Micah McCormick: The book of Isaiah, chapter 58.
Micah McCormick: And if you happen to be using a pew Bible, you can find that on page 654.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 58.
Micah McCormick: And if you are visiting with us, and if you don't have a Bible that you could call your own, please take this pew Bible there as a gift from us to you and read it.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 58, we'll be reading this entire chapter and looking at this chapter this morning as we continue on through the book of Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 58, 1 through 14.
Micah McCormick: This is God's word.
Micah McCormick: Cry out loudly, don't hold back.
Micah McCormick: Raise your voice like a ram's horn.
Micah McCormick: Tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins.
Micah McCormick: They seek me day after day and delight to know my ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not abandon the justice of their God.
Micah McCormick: They ask me for righteous judgments.
Micah McCormick: They delight in the nearness of God.
Micah McCormick: Why have we fasted, but you have not seen?
Micah McCormick: We have denied ourselves, but you haven't noticed.
Micah McCormick: Look, you do as you please on the day of your fast, and oppress all your workers.
Micah McCormick: You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist.
Micah McCormick: You cannot fast as you do today, hoping to make your voice heard on high?
Micah McCormick: Will the fast I choose be like this?
Micah McCormick: A day for a person to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Micah McCormick: Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?
Micah McCormick: Isn't this the fast I choose?
Micah McCormick: To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, to tear off every yoke?
Micah McCormick: Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to ignore your own flesh and blood?
Micah McCormick: Then your light will appear like the dawn, and your recovery will come quickly.
Micah McCormick: Your righteousness will go before you, and the Lord's glory will be your rear guard.
Micah McCormick: At that time when you call, the Lord will answer.
Micah McCormick: When you cry out, he will say, Here I am.
Micah McCormick: If you get rid of the yoke among you, the finger pointing, the malicious speaking, and if you offer yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted one, then your light will shine in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday.
Micah McCormick: The Lord will always lead you, satisfy you in a parched land, and strengthen your bones.
Micah McCormick: You will be like a watered garden and like a spring whose water never runs dry.
Micah McCormick: Some of you will rebuild the ancient ruins.
Micah McCormick: You will restore the foundations laid long ago.
Micah McCormick: You will be called the repairer of broken walls, the restorer of streets where people live.
Micah McCormick: If you keep from desecrating the Sabbath, from doing whatever you want on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it, not going your own way, seeking your own pleasure or taking business, then you will delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride over the heights of the land, and let you enjoy the heritage of your father Jacob, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Micah McCormick: Just go again to prayer.
Micah McCormick: We need you speaking to us.
Micah McCormick: If we just have mere human words, we have we have truly all that we need.
Micah McCormick: So work today again, we ask, for your name's sake.
Micah McCormick: Amen.
Micah McCormick: Appearances are not always what they seem.
Micah McCormick: Does the name Bernie Madoff ring a bell to you?
Micah McCormick: He was once the chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.
Micah McCormick: He had an investment firm thought to be worth billions of dollars until he was arrested in 2008, until it was revealed that he was running the largest Ponzi scheme in human history.
Micah McCormick: Appearances are not always what they seem.
Micah McCormick: In our chapter today, the nation of Israel has a certain appearance of godliness.
Micah McCormick: All is well.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 2.
Micah McCormick: They seek me day after day, they delight to know my ways, like a nation that does what is right and doesn't abandon the justice of God.
Micah McCormick: Sounds great, only it's not.
Micah McCormick: In the very first verse of this chapter, God says that Isaiah needs to raise his voice like a trumpet and tell Israel their sin.
Micah McCormick: And the word here for trumpet is the word shofar.
Micah McCormick: Have you ever seen one of those?
Micah McCormick: This is no piccolo trumpet.
Micah McCormick: Those things can blast sounds.
Micah McCormick: This sin is a big deal.
Micah McCormick: God calls Israel to repent in this chapter.
Micah McCormick: And that call for repentance is a call to us as well.
Micah McCormick: And you might say, well, hold on a second here.
Micah McCormick: I mean, I'm I'm no hypocrite like Bernie made off.
