Isaiah // What are You Making?

This week, our message from Isaiah 45:5–22 invites us into a powerful moment where God speaks to His people in exile, reminding them that He alone is Lord and there is no other. After generations of both deliverance and disobedience—from Isaiah’s initial call to Hezekiah’s rise, prayer, and eventual misplaced trust—the Israelites now find themselves in Babylon searching for hope. In the middle of their doubt, God challenges them: can the clay question the potter? He reestablishes both His authority and their purpose, declaring that He created the world to be inhabited and desires to partner with His people in restoring what has been broken. This passage ultimately calls us to recognize that our purpose is not something we achieve on our own, but something we step into through surrender. When we stop striving independently and instead trust the One who formed us, we discover that surrendering to the heavenly is what brings true redemption to our earthly lives.

Lifegroup Questions: 

1. When you hear the question, “What are you making?”, how does that connect with the idea of God shaping your life right now?
2. In Isaiah 40, Israel is in exile and feeling forgotten. Why do you think it’s easy to assume God has overlooked us in difficult seasons?
3. Isaiah 40:31 says, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” What does it practically look like to place your hope in God rather than in strategy, resources, or other people?
4. The sermon described idolatry as making a good thing into an ultimate thing. What are some “good things” that can subtly become ultimate things in our lives?
5. Read Isaiah 42:16. How does the image of God leading the blind along unfamiliar paths speak to seasons of uncertainty in your life?
6. In Isaiah 43:1–3, God reminds His people that they are created, formed, redeemed, and called by name. Which of those truths stands out most to you right now, and why?
7. Isaiah 45 uses the picture of clay questioning the potter. When have you questioned God? What led to that questioning? 
8. The phrase “Your kingdom come… on earth as it is in heaven” suggests hope changes life now, not just in eternity. Where do you long to see God bring redemption in your everyday world?
9. Landon encouraged people to pre-register for Big Serve Week in April. Did you participate in Big Serve last year? If so, how was your experience? Are you planning to serve this year with Big Serve? Could our group possibly find a way to serve together? 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the Refinery Church Sermon Podcast. We're so glad you joined us today. Our prayer is that this message will help you grow in your pursuit to love and follow Jesus in your life. If you'd like to learn more about the refinery, find ways to get connected, share a prayer request, or explore resources to help you grow deeper in your walk with Christ. Visit us online at refineryohio.com. Now let's dive into today's message.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

So I took my watch off, which was right. I pushed my sleeves up, which was right. It's still soaked. Super grateful for that. Super thankful for those stories. And I was talking to the parents uh while y'all were singing in here. Um and kind of like Jay said, it is so fitting on a dedication Sunday to be able to baptize two in elementary, one high school student, uh moms and dads pouring into faith. Uh moms and dads, you are the primary disciple in your home. Uh as the church, we long to partner with you in that, but you have far more influence, and this has been proven by countless studies, faith-based and non-faith-based. You have far more influence than we often realize. And so our kids will follow what we do. And so be a student of the scriptures, moms and dads. Be a person of prayer, moms and dads. Be a person of generosity, moms and dads. Be a person quick to be vulnerable and quick to forgive, moms and dads. Be a person who's quick to say, man, Jesus is the number one thing in our life, our marriage, our home. It really does make a difference. And you won't get it all right. Uh none of us will. But we serve a God who's good and works in the midst of all things. Amen? Um if you were to hear this question, I'm kind of curious, um, the first thing to come to mind, so just kind of hold it in your head. And I think the inflection matters in how I said it. If I were to say, hey, so what are you making? Um there's a lot of different ways I think it could be heard. Uh my I've got three boys, and during different portions of their lives, they've all played with Legos, right? Any any Lego families? Yeah, Lego families? Okay. I saw uh um a homecoming uh or prom ask the other day, and they used Lego. I can't I can't Lego the idea of going to homecoming without you or something like that. Yeah, it was super sweet. She said no. So I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. Um and so it made the Lego flowers. I was like, ah, that's super sweet. So my my boys though, they would build Legos, and um