All Who Are Faithful Sermon 8-20-17 Pastor Curtis Dehmey Isaiah 56:1, 6-8 Thus says the LORD: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. 6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. 8 Thus says the Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered. Psalm 67 1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah 2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations. 3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. 4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah 5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. 6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us. 7 May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him. Message: (Play video at http://www.sermonspice.com/product/43168/strangers) We don t realize the impact that we might have upon another when we shine the light of Christ. We don t realize the ripple effect it may have. We usually don t get to see the fruits of our labor. But God uses us for His good. In some ways, the Israelites didn t know either. Our passage today comes from what Biblical scholars call, Second Isaiah. If you look at your Bible, you might say, I don t have a second Isaiah in my Bible. And you would be correct. The reason that Biblical scholars divide Isaiah into First Isaiah and Second Isaiah. And
even some scholars argue it should be divided into thirds. The reason is because the text noticeably changes in tone and narrative. Chapters 1-39 speak heavily of what has transpired in being exiled by the Babylonians. Those chapters are full of explanations of the past and feelings of despair. When chapter 40 comes around, the tone changes to hope and speaking of the Persians conquering the Babylonians. There is hopefulness that the Persian King Cyrus will invite the Israelites back to Jerusalem. But by this time many of the Israelites have comingled with people that are foreign, strangers or not part-of the Israelite ethnic identity. That s why in verse 6 of our text it begins with, 6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD There is this concern, As we return to Israel and Jerusalem, what should we do with the foreigners? The people we ve married and grown fond of. If this is a return to the glory days of Israel, what will become of these foreigners that many of these families have created mixed between foreigner and Israelite? The ethnic identity is no longer pure so to speak. Some Israelites have been forced by the authorities to comingle or they ve co-mingled out of choice. Maybe even necessity for survival. If they are co-mingled, then who exactly is God s people? These Israelites are trying to take what was the past covenant mainly based on Israelite ethnicity. They were dispersed in Jerusalem and beyond Israel. They were exiled. They experienced ethnic violence and oppression. They experienced horrible things. They have this hope now that things are going to be pulled back together. In one sense, they hope for things to return back to the way they were in the goodold-days, but they know that they ve inherited much more along the journey that they can t possibly return to those good-old-
days in their entirety. Maybe not even at all. The new reality ahead might have sprinklings of what once was, but actually, it is a very new reality. So what does that look like? What does this new reality look like given all that they ve inherited along the journey? Have you ever been to that spot? Where maybe your sick of explaining the past, like they did in First Isaiah? You or I are making sense of what has happened in the past. But that doesn t really satisfy for moving forward. Maybe you see hope ahead. You see opportunity. You hope for the glory-days to return, but in many ways you know that the future will not entail such days exactly. As I continue to understand the Israelite story more and more, I gain greater appreciation how it parallels my story, your story, our story. I ve been with you all for almost three years as your pastor. And probably until about this past spring, I spent a lot of time understanding and explaining the past. I heard many of your stories. I ve received the timeline of events and how that emotionally and spiritually affected the congregation. We ve gone through some painful and healing times together. All of these things helped me better understand Providence Church and how that past, those events, shapes and influences our current reality. I think I ve gotten to this point, though, where I m sick of explaining the past. I m tired of lamenting what could have been. What could have been done differently. I m done explaining who did what and how that has shaped this congregation. Now, don t misunderstand me. It is important to understand the past. The history. I value that knowledge and empathize with all that has previously transpired. It s important. But at what point does explaining, reflecting and lamenting, become paralyzing? Meaning, we spend so much time focused on the past, that we never move forward. That we avoid
imagining and hoping for a future reality. That we fail to move into an exciting, vibrant, good and new reality. Like the Israelites, I want to invite you to join me in discontinuing to focus on explaining the past, to let go of those old wounds and move forward and imagine a vibrant future for Providence Church. What would that look like? What would happen? Where is the potential? I m not saying to forget the past. I m asking you to emotionally and spiritually move-on to the possibilities of the future. Returning to the question of the Israelites, what should we do with these foreigners? Well God s response in our passage is, Thus says the LORD: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. 6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. 8 Thus says the Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered. So God talks about upholding the commandments and doing what is right. So what defines who is with God or not? It s not as the Israelites in the Second Isaiah community imagined. It s not to an ethnic identity. The people of God are not necessarily exclusively ethnic Israelites OR Foreigners. The old assumptions and rules do not apply here. God s answer is, My people are those who are faithful to me. In other words, there might be select Israelites who served the Babylonian Empire in Jerusalem who disobeyed God s commands and fear
