HERE I AM, SEND ME: CONFIDENCE

What is your mission? It seems like such a simple question, but it raises in us a sense of complexity and uncertainty. Some voices in our modern culture tell us that there is no compelling mission for our lives and that life lacks a meaningful purpose, except to exist. The question becomes, “Exist for what reason?” If everything is a random accident of nature, then our actions and ultimately our lives do not matter. This is contrary to a Biblical worldview. God created us for a relationship with him. God wants us to find meaning and purpose in our lives. However, our relationship with God is broken, so how do we find our mission? Or God’s mission for us? We begin this journey with Isaiah 6:1-10. This is the dramatic and powerful call of Isaiah. The title of this series is taken from verse eight of this passage, “Here I am, Send me!” Our first sermon in this series is Confidence. All of us need a greater measure of confidence as we claim our mission. How do we begin to clarify what God wants us to do? This was a turbulent time for Isaiah and for the nation of Israel, filled with transition and uncertainty, but Isaiah was given a compelling confidence to be God’s person in his time! We are tempted to think that this confidence is not available to us, but this is not the case! Just as God gave Isaiah a boldness for his task, he will give us a boldness for ours. If we look closely at this passage, it allows us to discern how to follow in the footsteps of Isaiah and be lifted from fear and uncertainty to confidence and clarity! This is our most earnest prayer as you prepare your heart for worship that you will sense the Almighty God giving you the confidence to serve him amid the uncertainty and transition of your life!

Isaiah 6:1-10 – In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” ⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. ⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” ⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. ” ⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? ”And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” ⁹ He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ ¹⁰ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. (NIV)