The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E80 - Conviction

Episode Date: September 10, 2020

Hey, church family, it's time for a special edition of Devo as we are in saturated. Isaiah chapter 6 is where I'm going to be. And in the special edition, what we're talking about is how do you hear from God? I mean, if God has a call on your life, how do you hear from him? We've talked about step one, you've got to prepare your heart. And now we want to talk about conviction. Because just even that phrase, God's call on your life means that God is the one doing the calling, not you. And conviction plays a huge, huge role. Your careers may change all the time, no problem. Hobbies may change all the time, no problem. Likes and dislikes, and you grow into things and you grow out of things. But that is very different than being convicted by God of a thing.

Isaiah chapter six says this. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, this is Isaiah speaking, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. And the train of his robe filled the temple, and above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings. With two, he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another in said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. This verse is key. And the whole earth is full of his glory. You see, ultimate conviction does not come from like your passions or what you're into. In fact, we don't even use the word passion right anymore. Passion is a Latin word that means pain or torture. And it originally meant the passion of Christ. The, the, the,

the crucifixion of Jesus, to shed blood for, to die for, to lay your life down. Now we use passion to mean what I like a lot. Like my passion is shoes or waves or no, it's not. That's not what that means. You see, the root of conviction is not what you're into. The root of conviction is who God is. And what happens here is that Isaiah sees this vision of God. And this vision of God, it's right.

wrapped in time and space. You see, he says, in the year the King Uzziah died, so you could put a date on that. He says, I saw the Lord, and he sees him in his glory. He sees him in his throne room, and there's seraphim flying around. Each of them have six wings, and with two of them, they cover their face. You see, the seraphim, even though they are sinless beings, they are not image bearers of God, but there's sinless beings that have not been kicked out of heaven, and yet they can't even turn their face to the glory of God. They have to hide their face from God's glory, or it will just burn them up.

And then you hear this words from the seraphim, one called to another, and he said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. When the Bible repeats itself a bunch, it is like saying very, very, very holy. That's what he's saying. The holiest holy of all holy. And this word holy means set apart. there is no one like him. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Host. The whole earth is full of his glory.

At saturated, we're focusing on missions. Saturated, we're focusing on what does it look like for our church to say, here I am, send me. What does it look like for every disciple to be sent? And again, for a lot of folks, that means sent into your office space. That means sent into your neighborhood. That means sent into your schools. That means sent into your own families. But for some, we're hoping 100, at least over the next 10 years, that means people will be sent to the ends of the earth. And the reason missions exist is because worship doesn't.

You see, worship is the foundation of the reason why we take the gospel to the very ends of the earth. Because it's only through the life, death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. can people be in a right relationship with God face to face with him? The reason that we sin is because the book of Revelation says that every tribe, every tongue, every nation, every ethnos, which means every people group, will be surrounding his throne forever and ever and ever, declaring that the whole earth is full of his glory. The heavens and the earth and all of the cosmos, things that are visible and invisible,

and invisible will all declare his glory. And when Isaiah sees this, you see again, conviction doesn't start because there's a need and you have a sappy heart towards a thing. Conviction begins with who God is, the character and nature of God. And God is holy, and the whole earth is full of his glory. Verse four,

and the foundations of the threat, Shush holds shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke and I said, wo is me. For I am lost. For I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. You see, when we see God for who he really is, then that, that vision begins to allow us to see us for who we really are. You see, most of the time, when we lack conviction,

it's because we lack a real sense of who God is. You see, oftentimes, even church people, especially church people, that we can think God is just like maybe a couple inches taller than us, maybe a few grades ahead of us educationally, just a little bit smarter, a little bit stronger, but we don't really stand in awe of him and his glory. And when we think that, we think he's kind of the man upstairs or he's absent, then we can begin to overestimate who we are. This is when we can begin to think that the whole world revolves around us. This is when we can begin to go to God and be frustrated with him because he's not giving us everything that we want. You see, but when we see God for who he really is,

the first thing that happens, the first thing that happens in Isaiah's life is woe is me. Not wow is me. Look how lucky I am. No, no, no, no, whoa is me. And he doesn't begin to think more of himself because he knows who God is. He begins to think not even less of himself, and he just sees himself rightly, that he is lost. He's a man of unclean lips.

He dwells amongst people. with unclean lips, my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of host. Conviction begins when we see God for who he really is, and then we begin to realize who we are, and ultimately what we know is, I'm a nobody, I'm a nothing. That God, compared to you, you are holy and you are perfect, and you are just, and I am none of those things. And so look at God's response.