sometimes I you know I'd come in and I'd be like, oh, what do you what are you making? And they'd show me like the box, and you know, they're making a car or like a building or some kind of Minecraft site or something. That's cool. And then sometimes they would just be building random. So my oldest son, especially, he he did that the most, and he would just be building. I'd say, Oh, what are you making? And sometimes he would tell me, and like I'd be like, oh, that's okay, I can see it, I think. And then there'd be other times like guess, which is not good for me. Like, a toilet? He goes, No, no, it's you know something else. And I'm like, okay, that's great. Or like uh they'll draw. Uh my youngest especially loves to draw, and he was just in here. If you saw me making faces, he had tape on his face somehow. Bless his heart. He goes, What? What? He knew. He knew. He knew there was not much I could do in the moment about it either. Bless his heart and mine. But I'll be like, Well, what are you making? And so he'll he'll sometimes he'll tell me what he's drawing and this is what it is, and he he does a really good job. And uh other times he'll be like, Yes, and again, I'm like, this isn't going to go well. Uh my wife is a great cook. Um I so if I'll come into the house and you know there's something, and I said the first service uh stove, and I'm like, no, it's supposed to be the or no, it is the stove. I said the oven and it's the stove. This is why I don't cook a lot in our house, okay? Um but I'll say, oh, what are you making? And it smells good, and but if there's a pot on the stove, it could be chili, it could be uh broccoli potatoes or cheesy potato soup, it could be uh a lot of different things. If the if the oven's on 400 and I smell good stuff, like it could be a lot of different things. So what what what are you making? What are you making? Um it's a common enough question. But it's not always socially acceptable. For instance, if you had a friend and they're like, yeah, I just got a I just got hired at this design firm, or yeah, I just I just got on uh second shift at this factory down the road. They're like, oh, that's great, what are you making? They might look at you kind of like awkwardly, like that's I don't know that you should ask that. And you're like, what's the big deal? What are you making? They say, well, it's competitive salary, but that's all I'd rather say. It's like, no, no, I didn't mean how much you're making, I meant what are you making. You said it's a design for, you know, right? And so the question can be heard a lot of different ways and how we understand it and how we interpret it. Have you ever kind of found yourself asking God the same question? Or something similar? God, what are you making of my life? What are you up to? You might be a high school student, might be a young adult, might be somebody that's been married 20 years, 30 years, maybe you're not married, maybe life hasn't gone the way you'd anticipated. God, what are you making of my life? What are you up to? This morning we're continuing our series in the book of Isaiah. It's the question's not new. Israel themselves were actually asking the same question when they were in exile. And so over the first couple of weeks, we've considered together as we've looked at Isaiah. First, it's in chapter six, Isaiah has this vision of what it's like to be in the throne room of God, and he's just overcome with this recognition of the distance between who he is and who God has called him to be, or who he is and who God is. And he he feels this sense of judgment that honestly just he doesn't measure up. But God's judgment actually always leads to our good if we're receptive to it. And instead of feeling condemnation or broken down, instead, he finds himself being cleansed and commissioned to go out. And the reminder is that we need those times in our lives, this judgment of who God is and who we are and what's not measuring up and where have I settled. And then last week we looked at the life of King Hezekiah, three particular instances in his life, and one, his nation is under threat by another nation. And there's really no way out, there's no hope, but God says, I've got this. With God's judgment, there's always hope. With God's judgment, there's always hope. Later in his life, there's a situation in which he's facing an illness that's going to lead to his death, and he cries out to God, and God says, I've got this. And then finally, in the last chapter of his life, he's kind of established his position. He's doing well, things are going well, and he sees the opportunity to develop a strategic alliance, a partnership with another nation. And rather than consulting God on whether or not this is good, whether or not this is helpful, whether or not this is life-giving, God, what how would you judge or evaluate this? He just takes action. And he's told that because you didn't seek the things of God, your judgment was poor. And as a result, Isaiah tells Hezekiah that literally this nation that you were trying to court, that