The path to renewal begins with humility and letting God “cut away” what doesn’t belong.
Key Sections
00:00:00 - The Vision of Holiness
Isaiah’s experience shows how foreign and overpowering God’s holiness is. It makes people feel small, but it also drives us to want to understand more and to change for the better.
00:04:29 - Wrestling with Holiness
It seems like we seldom talk about holiness. There's a shared discomfort and inability to articulate something so awe-inspiring as God's holiness. Yet knowing His holiness is vital to knowing Him.
00:08:21 - Responding with Humility
When we compare ourselves to others, we can feel pretty good about ourselves. But when we see the true standard of God's holiness, we are led away from pride and into deep humility.
00:14:27 - God Closes the Gap
Even though we want to avoid what reveals our flaws, God shows us a path to closeness through sacrifice. This proves that He wants to restore us, not judge us, and that His holiness highlights His love and mercy.
00:17:14 - Lessons from Uzziah
Uzziah's life is both a warning and an encouragement. Trusting in someone else's faith or being too proud can lead to failure. However, knowing God personally and staying humble helps us stay close to Him and fulfill His purpose.
00:24:57 - The Gift and Danger of Repeated Exposure
Coming close to sacred things without respect creates spiritual callousness. Real healing happens when we surrender and let God show us and take away our pain instead of hiding it or arguing with Him.
00:28:46 - Surrendering for Restoration
Humility and surrender—not performing or pretending—are the only ways to step forward into God’s healing and restoration, moving us from brokenness to belonging.
00:33:29 - Letting God Heal What Hurts
We should let God heal our deep wounds. It ends by encouraging us that getting rid of unhealthy things helps us get ready for new life. It concludes with hope and invites us to respond through worship.
https://springhouse.captivate.fm/episode/arise-in-holiness
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Contact Info
Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcript
In the year King Uzziah died,
Speaker:I saw the Lord
Speaker:high and exalted.
Speaker:The train of his robe filled the temple,
Speaker:and above him were the seraphim, each with six wings. And
Speaker:with two wings they covered their faces, and with
Speaker:two wings they covered their feet. And with two they were flying,
Speaker:and they were calling out to one another,
Speaker:holy, holy, holy is the Lord God
Speaker:Almighty. The whole earth is filled
Speaker:with his glory.
Speaker:And at the sound of their voices,
Speaker:the doorpost and the threshold
Speaker:shook and the temple
Speaker:was filled with smoke.
Speaker:Woe is me, I cried.
Speaker:I'm ruined. I am a
Speaker:man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean
Speaker:lips. And I have seen the
Speaker:king, the Lord Almighty. And
Speaker:the seraphim flew to me with a live
Speaker:coal in his hand that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And with
Speaker:it he touched my mouth and he said, see, this hot
Speaker:coal touches your lips, and with it your guilt
Speaker:is taken away, your sin
Speaker:atoned for. And I
Speaker:heard the voice of the Lord say,
Speaker:whom shall I send? Who will go for us?
Speaker:And I said, here am I, send me.
Speaker:And the Lord said, go tell this people,
Speaker:be ever hearing, but never understanding.
Speaker:Be ever seeing, but never perceiving.
Speaker:Make the heart of this people calloused,
Speaker:their ears dull, and close their eyes, otherwise
Speaker:they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears
Speaker:and understand with their hearts and turn and be
Speaker:healed. And I said,
Speaker:for how long, Lord?
Speaker:And he answered, until the
Speaker:cities lie ruined, until and without inhabitant,
Speaker:Until the homes are deserted and the fields are
Speaker:ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has separated everyone
Speaker:far away and the land is
Speaker:utterly forsaken. And although a
Speaker:tenth will remain, the land will again be laid waste.
Speaker:But as the terebinth and oak leaves a
Speaker:stump when it's cut away,
Speaker:so the holy seed
Speaker:will be the stump in the land.
Speaker:Father, I thank you for your word.
Speaker:Your word reveals the clearest picture of who
Speaker:you are. I
Speaker:thank you that you preserve this vision through the generations
Speaker:to meet us today, Lord, so that we might
Speaker:not just see, but understand. Not just hear, but perceive. Would you
Speaker:help our hearts see the
Speaker:full picture of who you are
Speaker:and be moved by you?
Speaker:In Jesus name, Amen.
