Sermon Notes
Thinking Back Looking Ahead | God’s Love Never Fails
Main Scripture: Prophets / Divided Kingdom

Introduction

• Do you ever wish you knew what was ahead?

• Have you ever wanted to be used by God in a significant way but didn’t know how to start?

• There’s a deep human desire for knowledge, control, and certainty — but God calls us to trust Him even when we don’t have all the answers.

• Today’s message looks at the prophets of the divided kingdom and how their messages reveal God’s love and faithfulness despite human failure.

1. The Desire to Know the Future

• We often think:

  • “If I just knew what was ahead, I could prepare better.”

  • But God calls us to walk by faith — not by sight.

  • True peace doesn’t come from knowing the future; it comes from trusting God’s plan.

“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.”
— Mark 8:35 (NLT)

2. The Prophets of the Divided Kingdom

• After Solomon, the kingdom of Israel split:

  • Northern Kingdom → Jonah, Amos, Joel, and Hosea

  • Southern Kingdom → Micah and Isaiah

• The prophets were sent to call the people back to God during a time of spiritual and moral decline.

Key Insight:

• People wanted answers, control, and power — but God called them to repentance and faith.

• False prophets emerged, telling people what they wanted to hear rather than what they needed to hear.

• The real prophets were often rejected, persecuted, and even killed for speaking the truth.

3. Jonah – God’s Love for All People

• Jonah resisted God’s call to preach to Nineveh because he didn’t want them to receive God’s mercy.

• Jonah’s story teaches us that:

  • God loves all people — even those far from Him.

  • God’s forgiveness is available to anyone who turns to Him.

  • We can’t limit God’s love based on human bias.

“Why shouldn’t I love them the way I love you?” — God’s message to Jonah

4. Amos – God’s Warnings Before Judgment

• Amos preached that judgment was coming — but God gave repeated warnings first.

• The people were quick to point out others’ sins but refused to confront their own.

• The message: Stop pointing at others — look inward and repent.

• God’s desire was not punishment but repentance and restoration.

5. Hosea – God’s Steadfast Love and Forgiveness

• Hosea’s marriage to an unfaithful wife symbolized Israel’s unfaithfulness to God.

• Despite repeated betrayal, Hosea took her back — just like God takes us back.

• God’s faithfulness remains even when we fail.

• Hosea reminds us that:

  • God’s love is steadfast.

  • God’s forgiveness is available even after repeated failure.

  • God always provides a way back.

“I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.”
— Hosea 6:6 (NLT)

6. Joel – The Day of the Lord is Coming

• Joel preached during a national disaster — famine and locusts.

• He reminded the people that greater judgment would come unless they repented.

• God’s mercy is always available, but time is limited.

“The day of the Lord is near, the day when destruction comes from the Almighty. How terrible that day will be!”
— Joel 1:15 (NLT)

“Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts.”
— Joel 2:12 (NLT)

• God doesn’t want outward sacrifice — He wants our hearts.

7. Micah – What Does God Require?

• Micah’s message was simple yet profound:

  • Act justly

  • Love mercy

  • Walk humbly with God

“No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
— Micah 6:8 (NLT)

• God’s love and guidance are available — we just need to surrender and follow Him.

8. Isaiah – Responding to God’s Call

• Isaiah’s calling was dramatic:

  • He saw God’s glory in a vision.

  • He was cleansed by a coal from the altar.

  • God asked, “Who will go for us?”

  • Isaiah responded, “Here I am. Send me.”

“Then I heard the Lord asking, ‘Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?’ I said, ‘Here I am. Send me.’”
— Isaiah 6:8 (NLT)

• Isaiah’s ministry was hard — people didn’t want to hear the truth.

• God didn’t call Isaiah to be successful — He called him to be faithful.

9. God’s Love and Faithfulness Through It All

• The prophets’ message was clear:

  • Look back at how God has provided.

  • Trust in God’s faithfulness for the future.

  • God’s love remains even when we fail.

  • God’s mercy, provision, and forgiveness are always available.