Micah McCormick: Maybe not, but all of us face the temptation to be content with a good appearance.
Micah McCormick: Some of you don't actually know the Lord, but you're content to let other people think you're a you're a good Christian.
Micah McCormick: Others among us are genuine followers of Christ, but it's just so easy to start going through the motions.
Micah McCormick: In Martin Luther's famous 95 Theses, this was the very first one.
Micah McCormick: When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent, he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.
Micah McCormick: That's the path we walk.
Micah McCormick: It's not just a one-time event.
Micah McCormick: And God is so merciful in this passage.
Micah McCormick: We know he's called us a repentance.
Micah McCormick: We know we need to repent.
Micah McCormick: That alone should be motivation enough, but he gives us more.
Micah McCormick: He offers so much hope for what happens when we do repent.
Micah McCormick: And we'll get there.
Micah McCormick: But first we need to look at what the nature of repentance is from this chapter.
Micah McCormick: So we've got a very simple three-part structure for the sermon today.
Micah McCormick: If you happen to be taking notes, what repentance isn't, what repentance is, and then what repentance brings.
Micah McCormick: So we'll start first.
Micah McCormick: What repentance isn't?
Micah McCormick: Repentance isn't merely acknowledging God.
Micah McCormick: As we read this chapter, Israel is not out there like shaking their fist at God.
Micah McCormick: They're in some sense acknowledging him.
Micah McCormick: Verse 2, in some sense, they're asking for his righteous judgments.
Micah McCormick: They draw near to God in some way, but apparently it's really more of a show than a reality.
Micah McCormick: They acknowledge God, but they don't adore God.
Micah McCormick: They recognize God, but they don't respond to God.
Micah McCormick: They profess God, but they don't actually possess God.
Micah McCormick: Even in our own day, there's some public figures who acknowledge God in certain ways when they didn't used to acknowledge God.
Micah McCormick: We can be thankful for that on some level.
Micah McCormick: You know, I'd rather have someone acknowledge God than to champion the gods of Baal.
Micah McCormick: But we also must say that merely acknowledging God is not true repentance.
Micah McCormick: What about you?
Micah McCormick: Parents, are you content for other parents to hear you acknowledging God before your children?
Micah McCormick: Or would your children say in the home, God is fully present?
Micah McCormick: Or maybe children who are here.
Micah McCormick: Are you content to let your Sunday school teacher think, you know, you've got the right answer?
Micah McCormick: You're acknowledging the right things, even if your heart is far from the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Repentance isn't merely acknowledging God.
Micah McCormick: Repentance isn't empty rituals.
Micah McCormick: We see that so clearly.
Micah McCormick: Verse number three.
Micah McCormick: We've denied ourselves, but you haven't noticed.
Micah McCormick: Israel's very proud of its fasting, but God isn't impressed, because for them it had just become an empty ritual.
Micah McCormick: I'll give you one example of that: Matthew 9, 15.
Micah McCormick: Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them?
Micah McCormick: The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Micah McCormick: Christ has been taken from us.
Micah McCormick: We're longing for his return.
Micah McCormick: It's appropriate at times to go without food, to remind ourselves of our passion for his return, our love for him, our focus on who he is.
Micah McCormick: It's not wrong to fast.
Micah McCormick: And even for those that were at prayer meeting recently, or you get the updates from the Kunis and the Wisis, those are missionaries we have serving in Indonesia.
Micah McCormick: They invited us to join them for some specific needs there in this season of difficulty right now on the island through prayer and fasting.
Micah McCormick: Were they asking us to do something that God hates?
Micah McCormick: No, no, not at all.
Micah McCormick: They weren't asking for empty rituals.
Micah McCormick: They were asking for earnest prayer.
Micah McCormick: And perhaps you take one meal a week, and instead of eating, just let that hunger fuel you to be praying for God's glory there in Indonesia.
Micah McCormick: So fasting's not wrong, but we do see from our passage that it can become an empty ritual.
Micah McCormick: Think about the Pharisees.
Micah McCormick: They fasted, but their hearts were far from the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Do you ever notice how sometimes people seem eager to slip into a conversation that they were fasting?