Speaker:This message is somewhat of a reprise on
Speaker:a teaching I gave a month ago in a midweek gathering. I don't know if
Speaker:it's a reprise or a part two.
Speaker:And I was called several weeks ago and asked if I would give a message
Speaker:on holiness again, to which I was kind of feeling, please
Speaker:no, don't send me in there coach,
Speaker:not into the pulpit, but into holiness. Like
Speaker:that. The Old
Speaker:Testament tells us that the high priest would enter the holy of holies
Speaker:one time per year to make atonement for sin. You know what
Speaker:that tells me? God's people should not enter
Speaker:into holiness casually,
Speaker:without fear and trembling. And I was
Speaker:reading a book by R.C. sproul, who said the irony of when he would bring
Speaker:a teaching to his congregation on holiness is that they
Speaker:would assume that somehow by his knowledge, that that mirrored a life
Speaker:of holiness. When he said, in truth, behind the scenes, what he was learning is
Speaker:no, the more I know about God's holiness, the more I understand
Speaker:just how far away from it I am.
Speaker:And during my midweek teaching, I posed the following question
Speaker:to the congregation. If holy
Speaker:is the characteristic of God, the only characteristic of God in
Speaker:Scripture that's sung or lifted to the third degree,
Speaker:he is holy, holy, holy. If his
Speaker:holiness is declared nearly a hundred times in Scripture, and if Scripture
Speaker:tells us another several hundred times, then that when
Speaker:his holiness touches or inhabits something, that thing becomes
Speaker:holy as well, then is it reasonable to say that
Speaker:Scripture calls His people to think on his
Speaker:holiness often? And if that's true,
Speaker:why do we hardly ever hear about it or
Speaker:talk about it or teach about it?
Speaker:And I offer two observations in this midweek gathering.
Speaker:Firstly, holiness guys is really difficult
Speaker:to explain and articulate. If I were
Speaker:to tell you the primary definition of his holiness is his set
Speaker:apart sacred otherness, his transcendence, you
Speaker:should rightly come to me and go, can you elaborate on that a little
Speaker:bit? That's kind of those words in itself.
Speaker:And I would have to go, I'm so sorry. That's all I got for you.
Speaker:Here's the thing. He is the Creator.
Speaker:He is not created. He is the existing
Speaker:one. He did not come into existence. And the only thing
Speaker:each one of us has at our disposal to try to explain
Speaker:his set apart sacred otherness, his transcendent
Speaker:existence, are things that only exist because of Him.
Speaker:And in that way, we're kind of always going to come up short.
Speaker:A teacher kind of has an uphill battle there. But
Speaker:my encouragement is that biblically, I think we're in good company.
Speaker:Listen to this vision of the Lord's glory and holiness from Ezekiel,
Speaker:chapter one. And above the expanse over
Speaker:their heads, there was the likeness of a throne in appearance
Speaker:like sapphire. And seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness
Speaker:with a human appearance. And upward from what had the appearance of his
Speaker:waist, I saw as it were gleaming metal like the appearance of
Speaker:fire enclosed all around and downward from what had the
Speaker:appearance of his waist. I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire.
Speaker:And there was brightness around him, like the appearance of the bow that is in
Speaker:the cloud on the day of rain. So was the appearance of the
Speaker:brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of
Speaker:the glory of the Lord. Get it?
Speaker:That's like the clearest, most unclear picture,
Speaker:right? But listen to this. And when I
Speaker:saw it, I fell on my face
Speaker:and I heard the voice of the one speaking. Those
Speaker:verses suggest to me that for a believer, the most
Speaker:important part of knowing God's holiness is not so we can
Speaker:describe it well to other people,
Speaker:but so we can be moved by it
Speaker:when we see it, when we perceive it.
Speaker:The way Isaiah was moved and transformed by this vision of holiness,
Speaker:it messes me up quite often. Woe to
Speaker:me, I cried. I am ruined.
Speaker:I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean
Speaker:lips. And my eyes have seen the king.
Speaker:So a prophet in the Old Testament oftentimes
Speaker:was probably somebody, when compared to the standard of holiness around
Speaker:him, probably seemed like an upstanding, righteous
Speaker:guy. And a prophet was called oftentimes
Speaker:in the Old Testament to pronounce woes on God's people.