  • The path to eternal life is through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

10. The Challenge: Are You Teachable?

• Are you willing to trust God’s plan — even when it’s hard?

• Are you teachable — open to God’s correction and guidance?

• Are you relying on God’s strength — or trying to control things yourself?

11. The Message of the Prophets Still Applies Today

• People today still seek control, affirmation, and comfort.

• But God calls us to surrender to Him and trust in His provision.

• We may not have all the answers — but we can trust the One who does.

Conclusion: God’s Love Never Fails

• God’s love is steadfast — even when we fail.

• God’s mercy and forgiveness are always available.

• True life comes from surrendering to God’s plan.

• Trust that God’s provision, protection, and grace will sustain you.

“For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you.”
— 1 Peter 2:21 (NLT)

Key Takeaways:

✅ God’s love and faithfulness are constant — even when we fail.
✅ God’s mercy and forgiveness are always available through repentance.
✅ True peace comes from surrendering to God — not from control.
✅ God calls us to be faithful, not successful.
✅ The path to eternal life begins with trust in God’s love.

➡️ Thinking Back… Looking Ahead — Trust God’s Love for the Future

Bible Verses

Isaiah 6:8-10 (NLT)

Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”
I said, “Here I am. Send me.”
And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people,
‘Listen carefully, but do not understand.
Watch closely, but learn nothing.’
Harden the hearts of these people.
Plug their ears and shut their eyes.
That way, they will not see with their eyes,
nor hear with their ears,
nor understand with their hearts
and turn to me for healing.”

Hosea 6:6 (NLT)

“I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.
I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.”

Joel 1:15 (NLT)

“The day of the Lord is near,
the day when destruction comes from the Almighty.
How terrible that day will be!”

Joel 2:12-13 (NLT)

That is why the Lord says,
“Turn to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
Don’t tear your clothing in your grief,
but tear your hearts instead.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
He is eager to relent and not punish.

Micah 6:8 (NLT)

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good,
and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.

1 Peter 2:21–25 (NLT)

For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.
He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone.
He did not retaliate when he was insulted,
nor threaten revenge when he suffered.
He left his case in the hands of God,
who always judges fairly.
He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right.
By his wounds you are healed.
Once you were like sheep who wandered away.
But now you have turned to your Shepherd,
the Guardian of your souls.

Mark 8:35 (NLT)

“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.”

Recommended Books

1. Knowing God by J.I. Packer

A deep and thoughtful exploration of God’s character, including His love, faithfulness, and sovereignty.

2. The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning

Celebrates God’s unconditional love and grace for the broken and unworthy.

3. The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen

A powerful reflection on forgiveness and the steadfast love of God, based on the parable and Rembrandt’s painting.

4. The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

Tozer’s classic call to a deeper spiritual life and relationship with the God whose love relentlessly pursues us.

5. Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray

A devotional book on trusting God’s provision and faithfulness in the everyday.

Articles, Devotionals, and Blog Posts

“The Mercy of God” – RC Sproul (Ligonier Ministries)

A powerful article explaining God’s mercy within His holiness and justice.

“How to Know God’s Will” – Blackaby Ministries

A helpful guide to discerning God’s direction and trusting His provision.

Timeless Devotional

Practicing the Presence of God – Brother Lawrence

A classic work focused on resting in God’s constant love and presence in everyday life.

Some of these above links in this post maybe affiliate links, and we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. These are resources that we would recommend regardless of whether we earn a commission or not.  The income generated helps cover website maintenance costs, allowing us to continue sharing sermons, resources, and content with you. We appreciate your support!

Transcript: Thinking Back Looking Ahead | Finding True Security in God

Do you ever sit thinking, wishing you knew what was ahead? I mean, did this last year go by the way you would’ve predicted last year? Those things like, boy, oh boy, oh boy, if I only knew what to expect so I could plan for it for this year. Or maybe you had a little bit more control over some of the circumstances so that you can be prepared to say, okay, this is what I’d like to see happen. There’s an inner desire to always want to know something, to have this knowledge that’s a little bit beyond us, even if it’s a knowledge, to find that final cure for what will take away pain or anxiety, confusion in life. Here’s another thought ties to that, but it goes a little different direction. Have you ever wanted to just really be used by God in a really special and significant way? Have you ever thought of, you don’t know what it is, but just somehow, Lord, use me, sort of. Maybe you have a Mother Teresa in mind, or the Apostle Paul or something. Just use me Lord in some special way this year and do that with the abandonment. Just do it. Wait, has that ever crossed your mind?