Micah McCormick: Like we really wanted the Lord's will to be done.
Micah McCormick: So we sought the Lord through prayer and fasting.
Micah McCormick: Just be careful of your heart.
Micah McCormick: It's one thing to invite someone to a public cause and a public fast, but Jesus does say, wash your face.
Micah McCormick: Don't put on gloomy attire when you fast.
Micah McCormick: It's before God that you do that.
Micah McCormick: And then just one other side comment about fasting.
Micah McCormick: If fasting makes you kind of sleepy and irritable, don't do it on Sunday.
Micah McCormick: You know?
Micah McCormick: Well, I'm on an intermittent fasting plan for my health.
Micah McCormick: Well, that's great, but you're sleeping through the sermon.
Micah McCormick: So, you know, get up Sunday morning, have an omelet or a muffin or a banana or something so that you can come ready to engage and you can lose that half a pound on Monday and Tuesday.
Micah McCormick: That's just practical advice.
Micah McCormick: Paul warns us of the danger of ritualism in Colossians.
Micah McCormick: And this is very similar to Isaiah as well.
Micah McCormick: Paul says, Don't let anyone judge you in regard to food or drink.
Micah McCormick: These are a shadow of what's to come.
Micah McCormick: The substance is Christ.
Micah McCormick: Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices and the worship of angels.
Micah McCormick: If you died to Christ, why do you live as if you still belong to the world?
Micah McCormick: Why do you submit to regulations?
Micah McCormick: Don't handle, don't taste, don't touch.
Micah McCormick: All these regulations refer to what is destined to perish by being used up.
Micah McCormick: They're not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.
Micah McCormick: What does empty ritualism look like today?
Micah McCormick: Well, it probably doesn't look like worshiping angels for most of you.
Micah McCormick: It could look like, in some cases, worshiping saints.
Micah McCormick: It could look like saying the same prayer thoughtlessly over and over again and thinking, oh, this is just what repentance is.
Micah McCormick: If I say these words enough, then God will really hear me.
Micah McCormick: That's not what repentance is.
Micah McCormick: Going to church could even become an empty ritual.
Micah McCormick: Now, if you're worshiping saints, don't do that, worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: If you're going to church, don't stop going to church.
Micah McCormick: God does command that.
Micah McCormick: But don't just put on Sunday shoes and sit in the pew and think that all is well if your heart is not right before the Lord.
Micah McCormick: If it's become an empty ritual, seek him.
Micah McCormick: Man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart.
Micah McCormick: So repentance isn't simply acknowledging God.
Micah McCormick: Repentance isn't empty rituals.
Micah McCormick: What is repentance?
Micah McCormick: In the first place, repentance is agreeing with God.
Micah McCormick: Not just acknowledging God, but agreeing with God.
Micah McCormick: This chapter here in Isaiah contains a kind of dialogue between God and the people.
Micah McCormick: So in verse 3, which we read, they're complaining that God hasn't taken notice of their fasting.
Micah McCormick: And then in the rest of the chapter, God answers them.
Micah McCormick: Are they going to agree with God's assessment?
Micah McCormick: Or are they going to remain entrenched in their own ideas about what brings approval from God?
Micah McCormick: Verse 1, the verdict's already come in.
Micah McCormick: House of Jacob, people of Israel, you are in sin.
Micah McCormick: Are they going to listen and agree with God's assessment?
Micah McCormick: Or are they going to object and make excuses?
Micah McCormick: We have to agree with God about our sin.
Micah McCormick: And how do we know what that is?
Micah McCormick: How do we know what's right and wrong?
Micah McCormick: Well, once again, we've got to go back to God.
Micah McCormick: He's the one who made us, who designed us.
Micah McCormick: He's the one who has to be able to tell us what's right and what's wrong.
Micah McCormick: It's no praise to be on the right side of history if you're on the wrong side of God.
Micah McCormick: So we need to listen to what God says here in His Word.
Micah McCormick: But true repentance is more than just agreeing with God about our sin.
Micah McCormick: It begins there.