Speaker:You know, Jesus even does this in the New Testament. Woe to you scribes
Speaker:and Pharisees, right? But the thing is,
Speaker:is when Isaiah comes face to face with a holy God, the
Speaker:true standard of holiness, the first thing he does as the
Speaker:prophet, before acknowledging anyone else's sin,
Speaker:pronounces judgment on.
Speaker:Woe is me. I am ruined.
Speaker:We never want to make the mistake of looking at someone else's sin
Speaker:and thinking compared to that person, I'm doing all right.
Speaker:If we're doing that, we're looking at the wrong standard.
Speaker:He's the standard
Speaker:we want to be looking toward God's holy standard so we understand
Speaker:just how clearly we need Him. That
Speaker:word ruin means to be cut down and shredded,
Speaker:undone, shredded. Not like Pastor Justin, in a different
Speaker:way.
Speaker:So my second observation is that we don't bring it back.
Speaker:Okay? My second observation is that we don't
Speaker:speak or think or teach about God's holiness often
Speaker:because we don't. It doesn't feel good to
Speaker:be in the presence of that which leaves us undone
Speaker:and shredded apart. We love to think
Speaker:on the qualities of God that feel good, the warm and
Speaker:fuzzies. But I'm not saying that
Speaker:despairingly. I love his mercy. I love his
Speaker:goodness. This is not a diminishment. This is
Speaker:get the full picture. We love to think of the qualities of God
Speaker:that make us feel good. But we're content oftentimes with keeping his
Speaker:holiness at a good, safe distance.
Speaker:And one of the things that I've been trying to keep in mind lately is
Speaker:in these New Testament stories where we go to to build
Speaker:our sermons on his goodness and his mercy. Maybe the woman caught in
Speaker:adultery or something like that. No doubt his goodness and mercy is
Speaker:all over that story. His holiness is in that story too.
Speaker:He does not set his holiness aside in those
Speaker:moments. I would suggest it's his holiness that makes his love
Speaker:in that moment so otherly his
Speaker:mercy so otherly that it causes the Pharisees to drop those
Speaker:stones. The doorpost in the threshold had the common
Speaker:sense to shake in his presence.
Speaker:So for me, it's not a question of whether his holiness is there.
Speaker:It's just a matter of if we're perceiving it to be there or not.
Speaker:Here's an example of what I believe is his holiness being present
Speaker:in a context I don't. I didn't expect. Luke 5, 7,
Speaker:8. This is Jesus after he instructs the some of the disciples to
Speaker:cast the net on the other side. After they've been unsuccessful,
Speaker:they catch a bunch of fish. They signaled to their partners in the other boat
Speaker:come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats so that they
Speaker:began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw
Speaker:it, he fell down at Jesus knees, saying,
Speaker:depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O
Speaker:Lord. That word saw is connected to the same word
Speaker:Isaiah says when he says, my eyes have seen the King
Speaker:beholding and perceiving something different here. This is
Speaker:a incredible testimony of God's
Speaker:favor and goodness.
Speaker:But while everybody else is celebrating this, Peter's response is much different.
Speaker:Here's my suggestion about this. Peter is a lifelong
Speaker:professional fisherman. He's done a lot of fishing. He
Speaker:knows when the fish are biting and when they're not. He knows when they're going
Speaker:to and when they're not. He's caught a lot of fish or
Speaker:very little fish. He's never seen anything like this before,
Speaker:but it's kind of familiar. He's not just hearing,
Speaker:he's understanding. He's not just seeing. He's perceiving that this is
Speaker:a holy moment and the one standing in front of
Speaker:him is holy too. And Peter's first
Speaker:instinct with the knowledge of the holy is to be moved
Speaker:to humility.
Speaker:And his second instinct is to try to create
Speaker:as much distance as he can between him and
Speaker:the Holy One. Depart from me. So biblically, it
Speaker:kind of makes sense, guys, that our instinct is to shrink back
Speaker:and create distance from that which cuts us.
Speaker:But this is what God, Jesus does in
Speaker:Isaiah and Peter. He calls them closer,
Speaker:he calls them deeper. He makes a way.
Speaker:Why? Because as much as we try to
Speaker:create that distance, we serve a God, a holy God,
Speaker:who's desired to close that distance.
