Preached in Markham Baptist Church, April 24, 2005

HERE AM I - SEND ME!
PART 4: "CALLED TO TROUBLE"

This morning we are going to focus on giving our whole self to God. At the end of the sermon I am going to ask you to give to God your whole life, in service to Him. I’m going to ask you to release that area of your life that you have held back from Him. 

I invite you to turn to Isaiah 6:8-13. Verse 8 of this text is our theme verse for our mission month as we think of giving ourselves to God in mission to do His work, wherever He has called us. 

You will remember the prayer we were encouraged to pray last week - “Use me”. And we discussed that before we pray this, how important it is for us to have a vision of Jesus Christ, His power, person and presence and to have a vision of self, as a sinner cleansed by Jesus Christ. 

These two events are crucial for us as we look to the work God has given to us as a church. A vision of Christ, this enables us to do the work with confidence and persistence; a vision of self as forgiven sinners, so we can reach out to others with understanding, compassion and humility. 

And now we turn to verse 8 and Isaiah hears the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me.” 

So having seen the Lord, Isaiah prays the prayer, “Here am I, send me.” It really is a prayer of commitment or consecration. Consecration is a great word of the faith that speaks of dedicating oneself to God. It speaks of setting oneself aside for use by God. Consecration – it is dedicating everything I am to God. “Here am I. Send me.” 

It really is a prayer that every one of us needs to pray. This is what Scripture calls us to do. Romans 12:1 - “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God …”

Now sometimes before we pray this prayer of consecration/dedication, “Here am I send me” sometimes we ask the question, “What’s in it for me?” That’s not a bad question. Jesus Himself says that before anyone follows Him they must count the cost. He says in Luke 14:28, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it.” 

And at verse 31, “Suppose a king is about to go war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?”

Count the cost, Jesus says.  And the cost of following Jesus is everything you have and everything you are. So when Jesus calls the disciples to follow Him, they leave their nets – that is what it cost them - everything they have. 

Is there a return? O yes! Couldn’t we go on and on about the rewards of following Christ? Indeed Scripture does - peace with God, the peace of God, life everlasting, joy, contentment, adopted as a child of God, heirs of the kingdom. All of that is yours when you leave everything and follow Him. When you consecrate yourself to Him and say, “Here am I. Send me.”

But be careful. There is a danger here. For when we ask the question, “What’s in it for me?” sometimes that question reveals a desire to serve God for the rewards. And sometimes the rewards don’t come to us as quickly as we like, as often as we like or as abundantly as we like. And sometimes when God calls us to a task the rewards are not there at all.

What I want us to take in this morning is that when we are called by God, and all of us are, we called first to God and then the task.   We Christians are always called to God first and the task second. It’s never the other way around. 

You know the difference right? When you are dedicated to the task and the task is difficult and brings trouble, most often we are up and out.  But if we are dedicated to the Lord first then the task – well then, let the task bring trouble or blessing, it does not matter, because I’m not here for the blessing or the trouble - I am here for the Lord, because He is God. It doesn’t matter what He calls me to do, the results don’t matter, what matters is am I wholly devoted to God. He has called me to do this and this is what I will do. 

Most likely, whatever God calls us to do, will bring trouble.  Think of it, when Jeremiah responded to God’s call and said, “Here am I. Send me,” he ended up in prison, at the bottom of a well, and he was forcefully taken to Egypt.

When Ezekiel said, “Here am I. Send me,” he had to lie on his side for 390 days eating only one eight-ounce meal a day which was cooked over manure. He had to shave his head and beard, and he wasn’t allowed to grieve over his deceased wife. 

When Daniel said, “Here am I. Send me,” he was deported to a foreign land, thrown into a fiery furnace, and tossed into the lions den. 

Hosea had to marry a prostitute, act as father to her children even though he wasn’t the father. When she ran off with another man, he had to go get her back and then forgive her. 

Joel and Amos both had to describe the destruction of the people of God. 

And in our text, look what Isaiah has to do, starting at verse 9: “He said, "Go and tell this people: 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding;  be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'  Make the heart of this people calloused;  make their ears dull  and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."  Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?"  And he answered:  "Until the cities lie ruined  and without inhabitant,  until the houses are left deserted  and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.  And though a tenth remains in the land,  it will again be laid waste.  But as the terebinth and oak  leave stumps when they are cut down,  so the holy seed will be the stump in the land." 

So this is a difficult task Isaiah is called to do. Understand the text. It is not because of Isaiah that the people will not understand or perceive the message, nor is it God’s fault. No, it is the that the people will not understand, or perceive the message, they will continually refuse the Word of God. 

And when the message of God is proclaimed to them instead of bringing them closer to God it will take them further away. So when Isaiah stands to preach the message won’t bring them closer to God but further away. Because of their stubbornness against God, their heart will not become soft and acceptable of the message but their heart will be calloused. And what God says here is that the more the people hear the message, the more calloused they will become. 

Have you seen this happen to someone in your life? You have shared the good news with them and they reject it. You share it again and they reject it again. The next time you share it they become hostile and say, “I don’t want you to say another word about this God of yours.” You try to share again, and they slam the door on your face, slam the phone down, and shut you out of their lives. And their decision to shut God out becomes the very judgment that befalls them. 

