Bible Talk with sister Deb. Here I Am, Send Me

Sister Deb explores the powerful biblical response to God's calling found in Isaiah 6:8, "Here I am, send me," and challenges listeners to examine their own willingness to answer God's call in their lives.

• Isaiah experienced a profound vision of God on His throne with the hem of His robe filling the temple
• God calls us in different ways – through yearnings, persistent thoughts, and the Great Commission
• Many hesitate to answer God's call due to fear, insecurity, pride or other obstacles
• We are all called to kingdom work – praying for the sick, feeding the hungry, ministering to the weary
• The inspiring story of missionary David Livingstone who traveled 11,000 miles across Africa sharing Jesus
• The world needs willing servants who will step forward with courage and say "Send me Lord"

Listen to Bible Talk with Sister Deb on WIC 88.1 Christian Radio every Sunday at 5pm, or on the 421 Podcast streaming on Apple, Spotify or your preferred platform. Contact Sister Deb at OsborneDebraK@gmail.com or support the show through PayPal/HOR421 or at HOR421show.buzzsprout.com.

Transcript

Introduction to Bible Talk

Speaker 1 0:15

So many mountains that we try to climb so many places where we fall behind Deep in the struggle just to find our way. Hey, you're listening to Bible Talk with Sister Deb. You can listen to Bible Talk on WIC 88.1 Christian Radio Station every Sunday at 5 pm. You can also listen to Bible Talk and much more on the 421 Podcast streaming on Apple, spotify, whatever platform you're choosing. If you'd like to contact Sister Deb, you can email her at OsborneDebraK. That's O-S-B-O-R-N-E-B-E-B-R-A-K. One word at gmailcom If you'd like to support the show, you can support it through PayPal slash H-O-R. Hor421, or you go through our website at HOR421showbuzzsproutcom. Now we give you your host, Sister Deb.

Isaiah's Vision of God

Speaker 2 1:16

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. It's so awesome to be here on this rainy day and I love a rainy day. I love a rainy day. I find peace and comfort in the rain, anyway, so, as you know, we just got over through the series. I had such a good time. I hope that blessed you. It blessed me. So going over the series of the cross and road to the cross, and I hope everybody had a good time listening to that.

Speaker 2 1:48

Today I'm going to talk about I'm going to be in Isaiah 6. You know this, isaiah 6, a lot of the section is about Isaiah's vision of God and in this I'm not going to go through every bit of it. I'm actually only going to concentrate on one verse. But the Lord is sitting on his throne, high and lifted up, with the hem of his robe filling the temple. Yeah, god's robe was enough to fill Solomon's grand temple. Man, what a picture, you know. And Isaiah saw the Lord in all of his brilliance and he said I heard the voice of the Lord. He knew he was being called by God. There was no confusion, no second guessing, no doubt in his mind whatsoever. He knew. And when we read Isaiah 6, we see that he saw God in all of his glory. We know God doesn't call us all in the same manner, he doesn't speak to us all in the same manner.

Speaker 2 2:51

In the Old Testament, god showed up in some very, really particular, strange ways to talk to people. He showed up in angels and burning bushes and clouds and fire. God spoke through donkeys. The Bible tells us that God spoke to Moses face to face, and I think that would be so awesome. Exodus 35,. God spoke through his prophets. Elijah heard the voice of the Lord in a small, still voice. Now God may not show himself to us like he did back in the biblical days, and you know I use that biblical days phrase. But you know people, I look at it that you know what we are still in the biblical days, brother. You know, from Genesis to in the beginning, to the very last word in the Bible, that's all biblical days. You know it's not just, it wasn't just when Jesus walked the earth, or you know they're all biblical days. You know what I mean. Anyway, so I do believe that God still communicates with us and and tries to connect with us and friends.

