CROSSroads -- Isaiah 6 -- The CROSSroad of Availability

Introduction
It was about 8:30 at night on July 8.1996. Valerie and I were meeting with a doctor because something sign9ificant was happening. She had started labor. And we were waiting for Kirstyn to be born. But, the labor was starting to puke out a little and we kind of thought it might be a false alarm. The Dr. told us to go home and to grab some supper and before we left he handed us something. It was piece of paper with his home phone number on it. What was that saying to us?
He was saying I am available whenever you need me. Just call.

In our fast paced got to get the kids here and there and then show up for this and be there for that world, it is very difficult to make ourselves available to anyone and to everyone who needs us.
But even more important than that is that we are available to God.

Describing the Biblical Text
We see that availability in this passage and it is summed up in 5 words, 5 one syllable words. Here I am, send me.
This is the calling of the prophet Isaiah. He was a member of Israel’s royal family or had some connection to the royal family and was visiting the temple of God in the year that King Uzziah Died.
But he as an encounter that is really not like anything else in the Bible.
We see God and His attendants in a way that is actually comprehensible to us.
We see the chief attribute of God, holiness, exclaimed by the angels.
We see a cleansing of the mouth of Isaiah with fire.
We see a calling and a sending.

Narrate the Contextual application
Isaiah was willing to do something that very many people would never do and that is to admit and to acknowledge his own sinfulness.
He did not decide that he was too good to be approached by God but he responded, “Woe is me I am undone.”Isaiah was coming unglued and it was by the vision of God’s holiness.
In contrast to God’s holiness, we find ourselves in a cesspool.
We are unholy and impertinent creatures that refuse to admit our fault and our sin.
Yet, we are called much like Isaiah.
We are called to acknowledge our shortcomings in order to rely on God to make us adequate.

Life Application (thesis)
Yet here, Isaiah shows us something more.
He shows us availability to God.
He shows us that God’s call can profoundly impact our lives.
What we see here is this.
A calling from God requires availability to God.
That being the case, we need to look at this passage and see what that means.

SO WHAT!! (Outline)
We need to comprehend the work of God in our lives.
In the first place, it is difficult for us to actually comprehend that Gods would want us to have fellowship with Him.
Just look at these angels
Holy Holy Holy they exclaim yet the Bible say that our hearts are wicked above all things.

In the Disney Movie, Oliver and company, there is a little Chihuahua Named Tito who is desperately trying to woo the affections of a very high class French poodle. At first this poodle wants absolutely nothing to do with the little dog but wants to ignore it.
Truth be known, that is really how God should be treating us.
He is perfectly holy and we are not.
We are scarred and stained with Sin.
Yet, God does desire to have fellowship with us as His people but we need to really understand how that is accomplished.
His son Jesus came to accomplish that on our behalf.
The Bible tells us that we are all sinful and gone astray which translates into the idea that we can never be holy enough to come to God on our own merit.
God therefore did something very important.
He transferred to us His merit.
He did that by offering His son Jesus to die on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins.
This what Peter meant when he wrote that the just died for the unjust.
The righteous replaced the unrighteous.
Jesus replaced us.
Therefore His holiness replaces our unholiness when we come to him.

Isaiah found himself in the presence of a holy God and completely fell apart but who can blame him.
Should not we all fall apart in the presence of the Holy Creator?
Woe is me for I am undone.
I am a man of unclean lips from a people of unclean lips.
And then what happened?
God cleansed him.
He did the same for us in Jesus Christ.
Do you know Jesus here this morning?
I want to give you that opportunity right now, today.
If you want to know Jesus, his forgiveness, his love and his holiness, call on Him at this moment as we pray together.
Dear Lord I am a person who is unclean but I knowe you can cleanse me. I would like to receive Jesus into my life now for that cleansing. Thank you Lord for saving my sould in Christ and now help me to live for you. Amen

The work of God in our lives is marvelous and it is supernatural and when we comprehend the depth of it we cannot respond any other way than to make our selves available to God.

Another reality that we would consider is this.
We must be faithful with the message.
What if God told us that LABC would never reach anyone and we would never baptize anyone?
But, he told us to stay right here and to continue to preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Essentially, that is what he told Isaiah.

It is said that preachers should never make life decisions on Mondays.
There is real truth to that. I cannot tell you how many times I have wanted to throw my hands up and say that’s it I quit.
But, there are two things that always come into consideration when that happens.
The prayer, “God, are you done with me here?”
And the question, “Can I continue to take care of my family.”
In all honesty, it does come down to that.
In ministry discouragement does come.
It came to Isaiah here before he ever began.
Listen to the Lord describe Isaiah’s ministry and then listen to the question that he asks.
God told Him it would not be a fruitful ministry so Isaiah as how long?
I think we would all probably ask that question but in God’s answer to that question we find a new and even more exciting reality.

We may not have the message for the masses but we can reach the remnant.
After there is a judgment, there will still be a faithful remnant.
That remnant will continue to hear the word and to react to the covenant of God.
That is what we are being called to reach right now at LABC.
There is a remnant that we must reach in order to see this church reach her future potential.
But, we have to be ready to reach the People that God has called us to reach.
Last year in the spring I was emailing two of our former members about planning and as we shared emails, I shared a statement with them about what I saw the future of LABC to be.
Last October the deacons were discussing something in a meeting and one of the deacons made the statement about our church, the people we have and our facilities. This is what I had prayed for as I had taken this very same vision statement into the meeting only to be shared if the Lord opened the door for it and the door not only opened, it was like a screen door in The Wizard of Oz blowing off the house.

I am going to share some of that statement with you this morning, because I believe that we are at a crossroad.
We are at a place in the life of this church where we can all see that we must move boldly and drastically if we are to see tomorrow as a church.


AWANA could be small part of that or a big part.

What would we do if we as a congregation we had nothing but the buildings we occupy and the people who are here and we were going to start a new church.That is fun to think about