If only they would realize, the last part of verse 10 says, that they would see with their eyes, and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn to God, He would heal them. 

And Isaiah has to preach this message of God continually, until the sin of the people leads to their destruction. There is a word of hope in verse 12 and 13 - there will be a remnant that will be faithful to God, they are compared to a stump that is left behind – I have a stump left behind from a Norway maple I cut down three years ago at the cottage. What’s happened? The stump has shot up new shoots - there is still life there. And this is the image of verse 13. 

Even though there will be a remnant left, this is not an easy task to which Isaiah is called.  And some of you, God has called you to do a hard task – in your home, in your office, in your school, in the church.  And most likely the task will bring trouble, that happens when you are faithful to Jesus Christ, he said so himself. (John 16:33) but that doesn’t matter, because we are not called to the task but to God. 

We serve Him not because we get something but because He is worthy. Juan Carlos Ortiz tells of visiting a pastor’s home in New Zealand. And the son of the pastor asked him, “Pastor Ortiz, you know I’m studying at the seminary and I was wondering what do you think about predestination?”

He asked the right person, because Juan Carlos is reformed in his theology.  And Juan Carlos said, “Why do you ask the question?”

“Well” he said, “We have been studying the question for two months, some are for it and some are against it. I don’t’ know what to believe. What do you think?” 

And Juan Carlos said, “I don’t care.”

“What do you mean you don’t care?” 

“I don’t care if I’m predestined or not.”

“You don’t care if you are predestined to go to heaven or hell?”

“No. I don’t care. Why do you care?”

“Well” said the young seminary student, “If I knew that I was predestined to go to hell I wouldn’t waste my time going to church.” 

And Juan Carlos said, “You see, there’s the trouble. We serve God because He is God. And I will tell you more, if I was allowed to go to the third heaven like Paul and look in to the files of heaven and read, “Juan Carlos Ortiz, predestined to go to hell,” I would be a little sad. But I would come back to earth and keep on doing what I am doing, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. I preach,” said Juan Carlos, because He deserves it and I am devoted to Him.”

That’s what we are called to – to be consecrated to God, not the task, not the rewards, not the blessings, but to God. 

What does Consecration look like, practically speaking? What does it look like to consecrate myself to God? 

Rev. Paul Smith, one time pastor of The People’s Church depicts consecration this way.¹ He suggests that you think of your life as a house, and as owner of the house you have a ring of keys. When you heard about the saving power of Jesus Christ you took the key to the front door of your house and you gave it to God. You said, “Here is my life, I accept Christ as my Saviour and receive his life.”  This is what Isaiah does, as we saw last week. 

But now there is a call to further consecration to God and it comes to each one of us. And very methodically we have to take off the other keys that we possess and give them one by one to God. 

For those of you in business, consecration is taking the keys to your office and taking it off your key ring and giving it to God. It is saying Lord here is my work I give it to you. I would consecrate the work that I do, the office in which I work as a place where I will work for you. Let my office be a place where fellow employees can know they will meet a person of integrity, honesty and grace. Let them find in me a person who seeks to live for you, speaks for you in a way that honours you. 

What else do you have on your key ring? Here is the key to my John Deere tractor. It represents my leisure hours, God. Traditionally I have said they are mine, but today I consecrate those hours to you. May what I do, may what I think, honour you. 

If you parent, consecration means you enter the door of your child’s room, and you stand by the bed with eyes lifted to heaven and you say, “Father in heaven, here is the key to my child’s room. You gave me this child. I recognize that this small one is a precious gift from you and I will seek to feed, love, cloth and guide – whatever it is in my power to do for this child. But Lord here is the key to my child’s room and this young life is yours and if some day you want to take my child out of my arms and put them in a pulpit preaching your Word, or if you want to take this one to a jungle serving you as a missionary on the other side of the world where I will never see them again, that’s alright. This child is yours – here is the key to my child’s room.”

If you are student, consecration is giving to God the key to your education. Don’t go through school thinking that the decision is yours to make. If you’ve never taken the key of education off your key ring and given it to God do it today and say, “Lord this belongs to you. Prepare me for the task you have for me.” 

For all of us we need to take the key to our bank account and give it to God. 

This is consecration. It is taking the things that are nearest and dearest to you in your life and saying, “Lord, all that I have does not belong to me, it belongs to you.” 

Is there something that you are holding back from God? Is there something that you haven’t given to Him? God is asking the question – Who will go for me? Are you holding something back so that you are unable to say, “Here am I send me?

This morning each one of you has been given a key attached to a piece of paper. We are going to do a spiritual exercise today. What you need to do is carefully take the key off the paper. Place the key to one side. And on the piece of paper write what area of your life you need to consecrate to God today. No one will see the piece of paper, no one will collect them, it is between you and God. 

Now we are going to collect the keys, you keep the paper and as you place your key in the basket, say a little prayer – “Lord, I give to you _________ I’ve held it back from you for too long, but today I give it to you because you are God, you deserve it, you are worthy to receive it.”

The placing of the key symbolizes your consecration. The piece of paper is to remind you of your commitment. 

This morning, God looks to each one of us, and says, “Whom will I send? Who will go for me?” 

He is asking us to consecrate ourselves to Him fully and completely to Him. May we do so with the realization that He is worthy.

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - April 2005

ENDNOTES:

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