Another thought. What do you think is teachable? Give me some feedback. What does it mean to be teachable? What are some elements of being teachable? Teachability. Good listener. Good listener. Open. Open. Willing to change. Being willing to change. Not a know it all, not a know it all. Okay, humility. Humility. More characteristics of teachability. Yum. Yum. Can we let ’em get away with that? Well, all this ties into where we’re going with the prophets and different aspects of their lives. Oftentimes we look at the prophets and say, boy, if I could just have that inner connection that they had that hotline to God, something to really get through and know what’s going on. So today as we’re going to look at the prophets of the divided kingdom. Now if you remember the timeline as we go through all of history on the top line, starting with Adam through the time of the kings, Solomon was the last king and only the second king, really, Israel had as a United Kingdom.

Actually. Third, we had Saul, David, and Solomon. And then what happened after Solomon, things got messed up and they divided. One of his sons took the southern kingdom and one of his servants took the northern kingdom. And so they had two parallel kingdoms going at the same time there. And all those little dash marks represent different kings throughout the time. And then I put in a few kings just to kind of stand out and who had a number of years after ’em, like 22 years, 28 years and so on. So within this time, this is when they were living in the promised Land and it didn’t look all that promising anymore because they weren’t following God’s ways. And so what took place then is many prophets came during this time. And the prophets we’re going to look at today are the prophets of what’s called the divided kingdom.

We have Jonah, Amos, Joel, and Hosea, and they prophesied in the northern kingdom. And then we got Micah and Isaiah in the southern kingdom. And this is the time the period in which they prophesied. So you can see Micah and Isaiah really covered about four kings there, the period of four different kings. And there’s debate as to when some of the dates definitely were and were not, so we can’t nail ’em all down. But this is about the periods that they served. And Elijah and Elijah were more down towards Ahab just to put that into perspective. But we’ve looked at them already. So these guys prophesied during a time of great tribulation. And just like people today, people back then wanted to know answers. They wanted to have control. They wanted to have power. They wanted affirmation. They wanted to be told that they’re doing okay and they didn’t want to hear bad news.

Sound like today things haven’t changed much have they? And the result was a rise in prosperity of false prophets. Okay? These guys just started coming up telling people what they wanted to hear. This was especially true for kings and political leaders. They’d surround themselves with people that just supported their own ideas and didn’t really want to face the truth. And they’d tell ’em, well, the economy’s strong. Go ahead, go in debt. You’ll work your way out of it. Or it’s okay to do whatever you want. It’s your body. You can do what you want with it. In fact, you can do whatever you want with other people. It doesn’t matter. Even killing isn’t something that’s all that bad because people go on living anyway, don’t they? Death isn’t the ultimate worst thing. And I just read an article this week about how several countries in Europe, Belgium being one of ’em, their euthanasia program is just flourishing.

Anybody who doesn’t have at least the value of a dog, if they cannot function in society in some way and add to it, it’s getting to the point where they’re considered disposable. And so this is nothing new. This has been going on and on and on for years, and this is what the prophets were walking into. Now, unfortunately, the real prophets of God didn’t have the luxury of rationalization. They couldn’t just juggle everything trying to make it work so that people could hear whatever it is they wanted to. Now, the prophets of God had to say what it was was on God’s heart and God’s mind. And this didn’t make them very popular people and like Jesus, they were scorned, they were exiled and they were often killed. So now when we think about how we wish we had this interconnection to God, how we had this special hotline to God, do we want to have it at the same cost that the prophets did?