you were trying to impress, that you're trying to strategically engage in partnership with, they'll end up just overtaking your whole nation, and Hezekiah just misses it. Hezekiah, instead of continuing to place his hope in God, placed his hope in his strategies and his positions and his networking and his resources. And it's a common enough thing that we can do ourselves. We cry out to God in those moments of pain and difficulty, and then when things kind of settle, we're like, I've got it. I'll make a plan, I'll make a strategy. But the invitation all along is to seek the judgment of God, what is good, what is evil, what is life-giving and what brings death, what is healthy and what is broken, so that we might have hope to set out in the right way. I want to look this morning to Isaiah chapter 40, and the shift in the text is rather abrupt, to be perfectly frank. Scholars have two predominant theories on why this is. So up through Isaiah 39, the people aren't in exile, and Isaiah is pronouncing exile as coming, and but from 40 they they basically seem to be in exile. And so one of two things, what most scholars would prescribe to, that either God gave Isaiah the vision to understand what was going to come to pass, and he writes as though from that place, or instead, just like all the teachers of the day, they would have had disciples, people who followed after them, and they would have carried on this tradition, this story, and then written in the vein of Isaiah. But either way, for our purposes, the story picks up, and the people find themselves in exile. They find themselves in a broken place, and this is what we read, Isaiah chapter 40, verses 1 through 2. It says, Comfort, comfort, my people, in exile and brokenness, in a waywardness, comfort. Says your God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. In other words, like, listen, even in the midst of what doesn't look like a good situation, where you did not want to find yourself, there is still hope. I'm still up to something, God would say. Judgment has come upon the people, and it was told this way, but hope is not lost. Again, just as a reminder, first week, judgment from a good God does not eliminate or is not the enemy of hope. Right judgment from a good God rather is the foundation of hope. If you go to the doctor and they say, I have no clue what's wrong, I don't know what's causing your pain, you have no hope of really making it better, other than maybe just a wish or a dream. But if you go to the doctor and say, Oh, yeah, here's exactly what's causing your pain, here's how we can address it, there's hope that it will get better. Same thing in our relationship, same thing in our lives. So the people find themselves in this difficult, broken place, but but it's not a place that they have to remain. They find themselves in exile and they begin to despair. This was not what I anticipated, this was not what I'd hoped for, this isn't what I wanted to come about, and so they begin, like you and I might, when life is not unfolding the way we'd anticipated it to unfold, find themselves in a sense of despair and they begin to complain. Skip over with me to Isaiah 40, 27 through 31. We can understand complaint, right? Things don't unfold the way we why, God? What's going on? This is unfair. This shouldn't be the case. This is what it says in the text. Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, my cause is disregarded by my God? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. Listen, we're in exile, we're in a state of disrespair, everything is falling apart. There's no hope, like nothing's going to get better. It's just despair. Have you forgotten who your God is? He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. And for those that have read the scriptures or have seen, remember the Titans. Amen. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. So even in the midst of it, there's still hope. God challenges the people. Why are you complaining? Israel's experiencing consequences that they'd been told would come to pass. You ever like went and got just a little bit more on that second trip to the serving line? Anybody? You ever gone back the third time? Come on, somebody testify. Somebody. You know who you are. You ever afterwards just like, oh, that hurts. I shouldn't have ate that 15th roll. Texas Roadhouse, how dare you? And you why why complain about something like we knew was gonna happen? If your plan is to unloosen the belt and notch, listen, that's not things aren't gonna go well, people. You ever misallocated resources? Spent what you shouldn't have spent? We need a trip. We need to do that, we'll figure out how to pay for it later. And then been frustrated. Oh, I just feel like it's not fair. It's actually perfectly fair. You overspent, so you're overdrawn. Like that's actually just that makes sense. You ever been careless with your words? And then you act surprised that the relationship is hindered. God said, Why are you complaining? Like I told you exactly what would come to pass, and