Here I Am, Send Me

Speaker 2 4:04

I believe that there is still work to be done and that we are the tools that God uses to do this work. And as long as they are sinners in the midst, as long as we have lost loved ones, and as long as we have lost children and lost brothers and sisters, people, there will still be work to be done. There's always work to be done for the kingdom. Ephesians 2 and 10 tells us that, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ to do good works. Created in Christ to do good works, which God had prepared in advance for us to do. You see, he knew when he created us. He knew what was going to happen and what he wanted us to do. And I believe every one of us is appointed something that God wants us to do, and I believe that we're placed upon this earth for a reason and that God has a master plan. God spoke to Jeremiah. He says I have plans for you. And that same God speaks to us today, asking us to open up our hearts and open up our minds and say Send me, lord. And that is the verse in Isaiah 6, verse 8. Isaiah said and I heard the voice of the Lord, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then Isaiah said then said I, here I am, lord, send me. Those are the words that I want to concentrate on today. Here I am, lord, send me. You know, god has worked for each and every one of us and we all have something to bring to the table. We're all relevant to kingdom building and God's called us people to make a difference. But we have to be willing to go. We have to be willing to be sent out. We have to be willing to say send me, lord. And you're going to hear me say those words over and over and over Send me Lord. Now ask yourself are you being called Now? For some of us, the call on our lives may be well understood. You know exactly what you should be doing and what road you should be on and what God's called you to do. Maybe others may be a little bit shorter, a little bit slower, but the book of Matthew is filled with many lessons and parables, and in the end of the book of Matthew, matthew 28, is what is called the Great Commission and people. If you have any doubt in your mind whatsoever about what God wants you to do? Read Matthew 28, 19 and 20. You know what he says. I won't read it all, but he says Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations. I mean those words right there alone. Brothers and sisters, we are his disciples. Yes, we are being called, and we should stand up and say here I am. Lord, send me Now.

Speaker 2 7:10

Think about all the ones that were called, you know, in Jesus' day, and all the miracles and the blessings that came out of all of that. You know, god called and talked to Mary through an angel, told him about you know what to do. Told her about what to do. He talked to Moses through a burning bush. David through the prophet. Samuel Joseph had a dream. Paul met Jesus on the Damascus Road. And Isaiah Isaiah had a vision. And all of these called, all these people were called by God. They all had a mission from the Lord. And, friends, the Word of God tells us not to lean on our own understanding but to trust and acknowledge Him, and he will guide our paths. He will put us on the path that he wants us to be on. My friends, god will let you know when you're being called. He'll let you know when you're being called out.

Called to Serve Despite Fear

Speaker 2 8:08

I personally believe you're going to have a deep yearning. You're going to have a sense of when God is calling you. I believe you're going to feel it. You're going to feel it in your heart and in your soul. I heard it one day I'm not sure exactly where, I don't know if it was written down or I read a lot, but I heard a phrase that said if all you can think about when you wake up in the morning is singing, you should be a singer. If all you can think about when you wake up in the morning on your mind is preaching the Word of God, then you should preach the Word of God. And that's how I believe God calls us and lets us know when we're being called. I believe we'll feel that sense of yearning, that deep burning in our hearts and our souls, and that's all we'll think about People.

Speaker 2 9:03

We just have to be ready to move when God calls. We have to be ready to set ourselves aside, to get out of our own heads and tell God send me Lord. You know we need to stand up and be about our Father's business and say send me Lord. Just stand up and be about our Father's business and say send me Lord when you're in church. If there's a song in your heart that you think needs to be sung, then by all means get up and sing it. Send me Lord.

Speaker 2 9:38

If you're sitting in church or in your house and you feel someone needs prayer your neighbor up the street, or even if it's five miles down the road and you think that person needs prayer they come to your mind, get up and go pray for them. Send me Lord. And that is all God wants us to do is to step up and say Send me Lord. You know he wants us to get out of our comfort zones. Luke 6 and 46,.

Speaker 2 10:01

He said why do you call me Lord, lord? But you don't do what I tell you to do. He just wants us to listen, and I know it's not always easy to see God or to hear him through all the disasters and diseases and wickedness, hatred. All of that seems sometimes like it may overshadow the good of what we know God is. But see people, we have to step up to the plate. We have to close our mind down about all this evilness that's going on around us and we have to listen to what the Lord is telling us to do. We have to listen with our hearts and our minds and listen to his voice.

Speaker 2 10:45

And the thing about that is the thing is, he told us what to expect. He told us, in his word what's coming up on us in the last days. We're going to be trouble. He told us that hatred was going to run rapid, that false prophets was going to come up. We were going to hear wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes. He told us that all of this was just the beginning. And if we take a look around us right now, we see that all around us, everywhere, everywhere. But, friends, he told us also that he would never leave us alone. But, friends, he told us also that he would never leave us alone. He said that he would send us an advocate, a comforter, a Holy Spirit that would fight our battles for us and help us through all this craziness.

Speaker 2 11:31

Friends, god's told us not to let our hearts be troubled and not to be afraid, not to let the news scare you, not to let it overwhelm you. But God calls us out to be faithful servants, not fearful. We may be fearful, we may feel ourselves. I know fear. The enemy used to work on me with fear and I still, to this day, fight for fear, but the Lord helps me with that. I grab his word and I sit down and he helps me with that fear. He doesn't want us to be fearful, but he calls us out to be faithful servants. Greater is he that is in me than he is in the world, and we are made overcomers through the blood of Christ.

