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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Let's bow our heads a word of prayer.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: Heavenly Father, you have called us to be a part of your family.
[00:00:08] Speaker A: You have called us to live in
[00:00:10] Speaker B: that grace you have poured out upon us through Jesus Christ.
And what can we render back to
[00:00:18] Speaker A: you but our love?
That love that you have first given to us, to live in that grace
[00:00:29] Speaker B: you have poured out upon us.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: And so this day, as we focus
[00:00:34] Speaker B: on the power of your love in
[00:00:36] Speaker A: our lives, may we grow in that grace to be shared with others.
Amen.
As we read the Introit this morning,
[00:00:50] Speaker B: we asked ourselves a question.
What shall I render to the Lord for all of his benefits to me?
How many times do we think about that question? And then we answer it.
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
Isn't that so important in our lives, that God has made salvation possible for each of us, and we can lift up that cup of salvation by calling upon the name of the Lord?
Now, we didn't have the psalm in our worship today, but in the psalm appointed for this day, there is another question.
The Lord is my light and salvation.
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life.
Of whom shall I be afraid?
We all have fears in our lives, but the psalmist reminds us we have nothing to fear because the Lord is with us together. Guide us and lead us.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: And then Paul in the epistle reading
[00:02:02] Speaker B: says, only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you, that you are standing firm in the Spirit with one mind striving
[00:02:26] Speaker A: side by side for the faith of the Gospel.
These are interesting questions, interesting points to
[00:02:37] Speaker B: consider in each of our lives.
And that really brings us to the Old Testament reading from Isaiah 55. Seek the Lord while he may be found.
Call upon him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, that
[00:03:02] Speaker A: he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
We live in the arms of a very compassionate God, a God who pardons us time and and time again.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: And I'd like us to think about these words this morning as we live out our lives in the 21st century.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Some of you may have hearing aids
[00:03:40] Speaker B: because you need help to hear.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: And while that's important,
[00:03:49] Speaker B: I find that I have a bigger issue in my life. It's not about my hearing, but it's more about listening.
I may hear it, but do I really listen to what God is saying to me. And if I am listening, do I let that lead my life
[00:04:13] Speaker A: so that I may apply it?
Not just hearing it, but apply it.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Our reading in Isaiah is an interesting section of the book of Isaiah. I love the prophet Isaiah. There's a lot in this whole book for us to really. We could spend weeks on it. But in this section it's all about the servant motifs that Isaiah proclaims. These suffering servant motifs talk about what our servant who will serve us will do for us.
First, there is in Isaiah 42:1:9, where there, as Isaiah proclaims that first motif, he talks about how this is God's chosen servant.
In Isaiah 49:1 to 13, he speaks about how this servant will bring about salvation for the whole world.
And then in Isaiah 54:11, he shares
[00:05:27] Speaker A: how this suffering servant will be an obedient servant.
And finally in that fourth motif, he
[00:05:36] Speaker B: proclaims how the servant will be pierced for our transgressions.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: In Isaiah 53, this chosen servant was chosen by God, who will bring about
[00:05:53] Speaker B: salvation for the entire world by being obedient to the will of God, suffering what you and I should have to suffer ourselves.
A servant chosen by God, who brings about salvation to each of our lives by being obedient.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: Even here in the Old Testament, we
[00:06:23] Speaker B: hear the good news of the Gospel, as Isaiah foretells of this servant who would to come and do for us what we could not do. God knows our sinful nature, and yet
[00:06:41] Speaker A: what he offers us is that gift of eternal life, even though neither you nor I deserve it.
In a world and at a time that Isaiah was living in.
Think about this. 700 years before Christ came into the world, these words are spoken.
Isaiah foretelling what God will do for us and the entire world.
The world that we live in is a world of chaos, uncertainty, evil, misunderstandings,
[00:07:38] Speaker B: lack of truth.
[00:07:40] Speaker A: And yet what do we have but
[00:07:43] Speaker B: this powerful message of what God has done for us? The world wants to drown out this message because our nature is always self centered.
What's in it for me is often the question we ask.
But it's not an appropriate question we ought to be asking. What has God done for me in my life? We seek power, wealth, recognition.
Even at the time of Isaiah, what were they seeking? A king.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: A king who would rule and they would be lifted up in the world.
They had in mind an earthly kingdom.
And yet what God would send would be a suffering servant who would take our place, enduring for us what we should need to endure.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: So Christ, as he comes into the
[00:08:48] Speaker A: world, they're looking for a king.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: We sometimes still look for that king to come. And yet Christ comes not as a king, but as a servant. A servant to you and to me. He does it all for us. And Isaiah writes these powerful words at the end of that text for this morning. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: Sometimes we need that reminder in our lives that God knows what's best for us.
And so many times we want God's will to be done in our lives, as long as it's according to my purposes and what I would like to see.
And yet God has a better plan for each of us.
And in the gospel reading, Jesus tells a parable from the world's perspective. It's a not very interesting parable.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: It is, because for many, it would
[00:10:03] Speaker A: seem, boy, how is this fairness that
[00:10:07] Speaker B: those who came last will receive the
[00:10:09] Speaker A: same as those who came first?
[00:10:12] Speaker B: What is fairness in our world today?
[00:10:18] Speaker A: I have studied this parable a number of times in my ministry, had discussions about this parable, and it's an interesting one because really, how are we to see it except to see it from the mind of our God, who does for us what we cannot do? Do?
[00:10:37] Speaker B: Salvation belongs to God.
He has done it all for us in sending his one and only Son to take our place. That chosen one came to suffer and to die and to be put on a cross so that you and I may have life in his name.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: He accomplishes for us what we could not do.
And yet in that Old Testament, it talks about our God is a compassionate God who will pardon, a forgiving God who will forgive each of us in our lives.
Paul, in the epistle reading writes that we are to understand the power of the gospel at work in our lives.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: How many times do we really stop and reflect as we live out our lives, how God is working in and through us, How God, who called us by name in the water of baptism, who chose us to be his child, is there with us as we live out our lives, even when we stumble and fall, even when we really don't
[00:11:49] Speaker A: deserve his love, he is there for us.
The psalmist says, my heart says to you, your face, Lord, do I seek.
And in our prayers we often will say, not My will, but your will be done.
What does that mean for us?
Because our God knows what is best for us.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: We have a God who is in control, a God who is a God of love, of grace, of mercy, of pardon, of peace,
[00:12:30] Speaker A: who wants us to live with him in an eternity.
His cross, his death, his resurrection proclaim to us a powerful and a meaningful message.
As we live out our lives in this time, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is important that we hear the Word, but it is just important that we listen to that Word, that we apply that Word to our lives.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: To see his unconditional love poured out
[00:13:12] Speaker A: upon us, his grace empowering us each and every day to live as forgiven sinners, and then forgiving one another.
As we share that love with all those we come into contact and think about what a privilege we have as fellow believers to show that love and demonstrate that love with one another in his name. Amen.