then you went that way anyway. Parents, any parent in the room, listen, if you're not in on time, you're gonna be grounded. Kid comes in late. Hey, you're grounded. What? Sorry, I hate to shock you with this. Should we have written it down ahead of time? God finds the Israelites in that place. God finds you and me in that kind of place in exile. Not in the place we'd planned to be, not in the place we thought we'd be, because we relied on our own understanding rather than his, and everything's a mess. But here's the beauty. Even in my mess, God doesn't leave me in my mess. Even there, God looks to point me to a better way. God gives strength and power. In fact, God is eager to do that. God doesn't need to align himself with power as often humanity seeks to do by making the right partnerships, by making the right strategic connections, by piling resources together. God doesn't need that because God has all power. God has all authority. The Israelites are frustrated. They put their hope in resources. Strategic Alliance has little case, lowercase G gods, and they find themselves frustrated because it turned out empty. Because that's not what they were called to put their hope in. And it's the same thing for you and I today. If we put our hope in the wrong things, we'll get frustrated. When I talk to parents every time about kind of that wish list of success, listen, if your kid is a straight A student and star of the team, but they don't know Jesus, I guarantee you you're gonna be frustrated and they'll be frustrated. Parents in the room, do you model God's love in this way to your kids? Spouses, husbands to wives, wives to husbands. To your friends, to your neighbors, to your is there just this recognition that you rest in him? God desires to know and be known by all of humanity. Even when in exile. Yet time and again, people get distracted by lesser things. We make lesser things ultimate things. That child that you longed for and hoped for, or whatever, that that other person that you had longed to hope to connect with, or that job that was so important to you, at some point takes a backseat to this thing. To check one more random sports score, one more posting of the market, one more game of candy crush. Or whatever game you like to play. Never actually got into that one, but I got a lot. Now, again, it's it's silly, I know. Well, we all need a distraction sometimes. Yeah, but how distracted are you? Hezekiah got so distracted that he missed out on the plan God had for his life, what God was making, and instead he sought to make something himself. God's good judgment leads us toward good. Hope placed in God, it leads us to life. A couple more scriptures, a bit more of Isaiah. Isaiah 45, 9 through 10. Listen to this. Woe to the to those who quarrel with their maker, those who are nothing but potshards among the potshards on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, What are you making? Like, what are you doing here? Does your work say the potter has no hands? Woe to the one who says to a father, what have you begotten? Or to a mother, what have you brought to birth? We return to our original question from today. Have you ever wondered what God was up to in your life? And I think it happens in two predominant ways. On the one hand, it's like, God, what are you doing? Like I I thought by now I would be, or I would have experienced, or I would, God, like, what are you doing? In the one case, it's the hope, the confidence is placed in self, which honestly is poorly placed. But the other scenario that sometimes happens is that, God, what are you up to? Like, I thought I placed my hope in you. Maybe I've misunderstood something, maybe I misread. But God, like, what are you up to? Is there is there still good on the horizon and I've just missed it? And this type of perspective is understandable. God says his ways are higher than ours, and sometimes it's difficult to fully know or grasp what he's up to. Isaiah 45, 18, though I think is helpful to kind of tie this off for us, just for our purposes here. It says this: it says, For this is what the Lord says, he who created the heavens, he is God. He who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it. Now listen to this next part. He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited. It's the same idea from Tohu and Vohu, the idea that things were empty and filled, disordered and brought to order in the original Genesis 1-2 account. God did not create your life to be empty, but to be filled. God is doing good work in your life. God longs to do good work through your life. From the beginning, God has sought to fill that which is empty. Hopelessness is a sense of emptiness. There's just nothing more, there's nothing better, there's nothing on the horizon, and so we spiral into despair, and despair always leads to the exact same place. But hope. Hope is anchored different. It's not just the statement, though, about the future. Yeah, I know, if I follow God long enough, my life is terrible, but at least someday I get to go to