Speaker 2 12:15

Brothers and sisters, we have a lot of work to do and we need to be steadfast. We need to be unshakable. The world is filled with so much darkness, but God calls us out to be the light. We must find the strength to stand up and say send me, lord. Tell the Lord, I'll go pray for the sick. I'll go spread the word. I'll help feed the hungry. I will encourage the sick. I'll go spread the word. I'll help feed the hungry. I will encourage the weary. You know, if you're called into the ministry, serve, get in where you fit in. You know, once Samuel realized that God was calling him, you know what he responded Speak, lord, for your servant is listening. He was being called out and he hadn't even known the Lord. He was a young lad, young boy. He didn't know the Lord, but the Lord was calling him.

Speaker 2 13:09

We have to have a willingness to be used by God, no matter what the task or the circumstances, stepping up and saying send me Lord. It's not all about seeking personal glory. It's all about offering ourselves as a vessel for God's work. It's all about saying send me Lord. Deuteronomy 5 and 33 says walk in obedience to all that the Lord, your God, has commanded you so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days. Send me Lord, send me Lord. I'll go Lord. That's what we need to say, even though it's hard, even though I know what's out there. Send me Lord, and that's what he wants us to do. And God's not going to force us to serve him.

David Livingstone's Missionary Journey

Speaker 2 14:01

But I believe, people, he works in our hearts. He works in our hearts so that we desire to serve him. But too often we wait around. We wait on somebody else to share the gospel or somebody else to go pray for somebody. We expect our pastors and our church and the ministries to do things, while we just show up and support them. And that's not all it is. That's not God's way. He wants us to say that we're available, that we're willing to go and do whatever we're asked to do. He wants us to have willing hearts and not pass on responsibility to other people or someone else. Moses tried that. Remember you know, because people you know what we will give an account for ourselves, not our pastor, not the people around us, not what our pastor has done. We ourselves give account for what we have done.

Speaker 2 14:55

Read the book of Jonah. You know Jonah. God told Jonah to go down to Nivea and speak out against their evilness and tell them about it. You know what Jonah refused to go. He goes and he gets on a ship and he tries to hide from the Lord and I don't know exactly what all happened. I think the people got mad at him or something and they threw him overboard. And we know what happened to Jonah. We know what you know. And then there's Moses. Moses, you know God told Moses, through a burning bush, to go and tell Pharaoh to let my people go out of Egypt. Moses said God, can't you send somebody else? You know. And of course, you know Isaiah. Isaiah stood up to the plate and said send me. Here I am Lord.

Speaker 2 15:37

People, we have to pray and ask God to give us the eyes to see the needs of others, give us the heart that is ready to answer the call to whatever God wants us to do, to be able to stand up and say here I am, lord, send me. You know, the most important thing. If the most important thing in our lives is to be saved and go and spend an eternity with God, then why aren't more people answering the call? Why? Why are we not feeding the hungry? Why are we not visiting the sick? Why are we not helping the poor and the homeless? Why are we not sharing the Word of God? We want to be saved, we want to go to heaven and we want to live with God. Then why not answer the call? I'm not even going to begin to think that I know the answer to that, but I know by searching the scriptures. It gives us some food for thought on it and it should make us pause and think and consider the ones that we've talked about a little earlier here that hesitated to heed the call Moses. He said he couldn't speak good, he said that he was tongue-tied and it was said that his words got all tangled up. He didn't feel that he could deliver God's people out of oppression. And I can relate to Moses. Sometimes, if you hear me on here, I get tongue-tied. But see, god saw different. God saw someone that could be a servant. Jonah was afraid and prideful. He didn't like the Assyrians and they were evil people and he didn't want nothing to do with them. He thought it was a waste of time. Come on, y'all know the stories. But God saw different. God called them. Jeremiah said he was too young and even Timothy had to be encouraged. And it's all in the book. And we see these few personalities. We see all these personalities. We see fear, we see pride, lack of confidence and even, in some cases, lack of faith. Right, and all of those things, if we let it, can hinder us from moving forward into God's will. My friends, today I say let's not be fearful, let's have open and willing hearts to be about the work of our Lord, to say send me Lord and just know right now there's not a man or woman out there on earth who has a heaven or hell to put you in, only God. We should live to serve Jesus Christ and not man. Not worry about pleasing people. Step up to the plate with boldness and confidence and say send me Lord, here I am. That's what we need to do. That's what we need to do is step up to the plate and say send me, lord, here I am, I'm here to do that's. What we need to do is step up to the plate and say send me, lord, here I am, I'm here to answer Now. Like I said, ask yourself are you being called? And, like I said, the book of Matthew I said a while ago is filled with all these lessons. Read those. Read that great commission where Jesus commands all of his followers to go out into the world and teach all nations. Where Jesus commands all of his followers to go out into the world and teach all nations. Because, yes, people, we are his followers, we are his disciples and, yes, we are being called. And our response should be people, here I am, lord, send me Now.