Speaker:That he sacrifice his one and only holy Son Jesus to make
Speaker:a way. And for that reason,
Speaker:knowing his holiness actually makes his
Speaker:gospel, the gospel, taste so much sweeter.
Speaker:Because if you understand just how much ground
Speaker:he had to cover to rescue us back,
Speaker:help us, Jesus.
Speaker:Isaiah was brought into the holy of holies, most likely
Speaker:expecting death, but instead purified by a hot coal taken from
Speaker:the altar. A sacrifice, indicating that a
Speaker:sacrifice had been made that Isaiah didn't have to be a part of.
Speaker:And it was after this moment of purification that Isaiah
Speaker:hears the voice of the Lord, clearly hears the call, whom
Speaker:shall I send? And Isaiah responds in a very interesting
Speaker:way. Here am I not. Here I am.
Speaker:And I think, here I am is an
Speaker:offering of location. Here am I
Speaker:is an offering of self.
Speaker:I'm here, Lord. There is a call and a
Speaker:response to God's holiness. 1st Peter
Speaker:1:14, 15. But just as he who called you
Speaker:is holy, so be holy
Speaker:response in all that you do. As obedient children, do not
Speaker:conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.
Speaker:And you ask, we ask in ignorance of what? Not knowing. Any
Speaker:better? No, I don't think so. When we lived in
Speaker:ignorance of not knowing a holy God who has a
Speaker:holy Son that he gave for our forgiveness of sins.
Speaker:And we've been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Renewed hearts, renewed
Speaker:minds, renewed affections for him, so we can turn and be
Speaker:healed. He is holy, holy, holy.
Speaker:The question is, when we hear the call to
Speaker:holiness, are we responding? And one of the ways I believe
Speaker:we can respond in holiness, according to what I see in scripture, is
Speaker:with pride, which I don't recommend.
Speaker:Just make that clear. Don't recommend it.
Speaker:And I say pride because Isaiah 6 opens with these words in
Speaker:the year King Uzziah died. And I was like, who is
Speaker:this Uzziah guy? I gotta look this up. 2
Speaker:Chronicles 26 tells us that he
Speaker:receives the kingdom at 16 years old.
Speaker:And I was like, people don't even trust their 16 year old with the
Speaker:keys to their car, right? Imagine giving
Speaker:one the keys to the kingdom. And
Speaker:while that's hard to fathom, Scripture tells us he reigns faithfully
Speaker:for 52 years. And the reason it's
Speaker:faithful is because it says during that time he seeks the Lord. He
Speaker:does what is right in the eyes of the Lord, and he holds to an
Speaker:understanding of God that is taught to him by the prophet
Speaker:named Zechariah, whose Scripture says instructed him in the
Speaker:fear of God. And that word fear,
Speaker:again, actually is translated as vision.
Speaker:It's the same word that Isaiah uses when he says, my eyes have seen, my
Speaker:eyes have a clear vision. I am beholding and perceiving
Speaker:God clearly. When our eyes have a clear vision of who
Speaker:God is, we have a clear vision of who we are and who he's
Speaker:called us to be. But this is the thing I
Speaker:thought about Uzziah's life. He was taught this vision
Speaker:from somebody else. And how many know that
Speaker:we cannot be sustained by someone else's vision of God,
Speaker:someone else's experience of God?
Speaker:My parents, I love them. They tried their best. They
Speaker:really did. Bless their heart. They told me
Speaker:about God. I didn't listen. I had
Speaker:to see God for myself. And when I
Speaker:did, everything changed.
Speaker:It goes on to say, when King Uzziah sought God kept a correct vision of
Speaker:the Lord, that God's presence and power went before him.
Speaker:Everything he touched was successful. It was the favor of
Speaker:the Lord was all over him. He was able to defeat armies, rebuild cities, build
Speaker:strongholds. The land was fruitful. Everybody was happy,
Speaker:having a good time. But at some point, we're told that in the
Speaker:course of that, that place of favor becomes a place of
Speaker:pride in his heart and in his pride. He
Speaker:enters the temple, the holy place, casually,
Speaker:and decides, I'm going to make a sacrifice to the Lord,
Speaker:which is strictly forbidden for even a king
Speaker:to do it. This is for consecrated, set
Speaker:apart priests. He took
Speaker:holiness casually at this point. And
Speaker:it's an incredible scene, guys. Second Chronicles 26.