You’d think their message would be welcomed, wouldn’t you? I mean the primary purpose of a prophet was to bring the people close to God so that they’d experienced the prosperity that God said was all theirs. If they followed him that they’re moving away from God’s protection under the law and they’re out there exposed to all kinds of spiritual elements that would cause disaster. So you’d think that somebody actually trying to do good for people would be welcomed in some ways. It’s hard to understand why is it their message would even be rejected. Cure is simple. That’s what the prophets were bringing to the people. The cure is simple, it really is. Just follow God’s ways and you’ll prosper. And they were tortured, they were burned and they were exiled. So God through the prophets was reminding them, look at the past, look at how I provided for you.

Look at how good things were when you followed after me. And even that when you messed up, I took you back all the time. Just remember that I love you and I want to take care of you and then plan your future that way. Look ahead. So I’m going to take a brief look at what each one of these prophets had to say. They’re very similar, but they also had some uniqueness to each one. And unfortunately I have to be brief, but Jonah being the first one, now, he wasn’t really called to the northern kingdom as much as he was to some Gentiles and a lot of his story about the big fish. And a lot of us get more hung up on the big fish than we do on the big God behind the fish. So let’s not get caught up into details of Jonah, but what is it?

God was up to here. And in chapter one he calls Jonah to Nineveh, go preach to Nineveh. And Jonah doesn’t like the people in Nineveh. They’re not following after God. They aren’t Israelites, they’re Gentiles, and he wants nothing to do with them. So he goes the other direction. He says, okay, which way is Nineveh And finds a ship going the opposite direction. And as he does that, the ship has all kinds of problems. They’re in a big storm, they deduct that Jonah’s the problem and God’s judging them for this. And so Jonah says, throw me overboard and everything will be taken care of. So they do, and the water goes still, and a big fish takes Jonah. And while he’s into fish, he cries out to God and he says that he’s in this great trouble and I cry out to you Lord to deliver me.

And the Lord heard his prayer and delivered him. And then the fish spits him up on dry land at Nineveh. So he goes there and he preaches to the people. And in chapter three, Jonah is obedient. He tells the people, this is a great message. I bet you guys wish messages were this short says 40 more days and Nineveh will be destroyed. That’s it. Actually, I think he said more than that. He was there for quite a while, but that’s what was the emphasis that needed to be got across. And so that was his message and they repented, they turned to God and he got mad. And in chapter four he said, in effect, I told you so. God, I knew that they would repent. I knew that that was going to happen. That’s why I didn’t want to go there in the first place.

So now he’s going to stew and he goes off into the wilderness to stew and to watch if Nineveh really does get destroyed and God provides a big plant for him to cover him with shade so he doesn’t bake it out in the sun. And then the plant gets eaten by a worm and he’s mad again. And this is the point God wants to make. I provided shelter for you when you didn’t deserve it, and you don’t want me to provide shelter, eternal shelter for other people that don’t deserve it. What’s going on? Why should I not love everybody the way I love you? That’s what God wants to get across to Jonah, that he loves everybody. He even loves people that are far, far, far away from him and not following after him. And he wants people to know that he loves them and he forgives them when they turn to him.

And so he’s saying, turn to me. Sometimes we can get all caught up in social issues or who’s right, who’s wrong and what the government’s doing or what this agency’s doing over here, what that agency’s doing over there. And completely forget that all those agencies and all those government officials and everybody else are a bunch of people that need the Lord. Sometimes we treat our animals better than we treat other people. And God’s saying, what are you doing? Wake up. I’ve got a job for you. People are more important to me. Then we look at Amos, his story is that God gives lots and lots of warning before judgment comes. He just continues to warn to people. He doesn’t just knock ’em out overnight. No, no, no. He says, Hey, listen, wise up, wise up, I’m coming, judgment’s coming, turn around, look at me. That kind of thing.

And Amos is so convinced God wants everybody to turn back to him that he expects everybody else to. It’s like a light bulb comes on in Amos head and he says, wow, we have really straight off the path and we need to get back to God, man. People are going to want to hear this message. And so he with great enthusiasm, he starts saying, look at all the people in the southern kingdom. He starts with them, look at them how much they’ve strayed. And the people are saying, yeah, they sure have. And he’s saying, so have we. And all of a sudden they’re not so interested in what he has to say. They’re more interested in pointing out where everybody else is messed up in the world, but they don’t want to look at themselves. He’s saying God’s saying the same thing about them. You said they deserve judgment.

