Sermon Central
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Searching
Contributed by Damien Saylor on Aug 23, 2020 (message contributor)
Summary: What are we searching for in this age of seclusion? Is it God/Jesus, or is it something else to fill our time?
Sermon- Searching outline
- I noticed an article the other day that was asking if binge watching tv shows taking
the place of Christ now.
- I hadn’t really thought of it.
Q- How much time do we spend with the Lord each day?
Q- Is it less now, now that many are at home, or is it less?
- From the moment the pandemic was compared to like being in a war. That should
have been the signal to get closer to the Lord. For many that’s true, but the thing I
wonder is,
Q- What has been the impact on people that can’t attend church?
- There is so much missing, & it’s very much like war.
- In a war being able to meet with friends, or family could be difficult, or even deadly.
Q- So, in war, do we lose our faith?
- A poll showed 1 in 3 Christians have stopped attending church, whether it be in
person or on-line.
- We are still at War, the battle is raging. Let’s turn to where we should always be.
- Open your Bibles with me to Isaiah 25:1-9.
- Listen to the battle, the war, the victory.
Q- Where does our help come from?
1 O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
6 And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.
9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
- Isaiah begins with exalting the Lord!
- Let’s begin with exalting the Lord!
Prayer
- The enemy, the powers, the weapons used against us. They all will be brought to
ruin. They will be destroyed.
- Isaiah was the prophet to Judah, southern Israel.
- In Isaiah’s time Northern Israel was prospering until Jeroboam died, six months later
his son Zechariah is killed, & 1 month later the murderer Shallum is killed, &
Menahem is King. In all this commotion Israel becomes a Vassal state to Assyria.
- The contagion was in Israel, but not many knew it was there.
- The second Israel forfeited their payments to Assyria, Assyria came in to take
control.
- Isaiah watched as this contagion ravaged Northern Israel, & finally ending with
Assyria taking full control with Hoshea, a loyalist to Assyria on the throne.
- The same thing was happening in Judah, even as Isaiah Prophesied against it. Rezin,
the king of Damascus, & Pekah, the king of Israel had plotted a coup against Judah.
They were going to attack Judah while they had many of their troops already
defending them against other invaders.
- King Ahaz, the king of Judah, thought he couldn’t win against them. So against
Isaiah’s advice, Ahaz calls on the Assyrians for help.
- Although Judah doesn’t fall to the Assyrian. This is the beginning of their fall. We
know the Israelites end up being overcome, & enslaved by the Babylonians for 70
years.
- All of this only happened because the leaders, & the people took their eyes off
the Lord.
- Isaiah said in verse 4.
4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