Speaker:It says he is surrounded by priests who are saying,
Speaker:please don't do this, please don't.
Speaker:But instead of repenting, he becomes
Speaker:angry. He digs his heels in. But, you know, I want to
Speaker:be fair to this. Just like I said in the New Testament, I think there's
Speaker:these stories where His Holiness is there. When his mercy is
Speaker:in these stories where His Holiness is there, his mercy is there, too.
Speaker:Because all the time, several times in Scripture, when people
Speaker:took His Holiness, his presence casually, they were just.
Speaker:I didn't even have to say it. Everybody said, right, that's right.
Speaker:That didn't happen to Uzziah. He was
Speaker:given leprosy. I
Speaker:think that's actually an act of mercy. When King
Speaker:Uzziah lost sight of who God was, he then lost sight of who he was.
Speaker:He no longer feared the holy, and it was his lack of being
Speaker:ruined by it which brought him to ruin and the end.
Speaker:And I promise you, somebody can check my
Speaker:Google search. I was like, is there anywhere in the Scripture that says he
Speaker:repented? I. I want to say something happy to these people.
Speaker:And I. There was nowhere. And I was like, well, that's
Speaker:unfortunate. But, you know, sometimes
Speaker:I think scripture leaves those things unsettled so that we
Speaker:can think about it a little
Speaker:deeper. Scripture says
Speaker:that he remained king in the kingdom. Isaiah
Speaker:6 still refers to him as king. 2nd Chronicles
Speaker:26 refers to him as king. They don't take away the title. And
Speaker:he's still surrounded by the spoils of the kingdom. But all the
Speaker:power of the kingdom transfers to his son.
Speaker:He has to live in a separate house from everybody, and he's not allowed to
Speaker:go into the temple of God anymore, which. That
Speaker:messes me up. That's a humbling reminder.
Speaker:What good are the titles and all the
Speaker:spoils of the kingdom and all the good stuff
Speaker:in Christianity if there is no presence?
Speaker:It's nothing. Paul says,
Speaker:indeed, I count everything as loss
Speaker:because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
Speaker:Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I
Speaker:have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that
Speaker:I may gain Christ. How else
Speaker:Uzziah's story speaks to me is this. Firstly, again, context.
Speaker:52 years of faithful ministry before this
Speaker:happens. Firstly, we never mature past our
Speaker:need for Jesus to be our Lord and Savior.
Speaker:The full picture, not just Savior, not just Lord.
Speaker:Lord and Savior. We never mature past the need for the
Speaker:Holy Spirit to be revealing in us these
Speaker:places that need deep, deep healing in our
Speaker:hearts. And pride.
Speaker:Pride is a scary thing to me in these
Speaker:scriptures because in this story, it kind of builds up over time,
Speaker:goes under the radar a little bit. It's hard to. It isn't
Speaker:obvious. And pride is anything in our lives. I think that we say,
Speaker:you know what, God, I know better than you in this.
Speaker:I know better than what your word says in this.
Speaker:Pride says, yeah, I know what your word says about sexual immorality
Speaker:and impurity and idolatry and discord and jealousy and drunkenness
Speaker:and selfish ambition and gossip and things like this.
Speaker:But God, this time's different.
Speaker:This relationship I'm in is different. You know, my Heart.
Speaker:Have we ever been in that conversation with the Lord? Nobody
Speaker:answered that. The
Speaker:problem there is, I think we don't know his heart.
Speaker:R.C. sproul says God does not lower his standards to
Speaker:accommodate us. He remains altogether
Speaker:holy, altogether righteous, altogether just.
Speaker:And here's the thing. That list I just read,
Speaker:read off Galatians 5.
Speaker:His word cuts. According to
Speaker:that, we're all getting cut. You understand?
Speaker:Ain't nobody making it without him.
Speaker:His word cuts when we come to it.
Speaker:But we are called to depend on the Holy Spirit
Speaker:to cut out the things in our lives that do not reflect his
Speaker:holiness. And I was just
Speaker:really. I was thinking about that. That verse in
Speaker:Isaiah 6 Make the heart of this people calloused. And I was like,
Speaker:how does that. How does callousing happen? I think it's when we
Speaker:keep coming back to what cuts us casually, and
Speaker:we're no longer moved by it, and we're no longer changed by it.