Well, if they deserve judgment, so do you. They didn’t want to take the message personally. They didn’t want to internalize it. They just wanted to go around applying it to everybody else to point out the faults of the world. In chapter seven, finally the urgent call has been out. And in Amos it says that when the high priest went and told the king ome, he said, Amos has been plotting against you and he’s starting riots and all this things, stuff’s going to go on. There’s going to be a rebellion because of him against you. And then he’s also saying, Gerome that you’re going to die. Now this is all lies. I mean he said judgment’s coming, but he didn’t say the specifics and that his household would be judged. But he also said that if people repent, God would forgive. So the king ends up saying, get out of here.

You see her, go back to the land of Judah and go preach there. Go preach to somebody else. We don’t want to be saved such as the life of a prophet. Then you got Hosea, and that’s the steadfastness of God. Boy, he was quite a character. He was an unusual man. He was a true prophet. He did not just talk the talk, he walked the walk. The theme of the book is God’s steadfast love for Israel, that in spite of continued unfaithfulness, God always takes Israel back. And he had Hosea marry a wife who was a harlot, and she kept on leaving him, leaving him, leaving him. And he kept taking her back, taking her back, taking her back. Every time she left, she sunk lower and lower and lower because that’s what the wages of sin is. But at the same time, he showed love, compassion, mercy, grace took her back, took her back, and finally he ended up paying for her, buying her back out of slavery for half price because she was damaged goods and he kept loving her.

That’s what God’s saying. I do with you, you keep messing up, but I’ll keep taking you back. I’ll keep taking you back. I’ll keep taking it back. He doesn’t give up. But we’ve turned to him, turned to him sins that he said are like idolatry to God that we can fall into and that the country was falling into was swearing deception, taking innocent lives, stealing adultery, contention with spiritual leaders, drunkenness, false idols, rebellion, all things we run into today. But he was saying, that’s unfaithfulness to me when those things happen. But you know what? You get wrapped up in those things, and I’ll still take you back if you turn to me.

And finally God responds to this and Hosea six six, he says, I want you to be merciful. I don’t want your sacrifices. I want you to know God. He doesn’t just wants us to put on outward things saying, okay, God, I’ll give you this part of my life and I’ll actually give you some of my money and some of my time. Now he’s saying, no, I want you to be close to me as God love me, as God understand me as the almighty creator savior of the world, the lover of your soul. So God doesn’t adjust his love for us more or less based on what we do. He loves us all the same all the time. And he showed it by Christ’s death on the cross that he loves us the same, that every sin to him is covered by his love when we turn to him in Jesus Christ.

Then the prophet Joel, and this came up oftentimes throughout the Old Testament, but his statement was, the Lord is near. That’s what he wanted to remind the people. Now tell me, is that statement the Lord is near good news or bad news? Is it, if it was, your promotion is near? That would be good news, wouldn’t it? Yeah. If your wedding day is coming up, your vacation, all these different things it’s near. That’s good news, but it can be bad news if you just don’t want to go there. And Joel is on the scene when a natural disaster in Israel had hit, and actually it’s a double disaster. They were already in the midst of a famine and then a devastating swarm of locusts come in and start eating everything in the land. It was like massive grasshoppers. And when they’d fly over, the sun would be blocked out.

There was so many of ’em. And this natural disaster became a national disaster, alright? It was just wiping everything out. Even the wild beasts didn’t have anything. It affected every part of community life, sort of like as we think hurricane or tsunami, how those things even affect us out here to some degree. Well, that’s what we’re talking about here, a huge disaster. And so while Joel is reciting how things bad are in Joel one 15, he says, the day of the Lord is on the way. The day when destruction comes from Almighty God, how terrible that day will be. So he’s saying, this isn’t the bad day, that day is yet to come. And he points out that the disasters are a link to God’s divine activity. Now, while we can say that in many cases for Israel, and probably in this case, it was a judgment upon Israel for them to wake up and turn around to God, but we also know that bad things happen to good people.