heaven. No, that's that's not the gospel. Hope produces, hope in God produces tangible change in our life here on earth. When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, he said, Let your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, in my life, like I long to see the fruition of hope now or in the next year or the next. I don't want to just wait for some day, and that's what the prayer teaches us. Surrendering our lives to the hope found in the God of heaven brings about redemption here on earth. In your life and my life, in our comings and our goings, and raising our families and our friendships and relationships in the work that we're seeking to do, in the work that we're frustrated in, and the work that we don't presently have here on earth. And God's call is never just to individual people but persons, but to a whole people. As a church, we long to help people love and follow Jesus for life. And what that means is discipling people to help them to spend time with Jesus, to learn from Jesus, how to be like Jesus. Or another one thinker, the way he says it is we apprentice with Jesus to learn what Jesus is like and to do what Jesus did. And so we want to do this in our homes, in our neighborhoods, our communities, our workplaces. I want to kind of end it in a way that's just incredibly practical. We've got something coming up next month. If you'll go ahead and throw that slide on, it's called Big Serve Weekend. I'd love you to go ahead and take your phone out and scan it, even if you're just acting like you're scanning it. Although if you see somebody acting like they're scanning it, be like go ahead, just scan that. Big Serve Weekend or week, sorry, next year. We did weekend last year, we expanded to a week this year, is a way for us to partner in the community to live out the hope of God in our world today. Partnering with our local schools, partnering with local food shelters, partnering with spaces just to help show the love of God. Listen, hope placed in God is not just, well, maybe someday we'll get to, but instead it's this tangible reality, and this is just a way to pre-register so when these opportunities come available, you can figure out where it would work for your schedule and with your own passions and heart. I'm not sure where you're at in life right now, but my guess is at some point you've asked the question, if you're honest. God, what are you up to? Like, what are you making of my life? What are you making of my story? Well, I guess I'll just kind of hold on and maybe someday, right, there's heaven. That's not the gospel. The gospel says, I want to participate in your kingdom here, on earth, just as it is in heaven. And so I hope that's your desire. To know him fully. You might say, Well, I think I've messed it up too much. You can't. The people were actually in exile, and he says, I've chosen you, I've loved you, I've called you, I've redeemed you. I know you by name. This is the God we serve. This arc of this play between judgment and hope that runs throughout the text continues to run throughout our lives. God, judge for me like what is good and what is healthy and what is life-giving, so that I might place my hope in you. Would you stand with me? We're gonna pray, and Bailey's gonna lead us in a song, just a time of reflection. Say, where am I ultimately placing my hope? And then afterwards, he's gonna instruct you. We've got uh some prayer partners. If you'd just like somebody to pray with, he'll give you instruction on that. But let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. Your love, your grace, your kindness. Lord, I thank you for six families saying, Lord, we want to raise our kids to know you. Lord, I thank you for moms and dads who take seriously this call to be moms and dads. For some, they're continuing a legacy of faith. For others, they're beginning one. Lord, I thank you for baptism. Stories of life change of people saying, Yeah, this is who I am, this is who I want to be. I can't do it on my own. I need you. I want to anchor my life in something that matters. I want to hope in something that's sure. And so, God, I pray for each and every one of us today. That we'd hear from you. We've been chosen, we've been called, we've been loved, we've been redeemed. You know us by name. And maybe we'll just take a minute to say, God, am I placing my hope in you or is it other things? God, I'm thankful for work. I'm thankful for resources, I'm thankful for health and family. But none of those things can be my ultimate hope. I need you. And then I can steward all of those gifts that you give well. Might we know that? Be with us as we just reflect here for a moment before we go. And when we go, might we go as a people of hope? It's the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

There is none upon thank you so much for listening to today's podcast. If you're ready to take a next step in your faith, please reach out to us through our website, refineryohio.com, or you can email us at office at refineryohio.com. We hope you have a blessed day.