Sermon Central
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Look At Me
Contributed by Steve Wright on Dec 15, 2000 (message contributor)
Summary: When you really look at God it will cause you to really look at yourself.
Look at me
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Illustration:
I was playing with Madison and Noah outside the other day on the swing set. Madison was climbing the rope ladder and I was watching Noah a little closer. Noah had my full attention while Madison only had half my attention. When Madison reached the top of the ladder she called for me and said “Daddy, look at me”. She called for my full attention and it caused me to turn and look up. It was in that moment that God spoke to me and said “that is what I want from my people. I want them to look at me.
Ø When you look at God, I mean really look at God and you see Him, it will cause you to really look at yourself.
Ø You see, it is easy to look in God’s direction and not be challenged or changed.
Ø All you have to do is wrap you life with religion.
Jesus said in:
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.
Ø Jesus condemned the Pharisees and religious leaders for outwardly appearing saintly and holy but inwardly remaining full of corruption.
Ø Living our Christianity merely as a show for others is like washing a cup on the outside only.
They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
Ø You see some people think their outward life is a mess.
Ø But the problem is not outward but inward
Ø They have an inward mess.
Ø We can clean the outward.
(We do a great Job at that)(Give examples)
Ø Only God can clean the inward
Ø Maybe you have felt like a fraud at times.
Ø Perhaps you have wanted others to think you have it all together, yet you are faced every day with who you really are.
Ø If this is the case, ask Jesus to begin changing you.
Ø Do you really want to be changed
Ø Do you want to be real for Jesus
Then you must:
Look at God and not pass God
When you look at God it causes you to think about what you are doing!
Illustration: A San Franciscan inched his car between two others in a supermarket lot, squeezed his way out, and came back to find a note on his windshield: “I hope one of these days you get pregnant and someone parks that close to you!”
—San Francisco Chronicle
Ø This man had to think about what He was doing.
Ø I am convinced that the unexamined life is not worth living.
Read text:
Ø What a story!!!!!
Ø The more clearly Isaiah saw God, the more aware Isaiah became of his undone life.
Ø Isaiah had pronounced judgment on the nation but now he is saying woe to me.
Ø That is the place I want God to take us today.
Ø A place where we cry out woe is me.
Ø It is the only thing that will make us whole, complete, satisfied.
How do we get there?
By seeing what Isaiah saw that day.
God:
Ø Seated on a throne
Ø High and exalted
Ø And the train of His robe filling the temple
Ø When your heart sees the glory of God it produces the Glory of God in your life
Ø When we see ourselves in the light of the greatness of God, we see, with Isaiah, how far we have fallen
Ø God never uses anybody without first bringing him to an awareness of his own weakness
When Isaiah saw all of this he said:
"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."
Did you catch that? “My eyes have seen the King”
Now watch this:
Then one of the seraphs 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."
Ø He saw and THEN something happen
Ø For something to happen you must first see God, so you can truly see yourself.
Ø THEN the guilt and sin will be taken away