Speaker 2 19:00

I'm going to close this with a little story that I kind of read. I love this little story. It's about a man named David Livingstone. He was a great Scottish missionary to Africa. When he was a young boy, his mother, who was also a missionary, had a missionary meeting in their house and she had another highly named missionary guy his name was Richard Moffitt to come and to speak to her house full of missionaries. So young David was sitting under the piano and he was listening to what he wanted to hear, what these missionaries were talking about, and he was sitting underneath his mother's piano listening. And this is what young David heard. He heard this man say quote from where I stood, I could see the smoke of 10,000 villages that have never heard the name of Jesus Christ. End quote.

Speaker 2 20:01

Now, when he heard these words, he got a vision right then and there, as a young boy, he got a vision. His heart, it got in his heart and it stayed there. And so, as soon as he was old enough, young David got married and he took a ship to Africa, him and his wife. That yearning, that feeling in his heart never left growing up. And so he took a wife, they went to Africa and you know what? He stayed there and over the years the story said that he, over the years he traveled more than 11,000 miles on foot, on donkey and on horseback, sharing the gospel and the name of Jesus Christ everywhere he went. Now it also says he endured much hardship. His wife died. He buried his wife and his children there, they say with his own hands hands Now, finally, in 1873, david died there, in a little bitty upscored village in Zambia, and he was found on his knees in a little mud hut in a prayer position with his Bible opened to Matthew 28, 19 and 20, the Great Commission.

Speaker 2 21:26

Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations. And you know, when his African friends found him, they were so used to him being there and they loved hearing his word. He traveled and he changed their life so much by introducing them to the Son of God. So they really cared about this man and they knew I thought this sounded kind of morbid there for a minute, but if you think about it, when his African friends found him, they knew that his heart was in Africa and so their tradition was they cut his heart out and they buried it with his wife and his kids in Africa, where he dedicated his whole life to spreading the word of God. And they buried him there, his heart, and they embalmed his body and they sent it back to England, where he was from.

Speaker 2 22:18

And the story said that he was buried in Westminster Abbey in England. Now, if you know anything about Westminster Abbey, that's a very prestigious place of honor. I think Princess Di's wedding was there. It might have been even her funeral. There's prophets, there's kings, there's queens, there's knights, there's prestigious people that made a name for themselves, buried in this place of honor and because of what he'd done. And now he had spread the word of God to and fro all over Africa, just walking lost his family there.

Speaker 2 22:52

He dedicated, he got that vision. He stepped up to the plate when he was a young boy and he said send me God, here I am, send me, and this is this did this and he died doing this. He saw that heavenly vision at a young age and he stepped up to the plate and he said here I am, lord, send me. And that's all he wants us to do today, people. All he wants us to do is to step up to the plate and say here I am. And I'm going to end this with a prayer.

Speaker 2 23:28

Our Father, god in heaven, I ask you to bless each and everyone that's listening to these words today, lord. I ask you to touch their hearts, open up their hearts and their minds and let these words here I am, lord, send me. Lord, let these words penetrate their hearts and their ears. Let them step up to the plate and say wherever you want me to go, lord, send me. Let them have a spirit of a servant To be the disciples that you have called us to be To step up to the plate and spread your word. You know, go, pray for the sick, go and help the hungry, help the needy, help the homeless. Help us, each and every one, to step up to the plate and say send me Lord. Let these words go to the hearts and the ears that it needs to go to Lord. Bless each and everybody out there that's listening today and open up their hearts. Bless them and lead them and guide them on that heavenly vision. Bless them and let them be able to stand up and say Send me Lord.

Speaker 2 24:30

We thank you, lord, for this message here today and for this time and for being in our presence here and now. We thank you for each and every blessing. We thank you for everything. We ask you to forgive us for all of our sins. Go with us and lead us and guide us and help each and every one of us to please let us have a heart to serve and say send me. We ask these and all things in Jesus' holy name. Amen and amen, and I thank you for listening today and I hope this has blessed you as much as it's blessed me to bring it to you. Please join me again next week for another version of Bible Talk. Everyone have a blessed week. God bless you all.

Speaker 1 25:12

On a road that's rough, but keep believing in the morning light and his love will be enough. Outro Music.