Speaker:I have, as a guitar player these really thick calluses
Speaker:on my fingers from years of playing. And what it
Speaker:means is I can play guitar for hours with no pain, no feeling. I
Speaker:can touch a hot pan on a hot stove,
Speaker:freakishly, you know, doesn't bother me.
Speaker:And the way that happens is I would pick up a guitar when I first
Speaker:started, and those tiny little metal strings, they literally will cut
Speaker:fingers. And if you play long enough, those things will turn into blisters.
Speaker:And if you're stubborn enough to come back
Speaker:over and over again and you don't
Speaker:dress the wounds that are being exposed,
Speaker:then those blisters become hard places. They become
Speaker:calluses.
Speaker:So Uzziah's life,
Speaker:I look at that and I go, man, that's in my heart.
Speaker:I don't want to make the mistake of thinking I'm better than that.
Speaker:It changes my prayer life. We pray God,
Speaker:please, please, Lord, reveal these places in our
Speaker:hearts that are callous and no longer moved by your
Speaker:holiness and bring us to brokenness so we might
Speaker:turn and be healed. Help us be transformed.
Speaker:One day, my wife was sitting on the couch, and our
Speaker:youngest son, or young son. Youngest son. Was that prophetic? Oh,
Speaker:no. Oh, no. I take that back.
Speaker:Whoo. Okay.
Speaker:Our young son was sitting on the floor, and I was
Speaker:standing next to my wife, and she was looking at my
Speaker:son, looking at me, looking at my son, looking at me. And I said, what
Speaker:are you looking at? What are you doing? And she said, I'm trying
Speaker:to figure out what traits he has of yours.
Speaker:And she says, he has your lips. And in that moment,
Speaker:Quickly, I lean in and I give her a kiss.
Speaker:And I say, no, you have my lips.
Speaker:And I stood up with this.
Speaker:I still got it right.
Speaker:Pride. And when I took a step back,
Speaker:I tripped over this giant Paw
Speaker:Patroller truck that my son had in the floor. Just, oh,
Speaker:forever changed by that moment. I
Speaker:don't got it. You know what I mean?
Speaker:That's revealed. And you know what? I guess I could pretend that didn't
Speaker:happen. But, you
Speaker:know, who knows? It happened. My
Speaker:wife.
Speaker:And that brings you to humility. My recommended
Speaker:response to God's holiness is humility.
Speaker:When Moses encountered God in the burning bush,
Speaker:something wonderful happened. I'm going to put the verses up on the screen so you
Speaker:can reference what I'm telling you.
Speaker:Moses is in the desert tending these sheep at the bottom of this mountain.
Speaker:I think he's aware that there is a burning bush. And
Speaker:also, I don't think it's unusual for there to be a burning bush in
Speaker:the desert. Why? Because it's hot
Speaker:and bushes are flammable. Okay.
Speaker:Sheep are also flammable, and people are, too.
Speaker:So I think Moses is going, well, let me do what I got to do
Speaker:and keep you guys safe, you know? And. And at some point, he
Speaker:starts to realize in his mind, man, you know,
Speaker:what's usually familiar to me is not
Speaker:acting like it usually does. And this
Speaker:is what I love. He's writing this down. Moses says. And he puts this in
Speaker:quotes, which means he says it out loud, which
Speaker:means one of two things, because he doesn't know God is there. He's either
Speaker:talking to himself or he's talking to the sheep.
Speaker:And I like to think that he's talking to the sheep. He's just going,
Speaker:hey, this is crazy. I'm talking to
Speaker:sheep. I'm going to turn,
Speaker:and when I do, I'm going to see something wild.
Speaker:And I'm going to have to deal with it. I don't even know why I'm
Speaker:telling you this. I think the heat has got to me. I might
Speaker:be dead. And if that's the case, you know, good luck finding your way home.
Speaker:This is the message translation.
Speaker:And when he turns. Listen to this.
Speaker:When the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see.
Speaker:And that word see is vision, perceive.
Speaker:Behold, same as Isaiah, when
Speaker:he perceived God called to him out of the bush. Moses,
Speaker:Moses. And he said, here I am. Then he said, do not come near.
Speaker:Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is
Speaker:holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your Father.