Babylon more than they feared God. So they traded faith in God for fear of the empire. And therefore, the Israelites that we were once part of the ethnic group may no longer be God s people. And likewise, there may be foreigners who have co-mingled with exiled Israelites who know nothing of God. Nor do they follow the Lord. Therefore, those foreigners may not be God s people. But you can see by verse 8, that God is not afraid to bring foreigners into the fold, 8 Thus says the Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered. Like you saw in the video earlier, God isn t afraid to work with outcasts or people that may not appeal to our human eyes. God is not afraid to bring hope to the hopeless and love to the loveless. God loves to work with those who are weak and desire Him. It is a powerful combination. Who are the faithful? God lists a few in our passage. Those who do what is right. Those who maintain justice. Those who love the name of the Lord. Those who keep the sabbath. Those who stay committed to the covenant they have with Him. Have you ever experienced the fear of the unknown? Okay I ll assume that all of us have. It may be the unknown of your financial future. It may be the unknown of the health of a loved one. It may be the unknown of a family squabble. It may be the unknown of how your children will turn-out in the future. It may be the unknown of how Providence church will turn-out in the future. All of these and more unknowns may cause many of us to fear and tremble. It may cause us to make anxious decisions. It may cause us to react in negative ways towards others. It may cause us to avoid hard and challenging decisions. Let me share with you some of my unknowns of the past 6-8 months. This past winter I felt a strong touch or whisper from God that I needed wait upon Him and exercise patience at least
for a time period. And this primarily had to do with how lead all of you here at Providence Church. Now, if you know me well enough, you know that this is challenging for me. Because I like to be ambitious and go after the next thing. Once one thing is accomplished, I m starting and thinking about the next thing. And in one sense, this is good for a leader because leaders need to be visionary and thinking about what s on the horizon before most others see it. But it s bad for all of you because it can feel like whiplash. Being jerked from one change to the next. I continued to feel this strong touch from God to wait and listen to Him. Trusting that He is laying out a path for me and for Providence. I struggled mightily. I was frustrated at times. I wanted to move into the next thing often times. But I still felt that same answer from God to wait. I heard over and over again that God was doing something, but I didn t know what. God was building up in me a patient spirit, but what was He doing for the congregation? We all know the pressures at our back. We are small congregation with very few and our congregation is aging with little young blood. If something doesn t change, we might as well throw in the towel. It appears hopeless unless if we move fast. And during this waiting upon the Lord period, I ve had my doubts at times if God was going to come through. I ve doubted my leadership at times. But over the past few weeks, I ve felt this release. Through some of the positive interactions with the Providence Corner Board and the positive and hopeful interactions with some of you, I ve sensed from God that the waiting period is ending and it s time to forward into the next thing. As I said, this was really hard for me to exercise this patience. The one thing that kept me faithful throughout though is my prayer life. We ve been emphasizing this all year so far. And I hope you have experienced with me
that when we step-out in faith in prayer, God answers. God hears our prayers. Through our focused prayer requests that we ve been praying together, we ve seen God s faithfulness. I hope seeing God s faithfulness has boosted your confidence and hopefulness. That when we step out in faith and rely upon the Lord, that God will answer. That God is indeed faithful. For as it says in our passage today, 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Those who pray and are faithful will be called a house of prayer. Let s continue to exercise our faithfulness through prayer and let God lead us and take care of the rest. As we move into this new reality, it isn t change for change sake. We may change and evolve as a congregation because first and foremost, we are being faithful. Because if we echo the words of our Psalm today, we may experience joy and happiness beyond our imagination. 1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah. Selah means to breath or pause. 2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations. 3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. 4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah. 5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. 6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us. 7 May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him. Praise God. This echoes the scripture on the banner behind. Genesis 12:2, I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. God blesses each and every one of us so that we may be a blessing to others.
Thank you Providence Church for your faithfulness to God, past, present and future. I want to invite you to discontinue with me dwelling on the past of this church. Maybe even parts of our past that you continue to dwell upon, personally. I want to invite you to hope with me and to imagine with me a new reality. I want to invite to see the impact that you may have upon others as you are faithful to the Lord. In our video earlier, one women was faithful to God in leading another to Christ and the ripple effect was enormous. Imagine what could happen if we continue to pray and be faithful to God in the midst of the scary unknowns. Imagine with the Psalmist the praise and adoration that we will give to God because of His faithfulness. The Israelites had to step-out in faith trusting that outcasts and foreigners were part of their new reality with God. How can we continue to pray and step-out in faith trusting that God has a bold, good, hopeful new reality for each and every one of us? And for Providence Church? Let s not quiver at the fear of the unknown or the pressure of negative and daunting realities around us. Let s not fear as others do. Let s step-out in faith knowing that God is indeed faithful. That through our salvation in Jesus Christ, all things are possible. That God will gather his people. Both insiders and outsiders. Foreigners and outcasts. God gathers all who are faithful. To echo Hebrews 11, it is by faith that we will be known as God s people. As followers of Christ. Amen.