Sometimes seemingly judgments happen to people that don’t deserve it. Job is one of those types of people. Well, we do know that God moves with justice, right? God is just, and ultimately justice will be executed one way or another. It’ll be fulfilled and that all sin one day will be punished. It’s either going to be punished on the cross or in hell, depending on what you choose. But we can’t always say that every disaster is a judgment from God. See when disaster hits according to what he’s saying, is we need to go to God and say, man, your day is coming, Lord, and I want to go with you. That should remind us that things are only going to get worse in a sense. God’s saying, when a disaster hits, don’t try to figure out whether it’s judgment or not. That’s up to me. You ain’t seen nothing yet is what he’s saying.

So make sure you’re on the right side of the line following Jesus Christ because the day of the Lord is near and this is a reminder that it’s coming. And then in Joel two 12, the Lord says, turn to me Now while there is time, give me your hearts. Come with fasting and weeping and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing and grief. People would tear their clothing because they’re so upset about their circumstances. God says, that’s not the issue. Be upset that you’re not close to me. You see, he doesn’t just want us to turn to him to make things better here on earth for us. He wants us to turn to him because we love him. We understand his control over all things and says that He’s filled with kindness and he is not eager to punish you. He’s not eager to punish anyone. So what God’s looking for here is not just external activity in our lives, but internal activity, a heart burning for him that loves him because he is so good and he loves us so much.

Then Micah. Micah says, what is it that God requires of you? What is it? What does God require of you? You got any ideas to love God with everything? That’s what he requires. He says, we can do a lot of things in life for God, but what he really requires is our heart. Again, Micah brought good news to the people that no one wanted to hear. It was the same old, same old, really as far as the sins. He was calling out for the people. And they’d say, well, that’s your interpretation. But for me, things are different. I can’t do things God’s way because my life is a little different. It’s set up where it just won’t work. I can’t live by faith. I know God says we need to, but I can’t because my circumstances are different and I need to do it this way or that way.

And so he goes on. It’s sort of one nuis sin that he brought in was how all the rich people were taking advantage of the poor people, how they were taking away their land and their property and buying it out from under ’em for very little. And that was a real offense to God because in our capitalistic system, we say, well, property belongs to me. I bought it. And in Communistic system, it says, property belongs to the state. They own it in God’s system. He says he owns it all and we’re just stewards of it. And so by taking property and things away from other people, all we’re saying is we’re taking it away from God. We’re claiming ownership to something that’s not ours. And so God wanted to draw that to their attention so that they wouldn’t fall under judgment. Well, they didn’t accept him.

And God says, well, you can’t go against my principles without punishment. And they would suffer punishment that God will not be mocked. And so we should always keep in mind that our plans really don’t matter if they go against, even if we can rationalize ’em somehow. But if they go against God’s plans, oddly enough, as is only with God, and it can only happen with him, Micah follows up all his warnings that after you’re judged and you will be judged, God promises to restore you. He promises to say, okay, I’ll take you back when you repent. See, this is the love of God to see people turn away and always drawing them back. The bottom line in Micah six eight is, oh people. The Lord has already told you what is good and what he requires. So do right, love, mercy and walk humbly with God.

That’s it. That’s what he wants you to do. Turn to him. Now, Isaiah is the next prophet, and I can’t do anything but injustice here. And I’m sorry, David, you asked me to really expound on Isaiah. I can’t do that today, but I’ll tell you, this is worth a study in and of itself. But what I’m going to do is just talk about Isaiah’s call. Okay? It’s a rather unique call. He had a vision. One thing that’s really unique about Isaiah is he talked more about the Messiah than anybody else. And he really had insight to Jesus coming. And so out of all the prophets, it’s there, all this good about Jesus coming. And so he has this vision that calls him into ministry, and he sees the Lord in the temple. This is in Isaiah six, and he sees the robe flowing and all these angels hovering around and they’re singing, holy, holy, holy.