Speaker:The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses
Speaker:hid his face. And it brings me to that throne room
Speaker:image of those seraphim hiding their face. For he
Speaker:was afraid to look at God. So
Speaker:Moses right there becomes aware of the holiness that is
Speaker:before him, and he's moved to humility.
Speaker:And that is a story where God's presence inhabits something.
Speaker:And that thing doesn't burn the way it used to.
Speaker:I don't walk like I used to. I don't
Speaker:talk like I used to.
Speaker:And I began to think. Worship team, you can come out, please.
Speaker:I began to think, what does humility
Speaker:require of us?
Speaker:And the word that came to me was surrender.
Speaker:Surrendering to the holy.
Speaker:Surrendering to that which breaks us and shreds us
Speaker:apart and cuts away when we want to shrink
Speaker:back from it. There
Speaker:is hope in surrendering to the holy.
Speaker:There is healing and restoration in surrendering to
Speaker:what is holy, to a holy God.
Speaker:A few weeks ago, I was outside building a playset for our kids, and
Speaker:my daughter got a splinter
Speaker:in her finger and my wife had to take her inside. And
Speaker:when she took her inside, I just heard the worst screaming coming out of our
Speaker:house for the next 20 minutes. It's because the fear of
Speaker:what my daughter was going through, just like, oh, this is going to
Speaker:hurt. And you know the thing about a child? They will try to
Speaker:convince you, negotiate with you to leave
Speaker:that splinter in. They'll say, no, no, no, no,
Speaker:no, no, no, no. I can play
Speaker:just fine. It's not even a thing. It's no big
Speaker:deal. But, you know, as your mother and father,
Speaker:we know that if you don't handle that thing there
Speaker:that's being exposed, it could
Speaker:turn into something worse that's much harder to deal
Speaker:with over time. It could turn into a greater
Speaker:infection. It could cause longer lasting pain, and we don't
Speaker:want to see her go through that. But you kind of have to come to
Speaker:a place in all this fighting, this
Speaker:resisting, where you just go, look, do you want to be
Speaker:healed or not?
Speaker:And I was driving the other day and I thought, do you want to be
Speaker:healed? And I just thought, man, I bet that's really hard
Speaker:for Jesus to say, knowing
Speaker:that one touch of his holiness could make that go away for
Speaker:them. Many of us
Speaker:who experienced this before with children understand
Speaker:the process is much easier when the child
Speaker:stops resisting and starts surrendering.
Speaker:And I'm drawn back into this throne room vision where that hot coal
Speaker:touches Isaiah's lips. And I go, man, that's
Speaker:A searing pain that
Speaker:probably took quite a while to heal. There's a process
Speaker:to surrendering to the Holy Spirit. And Isaiah says,
Speaker:for how long?
Speaker:For how long, Lord, Do I have to be in
Speaker:this? Do I have to be a part of this process of cutting?
Speaker:And the Lord responds with this list.
Speaker:The cities, the homes, the fields, the land, it's all
Speaker:going to be cut away. All of the things that were built up
Speaker:under Uzziah that the people put their trust in, that was not the Lord
Speaker:had to be cut away. Why?
Speaker:Because we serve a holy God who is not
Speaker:interested in preserving our idols.
Speaker:He's interested in restoring our worship,
Speaker:healing our hearts, and drawing us
Speaker:closer to Himself. He's closed the distance,
Speaker:and that's what he's about.
Speaker:There is good news in his holiness.
Speaker:The end of that passage in Isaiah, it is a
Speaker:promise that after everything
Speaker:is cut away, which
Speaker:hurts, no doubt, after
Speaker:everything is cut away, there is one thing that remains.
Speaker:The holy seed. Jesus.
Speaker:Is that not good news?
Speaker:This morning, instead of closing with the time of prayer in the altar space, I'm
Speaker:just going to have Michael and Brittney lead us in a song. And I
Speaker:just want us to take some time to think on God's
Speaker:holiness. If there are places in our
Speaker:heart that we need him to reveal to us, which I think we all have
Speaker:it, now is the time to
Speaker:surrender that to him, lean into that
Speaker:brokenness instead of shrinking back from it. This
Speaker:morning, you can do this in your seat, or the altar space is open. If
Speaker:you want to come and be moved by his holiness, let's
Speaker:worship.