Micah McCormick: Repentance is also a heart change toward God.
Micah McCormick: Repentance is a heart change toward God.
Micah McCormick: Look down to verse 13.
Micah McCormick: If you keep from desecrating the Sabbath, from doing whatever you want on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable.
Micah McCormick: We're going to get to behavior in a minute, but God's not looking for mere behavior.
Micah McCormick: He's looking for behavior that flows from a certain kind of heart.
Micah McCormick: If you call the Sabbath a delight, you will eat these lima beans and you will like them.
Micah McCormick: Okay.
Micah McCormick: I'll eat the lima beans and I'll like them.
Micah McCormick: I know it's good for me.
Micah McCormick: I'm going to lose that half a pound.
Micah McCormick: The Lord doesn't want the Sabbath to be this burden that the people are taking on merely out of obligation.
Micah McCormick: He wants it to flow from a heart that is so in love with him and who he is.
Micah McCormick: It's called in this verse, the holy day of the Lord.
Micah McCormick: If people don't delight in the holy day of the Lord, what does that say about the love they have for the Lord?
Micah McCormick: Do you hear the heart there that the Lord is going for?
Micah McCormick: They needed a heart change.
Micah McCormick: Jesus himself reminds us of the need for a heart change.
Micah McCormick: Matthew 15.
Micah McCormick: Hypocrites, Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Micah McCormick: They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines, human commands.
Micah McCormick: And you can ask God for a change of heart.
Micah McCormick: If God and his righteousness always seems to taste like lima beans, and sin always seems to taste like that homemade lasagna, ask for a heart change.
Micah McCormick: Do it.
Micah McCormick: He loves to grant that humble request.
Micah McCormick: Repentance is agreeing with God.
Micah McCormick: Repentance is a heart change toward God.
Micah McCormick: And then also from our passage, repentance, true repentance, is turning with a new desire to obey God.
Micah McCormick: It's turning to obey God.
Micah McCormick: The people say, hey, we're fasting, and God says, yes, but it's an empty ritual.
Micah McCormick: And then God goes on to point out, look at all the things that you're not doing that I've commanded.
Micah McCormick: If you really had a heart in you to keep my ways, why wouldn't you be doing the weightier matters of the law?
Micah McCormick: And he's going to outline what some of those things are.
Micah McCormick: Verse number three.
Micah McCormick: God says, Look, you do as you please on the day of your fast, and you oppress all your workers.
Micah McCormick: Verse 4 continues, you fast with contention and strife, to strike viciously with your fist.
Micah McCormick: Verses six and seven, isn't this the fast I choose?
Micah McCormick: To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, to tear off every yoke?
Micah McCormick: Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him?
Micah McCormick: Not to ignore your own flesh and blood?
Micah McCormick: Yet fasting, but what about loving justice and walking humbly with your God and these greater, weightier matters of mercy that I've said to do these things, Israel, you're not obeying from your heart all those things.
Micah McCormick: Why does God here compare these good deeds, this love of neighbor that the people have left off?
Micah McCormick: He compares it to a fast.
Micah McCormick: Yeah, you've got that ritual.
Micah McCormick: I've got another kind of fast.
Micah McCormick: He's not only saying that it's it's a substitute behavior for the wrong behavior they're engaged in.
Micah McCormick: When you fast, think about what you're doing.
Micah McCormick: You're giving up something that brings you some measure of comfort and joy.
Micah McCormick: You're making a sacrifice, you're going without for some other purpose.
Micah McCormick: In the good sense of a fast, you're going without to be spurred on towards prayer and the supreme.
Micah McCormick: Value that we have to Jesus Christ, even more than food.
Micah McCormick: Loving your neighbor is hard.
Micah McCormick: It takes sacrifice.
Micah McCormick: It takes self-denial.
Micah McCormick: You've got to be willing to give up some things that might be comfortable to you, customary to you, in order to serve your neighbor.
Micah McCormick: So it's a certain kind of fast, it's a different kind of fast.
Micah McCormick: Mothers, why are you so willing to give up sleep for your baby?
