THE
STRENGTH TO BRING FORTH
Isaiah
37:1-7; Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 5:14
“Come,
let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” [Isaiah 2:3]
I.
Introduction—
a. I saw Stephen King
being interviewed by Matt Lauer the other morning. Matt asked Stephen if he
believed in God—King’s new book has something to do with religion, which can be
a very scary subject. Stephen answered yes, he believed in God. Simple enough,
but then Matt asked Stephen “Why?” Why do you believe in God? Guess what
Stephen King said? He said, “I believe because it’s better to believe than not
to believe.”
b. I thought that answer
was … pathetic; a cop out, really.
c. What about us? Do we
believe in God? Most here would say yes, we believe in God. Think about the
professions of faith we make when we receive new members….
d. What about the second
part of Lauer’s question? Why? Why do we believe in God? Ask
for responses….
II.
Even when people
truly believe in God, rather than just believing in Him for an insurance
policy, many, many people still have trouble trusting that God always and already has a plan for us—
a.
Read Jeremiah 29:11. “For I know the plans I have for
you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a
future and a hope.”
b.
Hezekiah, the King of Judah, was a man who believed in
God. Yet, where we meet him in today’s passage from Isaiah, Hezekiah’s belief
was faltering in fear; his faith was nose-diving into doubt. Why was Hezekiah
having trouble believing in the power of God? Because:
i. A violent
enemy mocked the God of Israel and planted strong doubts in Hezekiah’s
faith;
ii. This enemy was
standing at the gate, ready, willing and more than able to destroy Jerusalem— and he was
going to enjoy the slaughter.
iii. Assyria had already destroyed
all the fortified cities in the land of Judah—all except one; and now King
Sennacherib was at the gate of
Jerusalem, confident that he could sack this city, destroy the jewel of Zion,
this mountain of the Lord, this house of the God of Jacob [Isa 2:3].
c.
Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and sent
this message of despair to Isaiah: [Isa
37:3]—This day is a day of distress,
of rebuke, and of disgrace. Children have come to the point of birth, and there
is no strength to bring them forth.
III.
It’s not a sin to doubt, however we must not get
comfortable in doubt.
a.
Hezekiah went to
the house of the Lord and sought out Isaiah, the prophet, the one who could SEE
the word of God..
b.
When Isaiah speaks, he tells Hezekiah and his staff “to
not be afraid.”
c. Why?
IV.
God declares through
the prophet that he has a victory plan for a Judah. Jerusalem shall not be destroyed.
a.
Look at verse 37:6-7. When Hezekiah’s men showed up with
torn clothes and fear on their faces, Isaiah has a word of victory for them,
because Isaiah the prophet son of Amoz can SEE
the word of the Lord!
b.
“Thus says the
Lord: ‘Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which
the young men of the king of Assyria have
reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and
I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”
c.
Now, the rumor was not something King sennacherib heard,
it was something he SAW! At the end of chapter 37:36-38 we are told that “the angel of the Lord went out and struck
down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when the people arose early in
the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
d.
God was faithful and his victory plan executed (no pun
intended):Sennacherib SAW the word
of the Lord that morning!
i. He fled to Ninevah
(remember Jonah didn’t want to go there?),
ii. Worships his pagan
god and while he’s doing that
iii. Sennacherib’s sons
sneaked in and “struck him down with the sword.”
iv. God
will not be mocked.
e. To
be the light of the World.
f.
To be the city set on a hill that cannot be hidden.
V.
How can we reach the
victory plan that God has in store for us?
a.
We call to one another: “Come let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob to the House
b. We learn
God’s ways
c. We
walk in his paths.
d.
We have the courage to risk something so BIG that unless
God is involved in it, it cannot happen.
VI.
Conclusion—Why
do we believe in God?
a.
Certainly not “because it’s better to believe than not to
believe.”
b.
We believe because God is God and we are not.
c.
We believe because when we are distressed, rebuked, or disgraced,
the Lord is there with love and power, grace and hope.
d.
We believe because God and only God has the power to bring
forth through common folks like us the light of the world, the hope of the
earth, the promise of all the ages, the salvation of heaven.
e.
We believe because God and only God can so move our
hearts to transform our swords of hatred and sin into plowshares of love and
forgiveness, to transform our spears of guilt and malice into pruning hooks of
peace and joy.
f.
Thanks be to God that we have a God worth believing in!