And he’s just awestruck by all this. And it says, they’re saying the whole world is full of the glory of God. Do you believe that the whole world is filled with the glory of God? And then he looks at himself and he says, oh man, my destruction is sealed. I don’t measure up. I come from a sinful race. I’m a sinful man. I don’t belong here. And an angel takes a coal off the altar, an altar meaning a place of sacrifice. So Isaiah isn’t even responsible for this, but the Lord directs an angel, take a coal off the altar and touch his lips and says, okay, I’ve cleansed. You are cleansed based on what God has done, not on what you’ve done. And he says, okay, now that you’re cleansed, I need to have somebody be my spokesman. Who’s going to go for us? Who’s going to go?

And this is my famous line, my favorite one, my calling Raylynn’s. Calling to ministry was right here. Who’s going to go? Who’s going to go for us? And we say, here we are. Send me. Here I am, send me. And the Lord says, okay, yeah, you can go, but tell the people this, that you’ll hear my words, but you will not understand. You’ll see what I do, but you will not perceive its meaning. Harden the hearts of the people. Close their ears and shut their eyes that way they will not see what their eyes hear with their ears or understand what their hearts, and they will not turn to me for healing. And this is my favorite line of the whole thing. Isaiah turns and says, Lord, how long do I have to do this? Isn’t that how we are? We accept the call of God and then say how long? And he says, until the cities are destroyed, until nobody’s left in them, until they’re all deserted, is that a successful ministry? Is that counting numbers in church or finances?

God’s saying what’s important is to be faithful with my word and let me take care of the results. Don’t look at numbers. So to wrap up the prophets of the divided kingdom, God wanted to remind his people that he’s always there for ’em, and he’ll always take them back, but they will suffer judgment. He wants us to remember to look back. That’s what the prophets were saying. Look back how God took care of you in the past. Look back how God took care of things in the desert. Delivering you out of Egypt, led you through the, took you to the promised land. And when you deserted me and fell under judgment, I restored you. I forgave you. Question for us today is which position do you find yourself in most often a prophet or the wanderers prophet, looking ahead to the great things God can do if we follow him or the wanderer living for today, ignoring the past because things are different for me.

Now, another question. How do you see yourself teachable or unteachable? Are you going to learn or aren’t you going to learn? Is God really good or isn’t he really good? I read something, I can’t remember who this, it was an old preacher, but I just ran across a little quote from him this week, and I had to paraphrase it because it was in the old English. So here goes my paraphrase. Maybe by some weird occurrence of history repeating itself, history repeats itself maybe by some weird occurrence of history repeating itself. We as Christians have become the very kind of religious people who would kill Jesus if he showed up today.

Would we want to hear the message of Jesus today to leave it all to follow him? Or would we be throwing stones holding at stake while it’s being driven in? See, we want an easy life. God didn’t promise us an easy life. Jesus didn’t have an easy life, and he’s our model. And in one Peter 2 21 through 25, I’m going to read this section. It says, this suffering is all a part of what God has called you to. I mean, it’s just like the prophets. They were called to suffer Christ, who suffered for you is your example. Following his steps. He never sinned and he never deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when he was insulted, when he suffered, he did not threaten to get even. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. He personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. You have been healed by his wounds. That’s the good news. That’s what we have to look forward to, that we have been healed by the wounds of Jesus, that we have full access to all of eternal glory in him.

In Mark 8 35, Jesus said, if you try to keep your life for yourself, you’re going to end up losing it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the good news, you’ll find true life. Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us life. Oh Lord, we just pray for a teachable heart, a willing spirit, and a new vision of your glory to carry on, to strengthen us, to know that we don’t need to perform on our own. We don’t have to measure up. We have to measure down, Lord, not think too highly of ourselves. Somehow we can attain perfection for you or somehow attain your love, your acceptance to be significant. That Lord, it’s all been done in Jesus Christ. And so we can relax and enjoy the journey through the ups and downs, through the hills and valleys, but it’s a journey, Lord, into your presence and into your arms for eternity, and we love you and thank you. Remind us this week and the days ahead that you are coming. Amen.

Original Sermon Date: January 1, 2006

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