Micah McCormick: That's costly.
Micah McCormick: Because they have a need, and you're willing to sacrifice so that that need could be met.
Micah McCormick: That's the kind of thing that God is calling for here in this passage.
Micah McCormick: So how can we apply this to our lives?
Micah McCormick: Uh, you might say, well, this passage talks about breaking the chains.
Micah McCormick: I don't really have anyone chained up, you know, in my garage, so that's good.
Micah McCormick: Uh clothing the naked.
Micah McCormick: I haven't seen anyone wandered through New Hyde Park naked, they could use an extra shirt or two.
Micah McCormick: How do we apply this?
Micah McCormick: Well, some people really want to turn Isaiah into a comprehensive public policy maker.
Micah McCormick: There's there's touch points here in our passage for governments, but Isaiah's main point is not that God is instructing us exactly what the effective tax rate should be in New York City or Tokyo or London in 2025.
Micah McCormick: God's after the heart.
Micah McCormick: So let's think about the heart.
Micah McCormick: Let's start in the workplace.
Micah McCormick: Verse three speaks about oppressing your workers.
Micah McCormick: Maybe you own a business, maybe you're a supervisor.
Micah McCormick: Say, hey, I've never once physically assaulted someone here, like the striking of the fist.
Micah McCormick: Praise God for that self-restraint.
Micah McCormick: And I mean that sincerely.
Micah McCormick: That does still happen today.
Micah McCormick: But are you willing to make sacrifices so that those under you can have it better?
Micah McCormick: That's the heart of the kind of fast that Jesus speaks about here.
Micah McCormick: Or are you just quick to say, Well, I worked my way up and I've earned my place and my salary, and they and they What about hospitality?
Micah McCormick: Verse seven speaks very directly to that issue.
Micah McCormick: Well, Micah, the Bible also says if people don't work, they shouldn't eat.
Micah McCormick: It does say that.
Micah McCormick: What about people that you know are very willing to work, but they're between jobs and they're looking and they're hurting.
Micah McCormick: Unexpected expenses come up.
Micah McCormick: Are you willing to sacrifice to help out?
Micah McCormick: If you want to hear more about hospitality, a few Sunday nights ago, our brother Mark Wiesner preached an excellent message from 3 John dealing with that theme.
Micah McCormick: You can go back and listen to that more.
Micah McCormick: But start where you can, start in small ways.
Micah McCormick: I know some of you, you wouldn't even hardly dream of doing what verse 7 says, bringing someone else into your house that's in need for a month or three months or six months.
Micah McCormick: Oh, Micah, but our culture is so much different than the Old Testament culture.
Micah McCormick: That's right.
Micah McCormick: In our culture, selfishness and hospitality is much more acceptable.
Micah McCormick: That is a big difference.
Micah McCormick: You're right.
Micah McCormick: How about how you treat the Lord's day?
Micah McCormick: Yes, I understand that under the old covenant, Israel had, as a nation, more of an exact blueprint for their behavior on God's Sabbath day.
Micah McCormick: The new covenant has come.
Micah McCormick: Christ has fulfilled it.
Micah McCormick: He is our Sabbath.
Micah McCormick: We don't have this exact blueprint as they did in the old covenant for all of Lord's Day activities.
Micah McCormick: And yet the Bible still says, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together.
Micah McCormick: It still says in Acts chapter 2 that the early Christians devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to prayer, to breaking bread, to fellowship.
Micah McCormick: Making Sunday a priority probably is going to involve some sacrifice.
Micah McCormick: And that's the kind of fast that God loves from a heart that's in love with Him.
Micah McCormick: I was listening to an interview this week where somebody said, Boy, when I go to church every Sunday, it feels like I get saved every Sunday.
Micah McCormick: Not precise theology, but the sentiment is good there, right?
Micah McCormick: We think we can understand that if we know the Lord.
Micah McCormick: So we've looked at what repentance is not.
Micah McCormick: It's not merely acknowledging God, it's not empty rituals.
Micah McCormick: What is it?
Micah McCormick: Well, it's agreeing with God, it's a heart change toward God, and it's a turning to obey God.