God's response to the humility of Isaiah is not your right. He could have done that. He could have said, get out of my presence. You don't deserve to be in my presence. He could have just squished him. That's not how he responds. Verse six, then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

That's important. And he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips. your guilt is taken away, your sin is atoned for. Now, wait a minute. If you pay attention when I preach, and I hope that you do, you should raise the question and be like, wait a minute, that's not how sin is atoned for. You don't atone for sin with a burning cold touching to somebody's lips. What does that mean? Atonement means payment. How in the world can this seraphim or angel say, because I have touched this coal to your lips that your sins are paid for,

will notice where it came from. This is a messianic prophecy of what would come one day. You see, on the altar would have been a burnt offering for the Lord. And so the coal that this seraphim is picking up from the altar is an animal whose blood has been shed on the altar for the first. forgiveness of sin. Sound familiar? You see, when we are convicted, when we see God for who he really is, then our natural response then is to begin to look inward and realize what wretched, black-hearted sinners we are. And instead of thinking, I think I can clean myself up, I think I can dust myself off.

We say, woe is me. Woe is me, Lord. And we need him to do for us what we can never do for ourselves. And what does he do? He sends his son, Jesus Christ, to go to the altar, the cross, be the substitutionary atoning sacrifice for us. And any of us that would confess with our lips that we believe he was resurrected from the grave and we confess that he is Lord, then guess what? The Bible says that we are saved. Your guilt is taken away. Your sin is atoned for us.

But conviction does not stop there. Then conviction keeps going into what you and I would know as the great commission. verse 80 says, and I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who shall go for us? And Isaiah's response, then I said, here I am, send me. And God said, go. And then Isaiah spends the rest of his life as a prophet of God. You see, for those of us who have truly experienced the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

then we should be convicted by the Holy Spirit to play our part in the Great Commission. The Great Commission found in Matthew Chapter 28 is when Jesus tells all of us, every believer, therefore go. Just like God tells Isaiah, therefore go and make disciples of every tribe, every tongue, every nation to the very ends of the earth. That means if you are a Christian, then the Great Commission is not just something that you believe is for somebody else. That means that every single one of us are convicted

to go and make disciples to the ends of the earth and teaching them to obey everything that he has commanded us and baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. And then here's the promise. And lo, that means listen up, pay attention. I will be with you to the very ends of the age. One of the things to consider about that promise

is if you are not on the go sharing the gospel, Is he with you in the sense that he promised he would be in the Great Commission? You see, when we see God for who he really is, we are convicted of our sin, we repent, we come to Christ. Christ atoning sacrifice saves us. And then saved people, want people to be saved. The moment we realize we are rescued by God, that Jesus Christ came on a rescue mission for people like you, and people like me, the moment we are rescued, then you and I become a part of the rescue mission.

So let me ask you this. When is the last time you were convicted for a people group? When is the, and I mean the people group may be an unreached people group in West Africa. Or when is the last time you were convicted for the people that you work with or that you live with? You see, when that happens, here's what I know. I know that we have taken our eyes off of the glory of God.

and we have put our eyes on ourselves. So as we prepare our hearts to hear from the Lord, and as we fix our eyes on Jesus and ask him to show us his glory, may we be convicted, to have ears to hear and feet to walk in obedience to understand what our part of the Great Commission is, what is our part of taking the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for the whole earth to be full. of His glory.

Church of 1122, I am praying for that kind of conviction in the heart of every single one of us, not just the paid professionals and the super Christians that will go all over the place. I'm talking about every single one of us that considers this church, our home church, and every single one of us that considers Jesus our Savior, that we would be convicted to understand our part in the Great Commission. Let's pray. Your Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you. that it is your kindness that leads us to repentance.

God, I thank you that by your sovereign grace, God, you reveal yourself to us in such a way that allows us to see us for who we really are. That we are sinners, unclean men and women with unclean lips among an unclean people. And God, we thank you that you sent your son, Jesus, to be the atoning sacrifice for our sin. And that if we believe in our heart,

that he was raised from the dead and we confessed with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, then we will be saved. And then Lord, I pray that we would be convicted to have the same sort of humble submission that Isaiah has. When you say, whom shall I sin and we answer, here I am, Lord, send me. That God our answer would be yes. And then, and then you would make clear, before you even say where we are to go or what we are to do, that our answer first and foremost,

would be yes. And then we would trust you to fill in the gaps. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.