Micah McCormick: But before we get into the final heading today, I do want to say that God doesn't just say you need to repent, He holds out this amazing reward for repentance.
Micah McCormick: And I just have to commend you.
Micah McCormick: Yes, in this passage, Isaiah really, through inspiration from God, he puts the finger on some of the soft spots in Israel's life.
Micah McCormick: And we have to do that with one another.
Micah McCormick: But I also want to commend you, I see so much evidence of heart change and a walking with the Lord in this body.
Micah McCormick: I am just so grateful.
Micah McCormick: And the Thanksgiving offering we recently had, we brought in close to $15,000 thanks to your generosity for people that are in need.
Micah McCormick: We have people in our church who are amazingly hospitable.
Micah McCormick: So many of you do your work with great integrity, and you're trying to help those that are under you.
Micah McCormick: There are people that are here every single week.
Micah McCormick: You could be out trying to make money or just sleeping in, and you you love the Lord's Day.
Micah McCormick: Not because it's lima beans, because this is your homemade lasagna, and you're grateful to be here.
Micah McCormick: And so I want to commend you in all of that and say, keep on keeping on.
Micah McCormick: It's an encouragement to me as well.
Micah McCormick: But finally, for today, last heading, what does repentance bring?
Micah McCormick: Repentance brings renewal.
Micah McCormick: If you looked at the sermon title in advance, you knew where I was going because that's the title, Repentance Brings Renewal.
Micah McCormick: I hope that doesn't sound bland.
Micah McCormick: Once you get into it, it's not bland at all.
Micah McCormick: When you see how it actually plays out here in the text, look at verses eight and nine.
Micah McCormick: Then your light will appear like the dawn, your recovery will come quickly, your righteousness will go before you, and the Lord's glory will be your rear guard.
Micah McCormick: At that time when you call, the Lord will answer.
Micah McCormick: When you cry out, he will say, Here I am.
Micah McCormick: Look in the middle of verse 10, picking up there.
Micah McCormick: Then your light will shine in the darkness, and your night like the noonday, the Lord will always lead you, satisfy you in a parched land, strengthen your bones, you will be like a watered garden and like a spring whose water never runs dry.
Micah McCormick: Who wouldn't want those things?
Micah McCormick: And the most fundamental kind of renewal that God gives us here in this passage is the personal presence of God in our lives.
Micah McCormick: That's what all true Christians should crave more than anything else.
Micah McCormick: Repentance brings renewal.
Micah McCormick: And let me start with those of you that may not truly know the Lord.
Micah McCormick: You need a whole new renewal.
Micah McCormick: It's a renovation of your life.
Micah McCormick: You need, as Jesus told Nicodemus, you must be born again.
Micah McCormick: You don't want to be among those who at the last day before Christ say, Well, look at all the fasting I did.
Micah McCormick: Look at all the all the words that I repeated.
Micah McCormick: And he says, Depart from me, I never knew you.
Micah McCormick: You want to be those, like in verse 10 here, where the Lord says, Here I am.
Micah McCormick: Welcome home.
Micah McCormick: And you can have that relationship with the true and living God.
Micah McCormick: The only person who ever lived a life completely free of all hypocrisy was our Lord Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: You know, if anyone ever lived a life where all of their words and their behavior perfectly matched their heart, he never had to put on a show for anyone because all that he did, I do always those things that please him.
Micah McCormick: And he wasn't lying when he said that.
Micah McCormick: And you know, he lived that life of perfect righteousness for sinners, so that that life could be credited to us, and God could see his perfection as our perfection.
Micah McCormick: He died as a sacrifice for our sins, the sins of appearance and people pleasing and all these minor hypocrisies and major hypocrisies.
Micah McCormick: He died and suffered the very wrath of God that we might have life through him.
Micah McCormick: If you haven't embraced that hope, embrace it today.
Micah McCormick: Now, what about those of us this morning who we know the Lord's saving work in our lives, but maybe you find yourself like David.
Micah McCormick: All your bones are wasting away because of your sin.
Micah McCormick: Or like Peter.
Micah McCormick: You started off well, but you've been drifting towards a life of denial.
Micah McCormick: There's hope.
Micah McCormick: It's the same hope for those that don't know the Lord, it's a return to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: It's his life in us, working through us, and recovery can come.
Micah McCormick: Verse 8 tells us that.
Micah McCormick: It's a beautiful description here.
Micah McCormick: What seems so dark can be transformed to light.
Micah McCormick: The Lord look at verse 8.
Micah McCormick: The Lord's glory will be your rear guard.
Micah McCormick: You can walk through life wherever you are right now, you can walk through life.
Micah McCormick: And when you look back, you don't have to see sin and failure.
Micah McCormick: It's there, but you don't have to see that.
Micah McCormick: The Lord's glory can overshadow all of our sin and failure.
Micah McCormick: And Yahweh Himself and His brilliance can push us forward for the rest of our lives.
Micah McCormick: There's some ways in our passage that there's some specific descriptions for the nation of Israel and its history.
Micah McCormick: Verse number 12 envisions a time when they return from captivity.
Micah McCormick: So they're going to be in Babylon in captivity.
Micah McCormick: They're going to return and get to rebuild aspects of Jerusalem and the temple.
Micah McCormick: And you can see that there in verse 12.
Micah McCormick: And yet the heart of the matter is still the presence and blessing of God.
Micah McCormick: That's what they needed even more foundationally than a new temple or new streets.
Micah McCormick: They needed sin to be dealt with.
Micah McCormick: They needed God's presence in their lives.
Micah McCormick: And it is more blessed to give than receive.
Micah McCormick: God has given to us greatly in Christ.
Micah McCormick: And you know, this passage, this is a great passage to go to if you're talking to someone.
Micah McCormick: And sometimes people, their idea of renewal is all about kind of prosperity in the here and now.
Micah McCormick: Yes, it is true that under the old covenant, God worked with the nation of Israel, and he did tie part of his blessings and his cursing to their economic prosperity or their health as a nation.
Micah McCormick: But this is a passage that reminds us he was doing that to teach a lesson about what their sin sick souls really needed.
Micah McCormick: And it's what all of our sin-sick souls really need: the forgiveness and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: God's not just aiming to be a distant father who showers people with gifts.
Micah McCormick: Verse 13 talks about this real renewal.
Micah McCormick: So you call the Sabbath a delight.
Micah McCormick: And then look at verse 14 how it begins.
Micah McCormick: Then you will delight in the Lord.
Micah McCormick: There it is.
Micah McCormick: Do you see the connection?
Micah McCormick: It's not take off of work on Sunday, and God will make sure you get triple the sales on Monday.
Micah McCormick: It's love the things that I love and share in the heart that I have, and you'll get to have your reward and portion more of me.
Micah McCormick: That's the greatest reward.
Micah McCormick: That's the value that God is placing on Himself and how we can know and enjoy the person that we were most designed to know and enjoy and relate to.
Micah McCormick: This is from a book of wonderful prayers called The Valley of Vision.
Micah McCormick: Some of you have that book.
Micah McCormick: And the title helps us see and express this truth.
Micah McCormick: Repentance brings renewal.
Micah McCormick: It doesn't bring only forgiveness, it brings wholeness in the best kind of sense that we've been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Micah McCormick: So I'm going to read this prayer in conclusion, and I invite you to bow and pray with me in your hearts.
Micah McCormick: Oh Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, you have brought us to the valley of vision where we we live in the depths and yet we see you in the heights.
Micah McCormick: We want to see your glory.
Micah McCormick: Help us, Lord, to learn by a paradox that the way down is the way up, that to below, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul.
Micah McCormick: Yes, Lord, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision.
Micah McCormick: Lord, in the daytime, stars can be seen from the deepest wells, and the deeper the wells, the brighter those stars shine.
Micah McCormick: Help us to find light in our darkness, that your life would be in our death, your joy in our sorrow, your grace in our sin, your riches in our poverty, your glory in our valley.
Micah McCormick: In Jesus' name.
Micah McCormick: Amen.